Jazzer vs Superflexible

[Adrian Cho]

I am sadly having second thoughts about the Pirastro Permanents I recently installed. Well specifically there are two things - one is the very slight drop in volume from the Dominant A and Spiro C extension, the other is the lack of fundamental below low E for pizzicato. Other than that, the strings are very nice - warm tone, good response with the bow, and a nice pizz punch. They have a bit more damping in them than I expected. On the positive side the shorter sustain matches better with the gut strings on the top. However I think it's also what is responsible for the two complaints I have.

Ironically, I keep coming back to the Spirocore C extension string. That string is bright as hell and not all that great with the bow but it does have a lot of volume and has a strong fundamental pizz or arco all the way down to C. If I use the Spiro then I'm also presented with the problem of what to use as an A string that matches the gut and transitions to a brighter bottom string. The Dominant A was OK although a bit bright and the thought of breakage scares me especially since I've taken it off and on a couple of times (and I got it used).

I do have a Superflexible A lying around and am thinking about trying a Superflexible C extension. Also there are Jazzers.

Can anybody comment on the Jazzers vs Superflexibles? I believe the latter are easier to bow?

[Mike Crumpton]

I've used both but not on the same bass unfortunately. Jazzers bow a lot better than you'd expect, certainly better tahn spiros but I consider supers better, to be darker and to have much less of the fretless BG buzz quality, best known from spiro weichs. I think supers probably have less sustain than jazzers. I consider my super e string to be particularly good for tone focus and growl and bow - whether than means you get a good C ext I couldn't say but they are cheap enough to try first. I don't think supers are as loud as spiro mittels. Don Zeb was using Supers and should be worth asking.

[Michael Glynn]

I've used both the Superflexible and Jazzer long C strings. I had Superflexibles were several years ago and I remember not liking them much. They just seemed to have a kind of a muddiness, in spite of them being a fairly bright steel string. It's hard to describe--kind of like there was a haze around the sound. They do bow fairly nicely, though.

I've used the Jazzer long C for the last 3 or 4 years and have no plans to change. It has a lot of the clarity and sustain of a Spirocore, but better arco response (IMHO) and a slightly warmer sound.

My guess is either choice would be somewhere between the Spiro and Permanent, with the Jazzer quite close to the Spiro and the Superflex a little further towards the Permanent.