solo gage thomastic dominants tuned down

[rdwhit]

Anyone tried this? A friend of mine uses thomastic dominants on his La Scala hybrid. I play the same model bass. Due to shoulder problems, my string choices are limited to low tension strings that will bow & pizz reasonably well.I've pluged the flatchrome steel sts often on TB, don't care much for corelli or obligotos.Weiches are great for me for jazz, but arco is too scrathcy.The flatchrome steel split the difference faily well for me, but I wish they were louder & bowed a little better. My low action also reduces the volume of course. My friends bass has a huge sound w/ the dominants, both pizz & arco. They seem to be a good crossover string, but are too stiff for me. my long winded question is--Has anyone tried thomastic dominants solo gage tuned down to standard pitch ? If so, how do they compare with all the lower tension strings ? Is is even worth trying? Thanks gang.

[Andy Allen]

I mixed a Dominant solo G&D with the orchestra set (at orch. pitch) to reduce the tension during a period of intense thumb position practice.

I thought they performed very well, maintaining the dominant feel and sound, but with less tension/stiffness. I was comfortable playing many latin and straight-ahead jazz gigs with them. I eventially went back to orch dominants, once I was though that practice phase, but they did the job. I've written about this before in more detail, so you could try a search if you need more info.

I would say that the resultant tension is just a little less than spiro weichs.

Andy

[pipeman]

i found that the dominant solo tuned down was too little tension. i currently use weichs on the bottom and olive on the top, both of which are low tension strings. my bass sounded very weak and thin with these strings. i only had them on for a few hours. if you are still interested, i can sell them at a low price.........

[MollyKay]

Hi...I love the Dominants solos on my 43" string length bass...I tuned them down to EADG and they sound and feel amazing. I use the Thomastik weich on my 42" string length bass and by comparison I would say the Dominants are lower tension and have more sustain then the weich...but this could be more the bass and set up then the strings...however I do like the Dominants so far...hope this helps.

[Michael Glynn]

I'm currently using Dominant solos on the G and D with a Flat Chromesteel A and Jazzer E. I like this set quite a bit and the solo Dominants definitely feel lower in tension than the two steel strings. In general they are a bit darker than the Flat Chromesteel G and D that I have used in the past, but still have enough bite and sustain for my pizz needs. They also bow quite well, maybe a little cleaner than the Flat Chromesteel for fast passages, but on the other hand I love the clear, singing tone of Flat Chromesteel arco. I would also guess that the reduced tension of solo strings tuned down might prevent some of the breakage problems that people have had with regular gauge Dominants.