Bad Sounding New String. Help!

[bassdblr]

I just put on a set of Kolstein Heritage strings. I had them on my bass before (another set, these are new strings) and I have Heritage's on my other bass. After settling in for several days, the D string sounds really gritty and has some kind of buzz. The other strings are sounding fine. I tried adjusting the windings to make sure nothing is rubbing against the string and actually rewound the string, made sure the fingerboard area was clean, checked for anything else that might buzz Still getting that gritty sound.

I haven't seen anyone mention the subject of bad strings, a manufacture error? But, has anyone experiened a bad string and found a replacement of the same type and brand to solve the problem. I'm going back to where I bought them, but is this unusual?

Appreciate any info about this. I haven't been able to find this discussed much here and never had this problem before.

[Bobby King]

Does it buzz the same way as you play up the string, or is only on an open D or an Eb? Different strings may vibrate more widely and graze the fingerboard in places. This usually happens on an open string or in the first few notes. Put your ear near the board by the nut and see if it's coming from that direction.

Sometimes the windings of a string can be defective or loose causing buzzes.

Good luck!

[Francois Blais]

Bought a few Kolstein Varicore strings in the past, and always had that problem with the D, and sometimes with the A too.
I think there's a design flaw or quality problem with Kolstein strings, as I never had a similar problem with any other string brand, and I tried a *lot* of them...
Seems like a loose core problem.

I suggest sticking to the best string makers on the market today; Pirastro and Thomastik.

The Pirastro Obligatos are similar to the Heritages.
(metal flatwound on braided synthetic core)
So are Thomastik Dominants.

[bassdblr]

Bobby, to answer your question, it tends to have the buzzing sounds starting on the e and up to about c. This only occurrs with arco, but that's all I've been playing today. I doubt if it is the fingerboard, although I really cleaned it thoroughly yesterday and had no problem with the previous Obligatos.

Francois, thanks for the heads up on this. I changed to Heritage from Obligatos, but I think from now on its going to be Obligatos on this bass. They are lasting about six months for me. As soon as I did a sound comparision between the two strings, I have to say Obligatos are a better choice sound wise too for this bass.

I am going to try another Heritage D string and see if that solves the problem. Will post about the results.

[bassdblr]

Francois,

So, I put on a new D string (Kolstein Heritage). Much better. Only day two so it needs to settle in, but a marked difference. Not Perfect, but it will be ok.

So, maybe there is some kind of quality control problem going on.