When to use another string?

[Mike Crumpton]

Originally Posted by olivier

Re: taste for a darker sound, I think we should worry less about brightness of sound and actually look for it. This is something I realized only recently: you are instructed to bow closer to the bridge for a better projecting sound, however your taste for darker and smoother sound makes you bow further away from the bridge, resulting in a fluted sound. Another pointer towards this is that I tape often the music I play and I always have to equ out some bass to remove boominess.

Ah - almost - I didn't say smoother - I actually bow very close to the bridge - I want a rich sound, assertive full and thick and I can get this (when practising alone of course :-) ) with a bow and look for it in my piz sound which at first was very thin (always will be thinner than arco I guess) although I didn't realise quite how thin. It raised my expectations since I knew what the bass could sound like.

Originally Posted by Fitsanchorcables

And I'd also like to thank the TB community for bringing the Spiro Starks and Dominants to my attention. I'm still digging the Dominants, but if my tastes change eventually, I'll know where to come to find opinions on where to look next.

...and on the same lines I'd like to thank the TB community for pointing out that strings I had decided to use others thought good too - it stopped me going on an expensive possibly futile shopping trip since I knew these were respected strings that should deliver what I wanted and if something wasn't delivering I was better looking a little closer to home first. Although I'd figured this out for myself, seeing others say it made me stick and not chase rainbows.

You might not have guessed from my originating post, but I do read all the string threads. Everyone has been most helpful - thank you all with a special mentio to Francois. After all, if we ask our jazz playing mates and heros, as Bruce has more or less made clear, we'd all get no further than spiros - good though they are.

Oh yes - and I was loking at recording gear at luch time - yeah - way to go as if I didn't know - thanks Chris.

[Francois Blais]

Note: all the discussion about the recording gear has been splitted and moved here:
Recording gear

Regards,
François

[alavakian]

I agree with Mike Crumpton's comments (1-7-06). Experimenting with different strings is too expensive and in many instances uneccessary. As long as you have good quality strings and comfortable action (string guages, bridge height, etc.) you can vary the timbre on a single set of strings. For example, two-finger pizzicato has a different color than single finger; playing high on the FG also has a different color than playing nearer the bridge. Pizz. with the side of the index finger gives another color compared to pizz. with the middle finger coming from underneath for a deeper tone, etc, etc.

[Jim Calhoun]

This thread is very interesting to me. I've spent a lot of time and money over the years trying lots of different strings ... LOTS of different strings. On one hand, I don't regret it for a minute because it's given me an idea of what's available and has helped me to define what's really important to me in a string (tension, volume, arcoability, etc.). On the other hand, I'm CERTAIN that I would be a better player today if I had spent that time practicing instead, trying to get the sound I'm hearing out of whatever strings I happen to be using.

So, go practice! ...... NOW!

Jim

[alavakian]

amen!