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Double Bass who uses Pops rosin?

#2
ok so heres the deal on pops, its really good and sticky, so i use it sparingly, in the summer it gets really gooey and can melt all over your music stand or other stuff, but in the winter it is great, my advice to you is to use carlsson in the summer and pops in the winter.
 
#4
When you need to get that bow close to the bridge to get a big sound to project, or if your working the a and e stringin a FFF Beethoven symph part nothing does the trick like Pops!

3 wipes in winter 1 in summer

(ducks on comming flames!) :hyper:

Self Confessed Pops Rosin Nazi!

:ninja:
 
#6
I use the Pops more frequently than most folks it appears, but in between Pops application I also use Hidersine #2, which is much stiffer and doesn't flow like Pops. The Pops can be kind of scratchy if I don't mix it with something else. The Hidersine seems to smooth it out nicely. This was a tip my instructor, Seth Gamba, gave me early on. I should also point out that this is my experience with Helicore Hybrids and could be different with other strings.

Just don't leave the Pops in your pocket or anywhere else without the plastic can!! It's slower than the heinz catsup, but not by much. :smug:
 
#9
Just a note from my friend who is a Pops quality control tester - replace it once a year. It gets glazed and (relatively, for Pops) powdery. Once i found this out, when my cake of Pops "died" - after about 14 months of use - it felt like all of a sudden I needed a rehair. Got a new cake and was back in business. It's also recommended to keep the container snapped closed when not in use.

I used to dig Kolstein's which is just a bit less grabby.

On a similar topic, do you apply rosin by drawing the bow in the downbow direction only, or updown updown? I was always taught downbow only, as that's the way to get the rosin into the barbs of the hair. The hair is supposed to be installed with its natural, microscopic barbs opposing the downbow. Applying rosin in the upbow direction flattens the barbs and makes them useless.

Is this common knowledge or an esoteric detail? To this day when I see anyone applying rosin upbow it makes me gasp.
 
#11
If you have not had a rehair in the last year and are playing daily, or the rosin is dried out, those are the most likely culprits. Synthetic hair may be another. Or if the bow is "balding" (has lost a good portion of the hair) and needs a Rogaine treatment. ;)

Clean the bowing area of the strings thoroughly with rubbing alcohol (don't get any on the bass varnish!!). If you use Pops you may ought to do this every day. Make sure all the layers of gunk are dissolved.

You also gotta fluff (for lack of a better term) the bow hair with your thumbnail every day to shake the powder out and break up any caked rosin. Only fluff the bottom side of the hair, not the side you play on, so finger oils don't get on it. Once any oil has got into the hair it's toast and has to be replaced.

It could also be a bass problem, or the strings could be really dead, and so on, and so on.
 
#13
I like Pop's rosin. It is pretty good stuff but it depends on what I'm doin. Like if I need to dig and am playin a real BASS part I play with Pop's but if I'm workin on some fast stuff like the Bach Cello Suites then I use cello or violin rosin. The cello rosin seems to be a lot smoother but it depends on what you are playin.
 
#15
I bought a can of Carlssons a couple of months ago to replace a rock-hard cake of Pops. Turns out the Carlssons is just as hard as the Pops was. Even after applying vigerously for several minutes it's still hard as rock and I don't feel like I'm getting a lot of rosin on there. Is this normal? I am getting some rosin sticking to the strings where I bow but not that much. I forgot to ask my teacher about it the other day.

-Scot
 

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