How long for uke strings to stretch?

Question

Three or four days ago I had a set of low-G Aquila "Red Series" strings installed on a Martin 1T tenor ukulele. (I had it done at the store because the bridge pins were giving me fits.) I have new Gotoh tuning pegs with planetary gearing.

Three of the four strings have settled in, but the C continues to drop in pitch after 30 seconds of playing. I noticed that they'd left too much slack in the C when they wound it on the tuning peg, and it had wound onto itself, which I've read is not what you want. I've corrected that, but the string is still stretching. The tuning peg is definitely not slipping under the tension.

I guess it's possible something may be settling in at the bridge-pin end....

Should I just give this a few more days?

Answer 1

Several points. If you are sure the friction tuning pin is not slipping then what is happening could be one of the following things.

1) The knot at the bridge may be loose. Be sure the knot has enough turns around itself to prevent slipping.

2) Sounds like you have the correct amount of turns around the tuning peg. Failure to have enough wraps will contribute to slipping on that end. But there should not be any overlap. As long as there is no overlap, the more windings the better.

3) Nylon strings will stretch - unlike steel guitar strings which don't really stretch so much as they slip (and folks call it stretching). But if all the other strings are fully stretched, the string in question should be as well.

4) Most likely condition - there is some slack at both the point where the string is wound "loosely" around the tuning peg as well as possible slackness at the knot in the bridge. To take this out gently stretch the string until it plays flat. Then tighten the peg to bring it back to pitch. Repeat this process until you can no longer "stretch" it flat and everything should be tight at both ends.

If you are continually able to "stretch" the string such that it plays flat - and you can't seem to get it to stabilize - you have some slippage at either the peg or bridge and need to retie the knot or wind more string around the peg.

Good luck.