Olive D?

[Ben Rolston]

I recently traded some old spiros for a Olive G which I absolutely love so far (even though I think it's 11 months old). The G string has enough of the gut snap that I really missed going to Evah's.

My question is that the guy I got the G from has a D as well, should I check it out, or is the magic Olive really only the G?

Also, how long do olives usually last. I've heard about falling apart issues, but it wasn't clear to me whether that was time related, or other wise.

[Uncletoad]

I thought the pair sounded great together when I used them.

[RShew]

Hey Ben,

I met you when "Bug" came through there on tour. How's things? I have used and continue to use Oliv's along with other strings. Oliv's what I keep coming back to even though I venture out from time to time. The G is the bee's knees. The D is also very good but...not as great as the G IMO. On many basses it is tubby and undefined. I also think the Oliv's sound best unamplified which is of course not a real world scenario. If you have to play really loud gigs they start to get a midrange hump.
Of course I don't know of a better D to go with the Oliv G. If I had enought patience I think a Mittel set w/an Oliv G would be really nice sounding (and not too expensive). Experiment w/string height too. I had mine up pretty high and they sounded really old school. Once I brought them down and they began to sustain a lot more.

Enjoy your experiments.

Roger