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Double Bass A good hybrid string: no such thing?
- Thread starter endorka
- Start date
As long as the metal part doesn't reach peg, shouldn't be a much a problem.
The G metal part can be wound around the peg though, never had a problem with this one.
I've used them a few times over the years. I think they can be a really nice hybrid string, plenty of brightness and sustain, but warmer than Spirocores. Bow well, but not as good as a real orchestral string. The tension is very low and they feel soft under the hands, but I felt that I needed to raise the strings a bit in order to get a strong attack out of them.
I‘m not sure what does break with Dominants, but have some ideas how to avoid that or at least reduce the probability for breakage.
A) the windings break when wound onto the peg
You might not be able to suppress this, but if before any breakage has happened you wind something like silk over the end of the regular silks up to the nut closely around the string and fix it, the silk or other material might avoid the unraveling. And you can seal this part with some elastic glue over the silk too. Even after a winding breakage has happened.
B) the core breaks at the nut or peg
I found that the nut at the peg side is very often rather sharp and not widely rounded towards the pegs. So the strings have a hard kink at this edge.
Dominants have a monofiber synthetic core and a cut, that can happen from the possibly sharp metal winding, into the core surface can break the core under tension. It is easy for the edge of the winding to get pressed against the core of the string is bent sharply or wound onto a peg.
Possible solution:
The nut should be rounded towards the pegs so that the string lifts of the rounded grooves instead of being hardly bent at the peg side edge.
Avoid winding the silk free part of the string onto the peg, maybe you need to mount the string at the tailpiece in a different way. Probably looping around the tailpiece using some double holed part to fiddle the string through.
Just some ideas. Might help or not. Maybe someone else has better ones or gets inspired.
A) the windings break when wound onto the peg
You might not be able to suppress this, but if before any breakage has happened you wind something like silk over the end of the regular silks up to the nut closely around the string and fix it, the silk or other material might avoid the unraveling. And you can seal this part with some elastic glue over the silk too. Even after a winding breakage has happened.
B) the core breaks at the nut or peg
I found that the nut at the peg side is very often rather sharp and not widely rounded towards the pegs. So the strings have a hard kink at this edge.
Dominants have a monofiber synthetic core and a cut, that can happen from the possibly sharp metal winding, into the core surface can break the core under tension. It is easy for the edge of the winding to get pressed against the core of the string is bent sharply or wound onto a peg.
Possible solution:
The nut should be rounded towards the pegs so that the string lifts of the rounded grooves instead of being hardly bent at the peg side edge.
Avoid winding the silk free part of the string onto the peg, maybe you need to mount the string at the tailpiece in a different way. Probably looping around the tailpiece using some double holed part to fiddle the string through.
Just some ideas. Might help or not. Maybe someone else has better ones or gets inspired.
