little felt washers or no?

[bassbaterie]

Do you use the felt washers under your tailpiece, or not? Why? Wondering if they have a muting effect.

Just put on a high-dollar set of Flexocores, in search of something that doesn't crap out like Helicore; sounds like my bass is playing in another room down the hall instead of right under my nose. E string THE WORST, about half the volume of the others - just went to look up some info and found Ken's sticky about the stark E. Ugh, I guess I'll be buying a $60 single string, or else the Helicore goes back on.

[Johnny L]

I use them these days so as to not let the metal spool dig into my tailpiece (it's only wood after all).

Tone-wise, my ears aren't fine-tuned well enough to notice a difference between having the felt washer or not having it...besides, the string goes over the tailpiece and nobody big-deals the thread wrapping on both ends of the string as a tone-stealer.

It's pretty common to see helicore E's on a bass no matter what other strings are there. I'm a Corelli convert right now, but if I were in your shoes I'd just use the helicore E rather than do a stark flex...it will likely be brighter and punchier. My original flexocore E is just boom and I could never hear the pitch while plucking it LOL

[anonymous0726]

Without all the highs and mids of brighter strings, the 92's don't seem as loud when you're playing them. There is a lot more fundamental, though, and this carries into the room very well. The problem is, though, that fundamental is a very, very long sound wave (up to 27 FEET for your lowest note) and you're too close to hear it well.

Also, take heart as the strings seem to gain presence over the first week of playing.

[anonymous0726]

Oh -- and have someone else play your bass as you walk around the room. This is what sealed the deal for me....

[bassbaterie]

Yeah, I see a lot of guys using Heli E, now that you mention it. Hmm. Come to think of it that's how they have all the inventory at Robertson strung up. OK, it's me for the string winder...

thanks for the advice!

FYI here's my bass-baby, with its new varnish, til death do us part:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showth...77#post2630177

[Johnny L]

Yeah I snuck a peak on the varnish thread it's beautiful!

I was using helicore hybrids for the bottom two strings and flexocores for the top on my new Romanian bass they worked great for my tastes on both pizz and arco, but the Corellis let me practice longer and I'm not ready to take them off

I feel like I'm cheating by using those strings LOL

Yeah Robertson's basses use the E helicore a lot too they keep up with all the cool trends

[bassbaterie]

I put on the Helicore E and it'll solve the problem. Didn't mean to drag the thread off to a strings-selection issue; i see what you mean about the felt washers being "beyond the event horizon" once the string passes over the tail fret.

By the time I find strings that will work for this bass and both types of playing, my strings inventory will exceed the value of the bass!!!!