Hey folks,
EP's installed on my bass Monday, along with a setup from my luthier.
For comparison's sake I'm including a bit of my string history and a (hopefully helpful) description of my personal preferences.
My bass is a '47 Meisel with carved top, plywood back & sides, and a recently replaced fingerboard. I would describe it as a generally bright sounding instrument, therefore I tend to gravitate towards darker strings and soundpost placement.
I go for the Sam Jones, Haden, Chambers vibe in my pizz playing. My arco playing is limited to a Tango trio, but I shed the Simandl stuff regularly for tone and technique. 90% of the gigs I use this bass for are jazz and blues.
Strings I have tried in the past include:
Spiro/Wiech's and Corelli's - far to thin sounding.
Pirastro Jazzers for a while, but felt they did not let the bass breathe enough.
Pirastro Eudoxas - Those strings are absolutely fantastic from a sonic standpoint. I also love the way they feel, and bow. My favorite stings by a long shot. However, durability issues were the reason I continued searching. I cannot justify $400 strings with windings that give way within 6 months on a schedule averaging 2-3 gigs and 10-20 hours practicing per week. I would describe my touch as somewhat aggressive, but I certainly don't beat the sh*t out of my strings. I am also meticulous about maintenance and care of the instrument. I do not slap at all.
Pirastro Olivs - A great string - a bit heavier and tighter sounding than the Eudoxas - great thump, killer dark arco. They also had reliability issues.
Animas came later and were great except for bowability issues. They also tended to be a bit too boomy amplified.
My last setup was a set of Pizzicatos - once again I loved them all the way around, and once again the G & D windings failed after a few months. They were replaced by Kaplan Golden Spirals as a holdover for the EP's. Great strings, but impossible to bow.
As you can see I prefer the wound gut thing. I also prefer the feel of fat strings, with medium/low string height.
OK on to the EP's
I have done 5 gigs on them and in a nutshell, I love them.
Feel-wise , and volume-wise they are comparable to the Oliv's. They aren't as springy as the Eudoxa, Pizzicatos and Golden Spirals, but they do have a nice gut-like thump and a silky smooth top end. So far the sound is tighter and lack the grand sonority of the others mentioned above. I have not found this to be a problem whatsoever, and is offset by nice 'MWAH' and a more modern growl. Amplified thru an AI Contra I / Rick Turner pickup, they sit very nice in the mix, and are a bit less boomy. A good thing in my opinion. I have yet to try them through my big rig (Woods and Acme B2) but expect they will perform fine.
As with all Pirastro windings, I find them to be easy on the fingers and very bowable.
String to string I find them balanced very well. They work great as a complete set.
Pitch-wise they settled in a couple of days and are very stable, though I never really had much issue with the others losing pitch once the bass was acclimated to a room for a few minutes.
The arco sound is very even and not scratchy or whiny. I find them to be quite forgiving and deliver the goods with ease. They seem to like the stickier Pops rosin the best. My favorites to date have been Tartan, Jade, Carlsson. I also have found a sweet spot using less tension than before.
I have been searching for an affordable string I can stick with for a long time, and get on playing bass without compromise ... these may be the ones.
Assuming the Chromesteel wrap holds up, and they give at least a solid year of good tone I'll be happy. At this point, the only thing I could hope for would be that they open up and sing a bit more, but overall, I'll take 'em!
I'll do another report in a month or so, and also hopefully have some sound clips for comparison.
Cheers - Sven
