Olympia strings? How bad are they?

[Spikyone]

Broke a string, have to replace the whole set as they were dud anyway. The only strings that I can get hold of in a hurry where I live, are "Olympias". Extremely cheap, must be Chinese. I assume they aren't great but I need strings now.

Does anyone know how bad these strings are ? For amplification I use a Schaller magnetic pickup which works fine for most of my purposes.

BTW, I play in a Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra, and also with high school big bands (jazz), and sometimes use my DB in various pop/funk/folk/whatever groups that I play in, so versatility is a must.

If I could get hold of them quicker, I think that I would go for Helicore Hybrids.

[jtlownds]

Hybrid strings will NOT work with your mag pickup. You need steel strings.

[Jake deVilliers]

Olympia Strings are awful - they make Thomastik Precisions feel like Flexocor Solo Gauge!

[moles]

Helicore Hybrids are steel strings, not "hybrids" in the sense that they would be a steel wrapped synthetic. The Hybrid refers to dual use between pizz and arco. They'll work fine with a mag.

[jtlownds]

Originally Posted by moles

Helicore Hybrids are steel strings, not "hybrids" in the sense that they would be a steel wrapped synthetic. The Hybrid refers to dual use between pizz and arco. They'll work fine with a mag.

I have no experience with Helicore Hybrids, but I do know that Obligatos (hybrid) did not work very well with my Schaller mag pickup.

Just trying to prevent the kid from spending good money on something that may not fit his needs.

[shadygrove]

If I could get hold of them quicker, I think that I would go for Helicore Hybrids.

You're here on TalkBass so you must have internet access. Can you order strings online with overnight shipping to get them ASAP?

Olympia Strings are awful

I'd trust Jake on this - he's a luthier and from what i've seen on TB knows his stuff. Seems to me you would be money ahead to shell out for quality strings with overnight shipping than buying ones you know are poor quality to get them a day faster.

[Jake deVilliers]

Thanks SHADYGROOVE!

A set of those strings came with an surprisingly nice Chinese bass and I couldn't believe how stiff they were. I set it up with Helicore Hybrids and it sold in days....which is sad because I liked to go out to the string department and play it!

[Spikyone]

Yeh, I don't want to put awful strings on my bass, but where I live, in Qld.,Australia, Helicores or similar cost about US$220, which $100 more than from the Net.

If anyone on Talkbass has good advice about which online shop to use (which has reasonable shipping rates), I would love to hear from them.

Thanks to all for the advice so far.

[nathanmcnathan]

You're in austrailia - kill an animal, and make some gut strings!

[Spikyone]

Apart from the fact that gut strings would be incompatible with my magnetic pup, I'm not heavily into killing animals ( I'm pretty much a vego), then disembowelling them, then squeezing the **** out of their tubing etc. etc. I also don't have the necessary skills to manufacture strings out of the guts of the animals that I didn't have the stomach to slaughter.

Thanks anyway for your help, Nathan McNathan McNathan

[Spikyone]

I'm gonna spend the US$220 ( and wait 3 days) it costs to get Helicore Hybrids from my local store, I'll only miss 3 gigs. At least I won't have completely **** strings for the next 3 months.

Again, thanks to all, for warning me against buying unplayable crap gear.

[Spikyone]

Got my $220 Helicore Hybrids, and I'm really happy that I didn't get the Olympias, these Helicores make my bass sound like a completelty different instrument, volumes of more tone, especially when played arco, but I'm usually plugged in when I do Pizz gigs anyway.

Again , thanks to all for the good advice.

I am sending my old strings to

Brian Gencarelli
Mauldin Middle School
1190 Holland Rd.
Simpsonville, SC 29681

I explained that they are cruddy, but he says he'll take them for his bass students anyway. Fantastic idea!