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Double Bass DB String haters thread

#21
Another vote for D'Addario hybrids. Zyex could be one of the worst strings ever. I have never found an electric bass string from them that I particularly liked either. I guess I'm not a D'Addario guy.

I really tried to like Obligatos, but they didn't agree with my bass. D on the G string was totally dead and no amount of tweakage helped it. I kinda' like that note and was unwilling to part with it. Roll under the bow was horrible. Kinda' soft in my right hand. Sounded pretty good, but not like my old spiros.

On a side note, I once ordered a set of D-A hybrids from Jerry at Lemur. They never came, never came, never came. I really needed to get them on the bass for a pretty exposed classical gig, so I called Jerry, who said that if they didn't arrive tomorrow, he would overnight me a set. They didn't and he did. That set arrived the next day and the first set arrived a day later. I called Jerry to explain and he said "Aw hell just keep 'em" I think they're still in the bag, in a box, in the music room, somewhere...
 
#23
Oh yeah, there was a set of strings of some unknown chinese make. I forgot how I got them - I think it came with an EUB I once owned. Scary ****ers. Rusty and gnarled. Two images come to mind with those strings: barbed wire and tetanus shots.
 
#25
Helicore Hybrid also never worked for me - tries to do too many things, I suppose. I never minded their pizz sound but arco they just didn't cut it for me. I agree with the poster who said that the pitch was fuzzy - I felt this on the low notes especially.

Chris, in another thread we've been discussing Obligatos and other strings for plywood basses. I'm becoming convinced that Obligatos are a good fit for plywood basses more than for basses with a solid top.

-S-
 
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#30
Correllis

...and I agree about the Doms. I love the feel, I love the sound. I hate that they kept breaking. :(
 
#33
I'll chime in quickly. I cant stand the Obligatos. I haven't had them on my personal bass but I rented a bass recently with them on and couldn't stand them. They sounded good if I was playing lightly arco, but once I was on a gig playing swing and bebop they bottomed out to fast. I remember playing Helicore Hybrid and thinking "They're not good, they're not bad... they're strings..." I also was not a fan of the Evah Orchestra set (sounded great, too much tension), and the Weich set E and A string sounded weak and gave a weird midrange hiss through the amp. D and G were to die for though. Im rocking the Evah Weich/Spiro mix right now.
 
#34
I have always hated obligatos. My universities bass has them and they're so terrible. They have no pitch definition, bottom out SO fast, sound like farts, and are so boring. The bass that I bought two years ago had a mixture of obligato solos and lights on them and it was terrible. I loved the bass, but I changed the strings for the trial, and the bass became so much better.

I had kaplans on them after taking the godforsaken obligatos off, and they were nice but not enough tension to move the 7/8 top and play in large Orchestra. So, I changed to spirocore mittels and like them a lot, but I still find metal strings boring. I love baroque and classical Era music, so if I had a choice I'd be playing unwound guts all the time..
 
#35
I agree with the Obligatos. I wanted to like them so bad, especially because they are one of the only true 5ths sets out there and low G's are really problematic/non-existent. I didn't know what everyone was talking about with roll until I tried their low C string and it just wouldn't stop rolling. The high strings weren't too bad though... Or so I thought.

I sat in on a chamber orchestra rehearsal I got called to at the last minute with them on the bass, and I could not hear myself at all. I've played in sections of ten basses and orchestras with doubled brass sections and never had that problem. That was the nail in the coffin for me.

Otherwise, my string lament tends to be that no one makes low G's for 5ths. I can use a low C/B, orchestra D, and solo A and those are widely available, but there are maybe 3 G's out there? Is that really too much to ask for?
 
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#37
Low G = the second lowest string in a fifths tuned bass. And finding them can certainly be challenging.

Spiro, Eudoxa, Obligato and Genssler. That's it for choices. Velvet recently discontinued their low G in the Compas 180 V set. It's a shame. The Velvet low G is a nice string! But as usual, I digress....

The Obligato low G is only slightly better than the truly awful Obligato low C string. They added steel to the core's formula on both the low strings to give them some body, and they still were crappy strings.
 

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