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Double Bass 050 bass rosin

B

Brandon Dong

Nov 14, 2015
9
5
28
#1
I've been using 050 soft rosin and I've really enjoyed the dark sound and grip they bring. I do use more swipes than pops for the same level of grip but it manages to pull more of the lower frequencies to get a much darker sound that's still smooth. Mixing 050 soft with a swipe of pops gives me the best results IMO. The biggest downside is the lack of packaging like a silicone cup or plastic container. When the cake sat in my DIY rosin saver, it would melt into a pancake shape. Not necessarily a bad thing since its soft and feels like its held it's moisture well. But I had to remelt it into a new block after dropping it and put it into an old pops container to keep it from melting back into a flat shape.

I'm interested in trying the super sticky at some point to see how it compares to pops. What do yall think?
 
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#2
I use the super-sticky at home (on gut strings). It's great...but... the lack of packaging is a real pain at rehearsals and in concert; I've tried various wrappers/containers, but it's all fairly cumbersome. It would be worth the extra - what? $5 a cake? - for them to put it in a usable package.
 
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#7
LouisF said:
I use the super-sticky at home (on gut strings). It's great...but... the lack of packaging is a real pain at rehearsals and in concert; I've tried various wrappers/containers, but it's all fairly cumbersome. It would be worth the extra - what? $5 a cake? - for them to put it in a usable package.
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I agree, the product is good enough IMO to warrant a more convenient package
 
#8
Hi! my review from a bassist of a top german orchestra coming from pops:

I had both, Super sticky and Soft and I will stick to the soft one. Super Sticky is even softer than pops so its really a mess if you are not careful, touch it with your fingers and you may have to wash hands because its really sticky and will get on the strings. Also the Super sticky I find not stable at all, some days it seems to not want to grab the strings so I have to reapply pops even tho I keep the rosin always in the Rosin Saver with Humidity Packs. Just hope that the bad the rosin day its not a concert/audition day but you will have to carry around a 2nd rosin if that happens. The Soft one is harder than pops clearly but I guess its more stable but it gets crazy dry if you dont have it in rosin saver. Sound is for me from both better than pops, not as hell maybe pops is louder but wouldnt say more than 5-8% grip is still nice!!

Hope that helps
 
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#9
I posted this in one of the other threads last week:

I thought I had solved the container problem for the 050 Supersticky (which I liked very much). The weather's been in the 90s here (I know, the rest of the country has much worse). I left the rosin, in its new container on the music stand in my studio office and this morning it had oozed over everything. The Blob that Ate LA! I'm going back to the Petz premium/2-3-4 combo I've used for the past decades. Life's too short.
 
#10
Basscredo said:
Hi! my review from a bassist of a top german orchestra coming from pops:

I had both, Super sticky and Soft and I will stick to the soft one. Super Sticky is even softer than pops so its really a mess if you are not careful, touch it with your fingers and you may have to wash hands because its really sticky and will get on the strings. Also the Super sticky I find not stable at all, some days it seems to not want to grab the strings so I have to reapply pops even tho I keep the rosin always in the Rosin Saver with Humidity Packs. Just hope that the bad the rosin day its not a concert/audition day but you will have to carry around a 2nd rosin if that happens. The Soft one is harder than pops clearly but I guess its more stable but it gets crazy dry if you dont have it in rosin saver. Sound is for me from both better than pops, not as hell maybe pops is louder but wouldnt say more than 5-8% grip is still nice!!

Hope that helps
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Thanks for the insight! I live in a very humid city so super sticky sounds like a mess. 050 Soft plus pops seems like the move for most people
 
#11
I recently got a rehair, so I decided it was time for new rosin and decided to try the 050 hard. Since we’re heading into warm weather in New England, I figured I’d go with something on the harder side to negate the effects of humidity. I’ve been using it for a week and definitely like the hard rosin, but I just ordered the soft as well. The hard feels really good for solo playing and was very responsive when I take arco soli, but it didn’t hold up too well during an orchestra rehearsal last week. I’m playing on a program of 10 concerti for one of the colleges near me, and I felt the hard rosin did not do the trick for more off the string bowings and doesn’t grab the low strings well enough for orchestral playing. The concert is Saturday, so I’ll definitely have the 050 soft by then and will be excited to put it to the test then!
 
#12
bassically_eli said:
I use silicone salad dressing containers from Amazon to store rosin. Not my idea originally. Another TBer posted about it.
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That sounds like a solution similar to mine...;)
050_Kolo_1.jpeg 050_Kolo_2.jpeg
 
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#13
The 050 soft finally made it to me today, unfortunately the day after I really needed it for an orchestra gig. I ran out to a local music shop that caters to students and got a cake of Pops to hold me through my gig last night. I do like the 050 hard, but it could not handle the fughetta in the 3rd movement of Rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto.
I tried to dust off the leftover Pops on my bow to at least give the 050 soft a practice room tryout. I do think it was good to remind myself of what Pops sound and feels like to see how the 050 soft compares. Overall, the first thing I noticed about the 050 soft is that it has the immediacy of sound that Pops has minus the more rosiny sound. The 050 soft is clear, quiet, and resonant. My wife noticed it right away. I did try out the intro of the 3rd movement of the Rachmaninoff to see how it does with short articulations and it felt super easy to play it and be very dynamic. I also play on a mixed set of Spiros and guts and found that it really gets a pleasant and resonant sound from the strings. Plus, this rosin makes harmonics pop out with little effort. Overall, I like the 050 soft a lot! Now I need to put it to the test on an orchestra gig.
 
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#14
Month update on the 050. My wife roped into a community sing of Mozart’s Requiem, so joined the little orchestra that accompanied the singers. First off, Mozart’s Requiem is brutal to sight read. Secondly, I really really like the 050 soft. It held up very well from the heaviest of articulations to the most delicate. I’ve used it on a few jazz gigs as well and it is very nice for soloing.

I put the 050 soft in a Tupperware I wasn’t using, but it melted last week during the insane heatwave we got in New England and now I can’t get it out of the Tupperware . So I’ve been using the 050 hard now and it works really well now that the heat and humidity is on. It has a little less grab than the soft, but it still sounds and feels nice to my ears. I'm going to need to get a silicone container soon to melt the soft into.
 
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#16
Interesting to read the glowing reviews of the soft. I just picked up an 050 hard and the shop also had the soft, which was semi-liquid and stuck to the top of the cardboard box. The employee who went to take care of it came back saying it had the consistency of melted glass. It's been above 30°C and very humid here all day but this was indoors and air conditioned. I think they had received them that morning. Anyway, I hope I made the right choice with the hard for my general purpose playing. Off to find an appropriate rosin saver now...
 
#18
Sean Riddle said:
Month update on the 050. My wife roped into a community sing of Mozart’s Requiem, so joined the little orchestra that accompanied the singers. First off, Mozart’s Requiem is brutal to sight read. Secondly, I really really like the 050 soft. It held up very well from the heaviest of articulations to the most delicate. I’ve used it on a few jazz gigs as well and it is very nice for soloing.

I put the 050 soft in a Tupperware I wasn’t using, but it melted last week during the insane heatwave we got in New England and now I can’t get it out of the Tupperware . So I’ve been using the 050 hard now and it works really well now that the heat and humidity is on. It has a little less grab than the soft, but it still sounds and feels nice to my ears. I'm going to need to get a silicone container soon to melt the soft into.
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I don't know, what they "do" to their cakes, but here it was very hot for the last days...(outside around 38-39 °C) and we have no air condition or something like this and my 050 rosins look the sameas in the picture above... If you put it directly in the sun, any rosin will probably melt...:P
 

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