New Spirocores

[anonymous0726]

Originally Posted by Paul Warburton

If you hear a pop, you're doing it too hard.

The pop is just the ball end settling into its groove, or sometimes that string lving over the bridge (the smaller-sounding pop), idnit?

[BASSnSAX]

Originally Posted by Paul Warburton

Hey B&S, whatdya mean by "rubbing them"?
I don't mention this very often, but I, very carefully , stretch new Thomastiks when I put new ones on. You do have to be very careful because you could injure the string. I'm sure Francois will hate hearing this.If you hear a pop, you're doing it too hard. This will help get rid of that obnoxous tinny sound of new strings, especially the G and D.

By rubbing them, I meant taking a towel and vigorously rubbing the strings to get the black stuff off of the strings and apparently, when you rub the strings and get them rather warm and stretch them a bit, they will break in faster...at least that's what my teacher said.

As for the obnoxious tinny sound, its not as bad as what I was imagining it to be like...definately more bright and clear from my old set of strings.

As a side note, my teacher is also letting borrow an Underwood for some possible jazz gigs that I might have coming up.

[Marcus Johnson]

Make sure you mess around with the Underwood at home before you gig with it. The combination of that pickup and newish Spiros might be very bright. A preamp/EQ might help you out a bit.

[Paul Warburton]

With my five string Bohmann, the Underwood is the best PU. It's the only one that covers all five strings equally.
Some people only use one of the transducers. You might try the PU both ways. You know, the line side under the G&D bridge wing, or the line side under the A&E bridge wing.
My bass sounds best with the line side under the low strings.
Have fun!

[BASSnSAX]

Thanks guys! I'll definately have to mess around with the pickup...maybe I'll do that today!

As for my amp, I'm lucky that I've got my little SWR Workingman 10...it can be decently clear, and its got boost/cut for bass, mid, treble. Now the only thing I'm wary about is the tweeter...I suppose it could help me cut through a bit, but I'd have to drain the treble a little bit more.

**EDIT** I tested out the different combinations between treble side only/bass side only/both sides with acro and pizz, and recorded these variations onto my computer. Dang, its great to have a laptop! Arco, with only one of the two elements hooked up, sounded like a synth...ick. I do believe that I favor having both in, they give both the depth and definition. I'll have to mess with it some more.

So Paul, the way you have your's set up is like a Realist variation? That's a pretty good idea, probably not as dark as a Realist, but not as crisp as a BP-100!

[T-Bal]

I am not saying they have or haven't, but since we now have a T-I rep on the boards here I thought I'd ask him. Here is his reply:

Thank you for contacting me directly. To put it quite simply, the strings have NOT been reformulated. Only the packaging was changed slightly to streamline the brand logos and make the information easier to read.

This information has been confirmed with the managing director and the head of R&D at Thomastik-Infeld.

Best regards,

Michael Hershkowitz (ThomastikMike)

[anonymous0726]

Cool! I guess my Stick chops ARE getting better.

Or, I'm going deaf in my old age.

[Eric Rene Roy]

After talking to a few other TB'ers about this...I have a theory that perhaps Michael can chime in on since he is the Thomastik rep on the boards...

Spirocore comes in different lengths: 4/4, 3/4, 1/2 & 1/4. It was suggested to me (and I have not yet taken any steps to quantify this remark) that the 4/4 strings are a bit different in gauge than the 3/4 strings. Now, I know when I worked at JR Music (US Distributor) the Spirocore's strings we sold were in fact the 4/4 length. If other distributors were selling the 3/4 length to retailers...then perhaps some of the problem comes from an order being placed for Spirocore strings and the retailer buying them from a different distributor than they bought from the previous time, and even though they are Spirocore strings being shipped...the lengths (and thus the diameter) of the strings are different.

Plausible? If Michael cannot be reached on this, I will ask around to my contacts and see what they say.