What is the "roll" effect on Obligatos?

[rdingess]

I've seen this mentioned a few times, but I'm not sure I understand what it means?

[CPike]

The string twists on itself under your left hand and "rolls" back and forth across the surface of the fingerboard...

Chris

[reedo35]

Actually it's the winding on the strings that gets loose and rolls under your fingers.

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

They roll a bit from day one and get worse over time. The set I took off recently would twist an entire turn.

[ericsmith]

I recently put on a Obli E and it does roll under my left hand on the lower positions and if i try to roll it near the bridge it twists around a bit.
Then again on the end of the fingerboard, where i play the string, it doesn't do that at al. It's weird. I remember the A rolling like mad, it was sometimes hard to play.

[JoeyNaeger]

It makes arco on these strings really difficult as well. I have one bass where the obli's didn't roll at all, but on my main instrument, they were practically unboweable because of the rolling issue.

[robobass]

Originally Posted by JoeyNaeger

It makes arco on these strings really difficult as well. I have one bass where the obli's didn't roll at all, but on my main instrument, they were practically unboweable because of the rolling issue.

I find that the lower strings do roll a bit under the left hand, but it's something that I quickly got used to and forgot about, like getting a new car with softer brakes than what the old beater had.

I love these strings very much - especially under the bow! I admit that they do loosen up and get flabby sooner than many strings, but you can ameliorate this somewhat by tightening the wrap. Yes, you simply loosen the string, rotate the ball at the tailpiece about two turns clockwise and bring the string back to pitch. It works for me anyway, but I must admit that I am thinking about going with EPs for the A and E next time.

[JoeyNaeger]

That is an interesting idea. It's sort of like pretwisting the strings. For me, the E and A would bend and roll so much under the bow that unless I babied the string, the bow wouldn't actually catch the string.

[TroyK]

From a pizz standpoint, I felt like the roll actually screwed up my time. My pizz finger would hit the string and move through on the rolling winding, then the string would catch and the note would sound an instant late..only on the lower strings, so I couldn't really adjust.

Totally unacceptable to me.

Evah Pirazzis are better constructed strings, but they don't actually remind me of one another all that much sonically. I'd like to see how the EP weichs test out over time, but it's a shame that they can't fix that problem with Obligatos.

[TheCush]

It's interesting reading through this thread. I wonder how much it has to do with the instrument itself, set up and string tension (I play a 7/8 fully carved Shen with pretty low action). I put Obli's on quite some time ago (3 years?) and have never experienced rolling, either playing pizz or arco. In fact, I quite like them for arco playing.

Maybe I just got lucky...

[robobass]

Originally Posted by TroyK

... it's a shame that they can't fix that problem with Obligatos.

I don't think of it as a defect. They simply are what they are. If Pirastro stiffened them up, then they would likely lose some of the qualities that I and many others enjoy. For those who can't adjust to the roll, there are plenty of other options.