Innovation Super Silvers?

[simpleybass]

I am now playing E & A Super Silvers with pure gut D & G. For detailed feedback see

Need E and A to match pure gut

[acubass]

Going to revive this thread...Could one say Super Silvers are a cheaper alternative to Garbos? Are they similar as far as playability and ease on the hands? Thanks Much

[Dave Irwin]

I've never played Garbos but I find Super Silvers very easy on the hands. I don't know if players who use this type of string typically set up very high action, and therefore Silvers may be relatively higher tension than others in this category. I just replaced Evahs on my Shen, with no other changes and they make a killer pizz setup in my opinion. So when I say easy, I am comparing to rope core steel strings.

BTW, I kept the Evah's for my old german bass as they are great for pizz and arco.


Hope this helps

[Jake deVilliers]

Originally Posted by acubass

Going to revive this thread...Could one say Super Silvers are a cheaper alternative to Garbos? Are they similar as far as playability and ease on the hands? Thanks Much

You could almost say that. Garbos are maybe a little more complex sounding and maybe not quite as springy as Super Silvers but they feel fairly similar otherwise.

[DoubleMIDI]

A friend of mine changed from Silver Slaps (!) to Garbos. He said the tone is more complex and the strings are nicer to play for him, but otherwise similar in tension and sound.
I tried his instrument with the Garbos for a few seconds and his action was way too low for me, I could hardly grab the strings, and I tried the Silver Slaps only for a few minutes on my larger scale instrument months ago, so hard for myself to compare.
So the Garbos are definately lower tension than the Super Silvers, which have more tension than the Silver Slaps.

[Dilbertisme]

I have Gamut guts on the G/D, and for the A/E have tried -- in order -- Spiro Weichs, Garbos, Gamut copper-wound-gut, and Super Silvers. The Silvers are what are still on the bass. I love 'em. (Caveat: I play bluegrass and old-time string band stuff, pizz only.)

When plucked hard, the Garbos made a strange whistling harmonic that drove me crazy. They also turned my hand black.

The Gamuts sounded awesome on my bass, but wore out after about a year and began to rattle. I might get them re-wound someday, but for now, I see no reason to bother.

The Silvers sound great, stay in tune, and are the easiest on the hands of any of the strings mentioned above. I wouldn't mind a bit less tension (and my thin-topped '48 Epiphone B4 wouldn't mind, either), but the disparity between the Silvers and the guts doesn't bother me -- it's certainly less obvious than the Spiros, which felt like iron bars next to the Gamuts.

Another bonus -- the Silvers are a cheap date. Totally worth trying, and if you don't like 'em, you'll have no trouble selling them in the Classifieds.

[eub_player]

Silver Slaps have somewhat less tension than Super Silvers.
You may want to look at them the next time you buy new strings.

[kwd]

I purchased a set of these for my beater bass. I wasn't enchanted by them when I first put them on but after bringing the bridge up to a suitable height, I can't stop playing them. As others have said, they don't have the bounce of real gut but I can still get a nice snap.

I'm thinking that I might graduate these strings to my carved bass and use my beater for arco.

[acubass]

So I purchased a used set of Obligatos recently and like the sound/tension/feel of them much better than the Heliocore Hybrid Mediums.

Can anyone say how the tension and feel of Obligatos compare to the super silvers or silver slaps?

Thanks Much

[DoubleMIDI]

The tension of Obligatos is a lot higher than of Silver Slaps and (I guess) also higher than Super Silvers. At least higher than Innovation 140B (Braided) and I think the Super Silvers have about the same or less tension than the 140B.

[AntonLargiader]

I recently installed Super Silvers after having some unknown (to me) arco strings on the bass for over a year. The steel arco strings were giving me blisters very quickly if I wasn't careful after not playing for a while. The SS are like butter! Probably not as soft to the hand as Silver Slaps, but a HUGE improvement over what I had, in comfort.

I was expecting a lot less sustain, but got a little less sustain. Fine with me! OTOH they definitely are taking their time settling in. I have had to tighten them every time I play; at first I really had to take up a lot but now it's less than a half step per string. I've played (and tuned) maybe four~five times so far.

For pizz only (I never bow) I'm happy with them.

[acubass]

Originally Posted by acubass

So I purchased a used set of Obligatos recently and like the sound/tension/feel of them much better than the Heliocore Hybrid Mediums.

Can anyone say how the tension and feel of Obligatos compare to the super silvers or silver slaps?

Thanks Much

I'm going to answer my own questions.

The strings are very different. The Obligatos feel like a traditional steel string but much softer. The coating on the Obligatos are steel and the SS's are plastic like. The SS's are lower tension. They are also "easier on the hands" and the muscles IMO.