Brighter than spirocore for pizz on the bottom end?

[musicbox]

I'm currently playing a mix of obligatos on the D/G and spiros on the E/A. The bass is a speyer 404 (3/4) with carved top and back, lam sides. Pizz 90-95% / arco 5-10%

The obligatos sound fantastic up top, and even the A with the spiros is good. The E however it a little too cloudy/undefined/muddy, although it has fantastic thump and a very deep low end. After searching, it seems like a Spiro E is usually recommended to brighten up the bottom, but it's not quite bright enough.

Any thoughts?

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

Spirocores are bright strings and tend to sound good longer than most, if not all other strings available. My suggestion is to have the soundpost checked for fit as it may be choking out. If you have a stiff tailpiece cable, change that out for aircraft cable and set the afterlength to 1/6th of the vibrating string length. That's all I can offer, unfortunately.
I use mittel E strings on both of my basses. Unfortunately, the E sounds weak and dead on the old plywood. Adjustments haven't been able to fix it so it's just the way that particular bass sounds.

[musicbox]

Originally Posted by clink

Spirocores are bright strings and tend to sound good longer than most, if not all other strings available. My suggestion is to have the soundpost checked for fit as it may be choking out. If you have a stiff tailpiece cable, change that out for aircraft cable and set the afterlength to 1/6th of the vibrating string length. That's all I can offer, unfortunately.
I use mittel E strings on both of my basses. Unfortunately, the E sounds weak and dead on the old plywood. Adjustments haven't been able to fix it so it's just the way that particular bass sounds.

Good suggestions, as this was basically what Gerard here in Vancouver did: Soundpost adjustment, aircraft cable, etc... The instrument was reborn, but still suffers from a lack of definition in the lowest lows...

Thanks though..

[Paul Warburton]

Didja try a Spiro Stark E on it? I've heard those wake up some pretty dead basses.

[nic salsus]

Originally Posted by musicbox

Good suggestions, as this was basically what Gerard here in Vancouver did: Soundpost adjustment, aircraft cable, etc... The instrument was reborn, but still suffers from a lack of definition in the lowest lows...

What did Gerard say about the sound? He's very good but maybe a second local opinion from someone like Jake de Villiers isn't a bad idea?

[musicbox]

Gerard on the whole was not particularly impressed with the instrument (rightly so, it's a very cheap instrument, even cheaper considering the carved top and back), stating that there was too much flex in both the top and back. This makes sense to me, given the slightly muddy tone in the lows. On the whole, perhaps a soundpost repositioning may help...

[Francois Blais]

Pirastro Jazzer E & A.

[Bobby King]

The Spiro Mittel chokes out on my bass too, but a Weich sounds just fine.

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

I tried Corelli's on the ply once and could barely hear it and the E still wasn't there. Actually, Animas work pretty well on that bass so I may go back to those.

A Mittel E with Weichs A-G are great on the flatback. Point? You often have to try a bunch of strings and adjustments to get the bass sounding its best.

Musicbox, the Great One's suggestion of a Stark E is worthy. It may put too much tension on the bass but unfortunately, you never know until you try.

[robgrow]

Originally Posted by Francois Blais

Pirastro Jazzer E & A.

+1 Brighter than Spirocores, and less tension.

[Phil Rowan]

Originally Posted by clink

Musicbox, the Great One's suggestion of a Stark E is worthy. It may put too much tension on the bass but unfortunately, you never know until you try.

The good thing about trying a Stark E is that if it doesn't work out, you'd probably have a few TB'ers waiting in line to pick it up off the classifieds section.

[jallenbass]

I just put a set of LaBella Tapewounds on my bass (which is lacking in high frequencies) and it's considerably brighter now. Brand new Spirocores sounded old and broken in right out of the package. I don't bow this bass at all so I can't comment on that.