New Standard string options?

[brutuscheezcake]

hey guys,

so, i currently have a set of spiros on my new cleveland. what kind i have no idea. i was wondering what other sets you NS owners have tried and liked (both lascala and cleveland).

i must say that i am very interested in a set of "starks" based on recent comments by mr pizzgerald. i have always thought that heavy strings really sounded better on my slabs so IN THEORY it oughta make my cleveland more fundamental and signifigant (sp?). better sustain. more growl. i love big strings!

me? pizz mostly, 15 minutes of bowing right before my first scale, but that is about that bow-wise. i still want a big fat heavy assed carbon fiber bow just to scare the neighbors with. the fibreglass glasser only scares them so much. of course that could be my intonation! i am straight ahead jazzer with bop inclinations.


so, who tried what on their NS's?

yer bud,


simon


ps. did i shamelessly mention my new Cleveland again? yes i did!

pps. is this i a new bass player infraction? gratuitously mentioning you have a NS? gotta be $25 bucks. paypal only.

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I've only tried Obligatos (came with the bass) and the Starks. The Obligatos sounded more organic and certainly bow better, but the E is worthless and they got buried easily when combined with other instruments in live settings. For my money the Starks eat them alive. I believe Todd Murphy had some Helicores on his LaScala ply and they sounded good.

[Marcus Johnson]

Before the Oblis which I use now, I had Spiro Weich with an Orchestra E, at Arnold's recommendation. I may return to that setup next time, just for sh*ts and giggles. It's really nice on the La Scala, growl for days, and they last forever. Arco stinks at first, but is okay in time.

[mchildree]

Besides the Spiros that came on my Cleveland, I've only tried Helicore Pizz Mediums...mainly just because I had good results with them on other basses. Arnold has told me he doesn't care for them, but they continue to work very nicely for me. I only play pizz BTW.

[winston]

I bought a year-old laminated Cleveland with a set of worn-in Spiro Mittels. I loved the tone both pizz and arco--the gruff bowed tone cuts through very well in unamplified settings. It was really hard for me to get the E and A strings started with the bow, though. The upper strings had a beautiful, rich, singing tone with the bow.

Next I tried Innovation 140H Honeys, which are advertised as being gut-like. They were pretty stiff, with a big fundamental and not much growl or sustain. I liked them amplified but I struggled to produce much volume acoustically. Arco tone was sweet--a little too polite for my tastes. I decide to try these because I heard Michael Moore uses them and I love his tone--but then I discovered that buying string X because player Z uses it will not necessarily give you the tone you think you're gonna get.

Then I got some Pirastro Jazzers. They were a bit more supple than the Spiros and bowed much more easily. The pizz/arco levels were also more evenly matched than the Spiros. I did a lot of unamplified gigging with these. If I stood in the corner and dug the endpin into a wooden floor I was loud enough to compete with an electric guitar and drumkit in a jazz/Latin trio. The E and A sounded perfect to me, but the D and G were much brighter, which I found annoying, especially amplified. I stretched the D and G quite a bit and didn't clean them after playing, which helped them mellow out a fair bit.

Now I'm on to Obligatos. I really like the tone for both pizz and arco but they're definitely not as loud as steel strings unamplified. I was careful to lube the nut and bridge slots so the windings wouldn't separate while the strings stretched--a problem others have mentioned. I haven't had a problem with the E or A rolling when played pizz, which others have. After about three months I feel like they're already starting to lose a bit of their tone, though I've been careful not to detune them.

Before spending any more money on strings I'm definitely gonna try the Spiros and Jazzers I have again, possibly the Jazzer E & A mixed with the Spiro D & G. If you can handle the Starks (which must be a b!tch to bow) I bet they'd sound huge.

[Jazzman]

Originally Posted by winston

I'm definitely gonna try the Spiros and Jazzers I have again, possibly the Jazzer E & A mixed with the Spiro D & G. If you can handle the Starks (which must be a b!tch to bow) I bet they'd sound huge.

I feel the same way about the jazzers. The jazzer E & A with flat chromesteel D & G is pure heaven. They balance perfectly.

[Marcus Johnson]

Just to throw a monkey wrench into the works...I've had the opposite experience from Winston's regading Oblis vs. metal strings; I get a lot more acoustic volume on my bass with the Oblis. So apparently it's different on every bass. I guess that's why the TBDB string forum will always be one of the busiest.

[Savino]

Ive got a full set of weichs on my la scala. after 3 months they mellowed out for arco pretty nicely. for pizz they still have some growl but sometimes the tension is too low. I had corelli fortes on it in the beginning but they didn't match the bass at all. too wimpy