Strings for Pizzicato?

[freebeer]

Hi all. I am VERY new to the upright bass world. I was renting a student bass for a few months and recently picked up a crusty old beat up cremona for $200. It actually plays decent (better than the student model that was new...) but the strings are pretty crusty. I am playing just pizzicato, blues, jazz, etc. What type of strings would you suggest for such a beast??

Thanks!

[TroyK]

A) Search the archeives and look at the sticky threads on strings.

B) Spirocore Mettiels. They are the baseline (no pun intended) for what you are describing. Everything else is a preferencial derrivation from there.

You can get them anywhere, they'll last forever. They tend to perhaps impose their sound on the instrument more than other strings, which with a $200 bass is probably what you want.

There are maybe 100 choices out there, all with their own advocates. Just start with Spirocores and work on making friends with your new instrument.

That's my advice, anyway.

[gomez hacienda]

My advice would be to search the threads under the Strings DB section. Search for 'Pizz' or 'Pizzacato'. You'll come up with the phonebook...but what the hey.

gomez

[Andy Allen]

Originally Posted by TroyK

B) Spirocore Mettiels. They are the baseline (no pun intended) for what you are describing. Everything else is a preferencial derrivation from there.

+1 on that.

They are the 'standard' string, both in weight/feel and sound - and once you know how these sound you'll have the experience to make other choices. They are variously described as Spirocore "Mittels," "Reds," "Mediums" or "Orchestra."

Quite likely the strings will outlast the bass - or at least by the time you feel the need to change strings you'll probably want to get a better instrument too.

The world of double bass strings is confusing and expensive - if you're not careful you could get sucked into spending more on your strings that you did on your bass

To keep your costs down even more you could keep an eye on the "Accessories for Sale" forum here, where you will often see lightly used strings for sale - it's a less expensive way of buying perfectly useable strings.