Strings and setup

[Jan A. Sjåstad]

”To anyone who knows”
I am a semiprofessional bassplayer, and I have recently bougth my second bass. This is a relatively old ¾ bass made of solid wood, Romanian build with flat back. The bass has not been in use for 25 years and the strings (steel) were in a very bad condition, but with good ”punch”. My other bass is a German made laminated instrument and it is set up with ”Savarez Corelli Tungsten 370M” strings. The sound in this bass is remarkably good with these strings, especially when bowed. But I feel the strings are a bit loose when plucked, with no good punch and a bit longer sustain than I like ( I play both classic, folk and jazz).
For my ”new” bass I am looking for strings with a good punch when plucked, and reasonable sound when bowed. The necksetting of the Romanian bass has resulted in a bridge that is 15millimeters lower than my German bass (when normal setup for steel strings). The scales are exactly the same.
1) Does anybody have a suggestion for suitable strings other than Savarez’s?
2) Is it recommended to increase the pressure on the top plate (heavier strings) caused by the lower bridge, or will the same tension as the Savarez strings be adequate?
3) Are the D’Addario Hybrid strings an alternative?
4) –or is it not possible to get both a good plucking- and a good bowing sound from the same string?
This was many questions, but I hope someone will be able to answer them. Strings for double bass are quite exspensive which does not leave too much room for experiments.

Jan

[Francois Blais]

Hi,
did you tried the Corellis on your new bass?
The same strings won't react the same on different instruments.
You don't have a known reference point for the moment.
Knowing how the Corellis sound on it, it'd be easire to suggest other things, if they don't please you.

It'd also be preferable to give the most precise comments as to what you're expecting exactly, in terms of brightness, darkness, sustain, etc.
What's good for someone is bad for another.
I'm thinking of the D'Addario Arcos more than Hybrids, if you find the Corellis have too much sustain, but they're also darker sounding.


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François Blais
Ville de Québec

[olivier]

Hi Jan

The Obligato strings by Pirastro are really worthy of trying in your case: they have a very nice sound and feel both when plucked and bowed. They are in my opinion a much better alternative than the Helicore Hybrid which have a lot of sustain and are as scratchy as the Spirocores when bowed. The only advantage that I found when I tried the Hybrid was their volume: they are very loud, which may be a plus. You may also want to try the Superflexible by Tomastik: it's also an interesting string which responds fairly reasonably for pizz and arco, with more punch than the Corelli.
Good luck in string search...

olivier

[reedo35]

Originally posted by Jan A. Sjåstad
”
For my ”new” bass I am looking for strings with a good punch when plucked, and reasonable sound when bowed. The necksetting of the Romanian bass has resulted in a bridge that is 15millimeters lower than my German bass (when normal setup for steel strings). The scales are exactly the same.
1) Does anybody have a suggestion for suitable strings other than Savarez’s?
2) Is it recommended to increase the pressure on the top plate (heavier strings) caused by the lower bridge, or will the same tension as the Savarez strings be adequate?
3) Are the D’Addario Hybrid strings an alternative?
4) –or is it not possible to get both a good plucking- and a good bowing sound from the same string?
This was many questions, but I hope someone will be able to answer them. Strings for double bass are quite exspensive which does not leave too much room for experiments.

Jan

1)I agree with Francois, you should give the Correlis a chance on your Bass.If you really want to try a different string, A lot of people I talked to like the Pirasro Obligatos,and I have Used Jargers (Dolce Gauge) with good results for Pizz and Arco.I notice you said you played folk, the Jargars sound very much like a gut string, you might like them.
2) No, it is not recommended, you should try to avoid too much pressure on the top table.
3) I used to think so, but there are better choices.
4) I have not yet found the perfect string that does everything just the way I like it. The closest I got was with the Correlli 370's.For some decent deals on Strings, Check out http://www.quinnviolins.com they have some very good prices for overseas shipping.