spiro weichs to corelli fortes, and so it begins...

[olivieraleman]

First let me thank all you who have helped me here. My Upton Hybrid came with Spiro Weichs and I just put on a set of Corelli Fortes. I am a steelworker/welder by day and my hands and arms take a beating so I wanted something a little easier to play. I changed a string, tuned it to pitch, and played it with remaining weichs. Was expecting a big drop in tension and volume, but not so. Tension and volume only slightly less. Did a gig tonight thru my Ampeg tube head and Hartke 15 cab, E string was heavy and all strings but G were fat and full. G was thin, but at home it sounds better than weich. So 2 questions. What G would blend and add depth with corelli e,a, and d? And, would spiro solo tuned orch. be lower tension than corellis? I liked the tone of the corellis, as did my band mates, but they noticed the thin G. Help when you can. thanks

[Rvl]

Try out the Spirocore G and see how that works out
I use Corelli on my EUB and Obligato on my acoustic
I also find the Corelli G weak sounding, but I boost the bass and that balances it out (a little bit)
I want to try a set of Obligato on my EUB (bidding on a used set right now)

Obligato are lighter tension than Spirocore
They might even be lighter tension than my Corelli
I have the EUB(really low) and UB set up a little different, so it is difficult to tell

Thanks

Robert VanLane

[Francois Blais]

New strings are always more twangy and thin.
Give them a couple of weeks to break in, and see if they have improved.

[olivieraleman]

Thnx. Francois, will spiro solo tuned orch. be lower tension than corelli fortes? Merci beaucoup.

[Francois Blais]

Hard to be very precise.
Quite similar, IMHO.

[olivieraleman]

How bout guts? love their sound on old records. are they lower tension than corellis? there are many players in my age group(50) who are experiencing hand/arm problems. oliver sacks in his book musicophilia documents classical violinists who's careers are threatened because of it. its for real. so we want to stay on upright without permanent damage. and the worst upright is better than the best bass guitar.

[Peck_Time]

Guts, especially plain gut string are low tension- may take a bit of getting used to!

A plain gut G and D with Weich E and A will lower the tension of the whole set.

The other low tension strings that i've tried are Innovation Super Silvers.

Weichs should be easy to play, have you checked your setup? Could be a combination of your string height/ soundpost/ tailpiece/ nut etc is making your bass 'tense'.

[olivieraleman]

Thanks peck. Maybe Corelli E and A with gut on top. I always play amplified so I dont need massive acoustic volume, although the Corellis were louder than I expected. And I liked their tone better than spiro weichs.