Double Bass Evah Pirazzi strings megathread part I

[16fuss]

so i have to check the Evahs for them...

 

[Uncletoad]

My gigs all got canceled this weekend. Good time to try some strings. Put the full set on today. Give the Guts and Steel a rest. Hard shoes to fill there.

First impression:

Nice strings. Classic Pirastro feel. Stiffer than I would have thought. Moreso than Dominants or Mittels. Not as stiff as Starks. Obvious comparison to me is the Dominant. Similar feeling string with a stiff core albeit not as stiff as the Dominant. Not as bright as Dominants, a bit more organic sounding than Dominants. They are closer to Dominants than Obligatos however. Oblis feel like the solo gage of EP.

Dark string out of the package.

Pizz:

Nice thunk on the front of the note. I like the A string a lot. Big fat note. Plenty of sustain. Just a tad darker than a worn in Spiro A string mittel. Th E string sucks in the same way all Pirastro E strings suck. To me anyhow. Its thunky like a gut wound E with a bit more note length. Kinda like a Flexocor pizz. Nobody is gonna take that Spiro Stark E away from me anymore. That's the shizz for me.

D and G are nice. G is nice and big and feels pretty good. Nice tension. Plays well up the neck. The D string is the weakest of the bunch. Dry and dark. Neither D or G are like my favorite Gut strings or like the Oliv D/G which I think are better strings. I still prefer plain gut or wound gut D/G strings but this D/G is one of the best pairs I've tried.

Arco:

Balanced set. Easy to bow. Big sound. Great right out of the box. The Belcantos are slightly brighter but with more damping material so it's just a tad easier to get them started than the EP. Easier to bow and get a good sound than Dominants.

I'll probably put my Guts and Steel back on before the next gig on Tuesday but I'll give these a couple days and see what's up.

 

[Ben Rolston]

I don't know if you want to wait this long, but the E string (as others have said) has tightened up just in the few weeks I've had it.

Peace

 

[Uncletoad]

I don't know if you want to wait this long, but the E string (as others have said) has tightened up just in the few weeks I've had it.

Peace

It's gotten better as I've been working it out over this evening.

Nice strings.

Very nice.

 

[Marcus Johnson]

The E felt like a wimp to me at first as well. Now it's nicely balanced within the set.

Tension.... you have to work these strings a bit. I played Doms only a little, I too remember them as stiffer than EPs, but who knows. The Pirastros are well within my comfort zone; I can fly around them pretty nicely. I really love the front of the notes now, both arco and pizz.

It will never match the power of that Stark, but I guess nothing will, no? Seems like a good choice for the string drawer, for when you want to move bowels and loosen fillings at thirty paces. I'd imagine you could buy one and be all set for a long, long time, as in other Spiros.

Still not completely sold on the amped sound. I can get it, but it's not my favorite. Just takes some tweaking, and it's probably great from the audience. I sometimes have that funny experience, where I play through the system, and then turn it off and play unamped, and the bass seems to get louder.

My Evah A is nice and strong. It makes me wonder about the following combination; Stark E, Evah A, Gamut D&G. I bet that would be one loud mutha. It would probably work best with a well-broken in Stark. Bowing?.... eh, might be a recipe for a quick trip to the padded room.

The E-Ps are really working out well for me in the arco dept. Gotta love the quality at the price point as well.

 

[Tom Baldwin]

I'm getting in on this. I have an Evah G with old Spiro reds for the rest. My spiro G was getting kind of brittle and thin and harsh sounding, hence the change. The Evah is working for me right now. It has a rounder attack, thicker feel and sound all the way up. Much like the Oliv G, but without the complex tone. Also without the pitch issues, so for me it's a good trade-off. On my bass it matches well pizz with the spiros. I like how I can really pull it hard and it doesn't sound strained (unlike the spiro). Arco is very nice, although you notice the difference in timbre on the spiro D, especially around the octave.

I tried the Evah D for two days and a gig, but it was too dull for me. I wonder if a Dominant D or perhaps a Heritage D or Superflexible D might mix well with the Evah G and Spiro bottoms. I'm really looking for a D that sustains like a spiro but without the sizzle. Even my Spiro A is more mellow than the D.

Any suggestions are welcome!

 

[Uncletoad]

My Evah A is nice and strong. It makes me wonder about the following combination; Stark E, Evah A, Gamut D&G. I bet that would be one loud mutha. It would probably work best with a well-broken in Stark. Bowing?.... eh, might be a recipe for a quick trip to the padded room.

It's a thought that crossed my mind. Not coincidentally I put the A string on first and almost stopped right there.

I'm a masochist.

I was thinking this morning that this set is so well behaved and balanced. Everything sounds pretty much even up and down and across the bass. I forgot how well made my bass is but when you get a nice balanced string set it's easy to loose ones self in playing music rather than the mechanics of doing.

Point is that compared to the Spiro Stark E and the guts mix they seem rather generic. Or perhaps they are decidedly "not quirky" and I've gotten used to quirky. The weird mix thing has given me a broad palate from old school gut to big bad metal. Works nice on the gigs where I'll move from country to rock to jazz etc in the same night on the same bass. The EPs even every thing out to be nice and easy. That should be a good thing but I'm nuts and like the mix that makes me work harder.

I'm just not used to "nice" any more.

Regardless I like them a lot more than I wanted to. I may even leave them on for gig testing.

 

[Marcus Johnson]

That's really true. They don't have a strong set of personality traits like Spiros, Animas, Olivs, or your Gamuts.

 

[Uncletoad]

That's really true. They don't have a strong set of personality traits like Spiros, Animas, Olivs, or your Gamuts.

Exactly.

Probably just the ticket for lots of players. Nice plain background to do their thing with. For those who have lots of ideas and chops and plenty of spice in their hands these are a great neutral starting place to begin your thing from. You don't have to worry about the string's idiosyncrasies getting in your way. Just start talking.

I'm a player that comes from another point of view. I like untamed out of control stuff that forces me to find art in it's limitations. I'm a big fan of the "happy accident" when I play. So, many times I'll sound like **** when I try something that doesn't work. Otoh I'm likely to play something unexpected that kicks everyone on the bandstand in the ass for it's weird left turn.

For me these strings could be a way for me to work out some of my own thing without the strings getting in my way. A way to learn how to play ideas from my head rather than something that comes from my stuff.

Or I might just get bored.

Whatever, I just read this and I'm thinking it may be over the top. Here's a quote:

These may just be the best hybrid double bass strings on the market today.

They do just about everything right, and very little wrong.

 

[Uncletoad]

Any suggestions are welcome!

Try the whole set.

 

[Marcus Johnson]

I think you said it well, Phil. I play in so many different situations from day to day, I think I really need a sort of neutral ground to play from. So they work really well for me. I can lay down a nice solid bed of walking bass, a funk line or a nice latin pattern, or I can do more hornlike/vocalish soloing, or switch to arco, and it's pretty much going to sound neutral, which means I get exactly as much as I deserve from the effort I put into it. That's really what I've been looking for in a string for awhile. I can push these strings around really hard, and they stand up to it well.

 

[KSB - Ken Smith]

I am not sure what or how you are all comparing these EPs but for me, they DO have a unique personality. The few strings that I have played that have somewhat of a similar feel include Olivs, Eudoxas, Obligatos, the new Orchestra Eurosonics and Jaegars.

What they all have in common is mainly the feel under the fingers of your left hand. Soft and smooth, not wiry or metallic feeling or sounding.

Now for Jazz I have no problem even with Flexocors mainly because of my Basses. I even bowed fine in my early days with Spiros but again, the Bass sounded good with any string.

With that said, I still search for what works best for me for the Bass I am putting them on and what I need that Bass to do.

For bowing, I like a smooth dark sounding string. Currently I have the EPs on my olde English Gilkes. Regardless of how good this or any Bass is or how bad a Bass is, some Basses react in different degrees when changing strings. My Martini has a very deep and dark spread type sound no matter what strings I use and I hear only slight changes when trying different types. My Gilkes on the other hand is night and day between two sets sometimes so it's a better Bass to judge strings on. It lets me know what the string does to the Bass.

I have several concerts coming up with a few orchestras this month and all will be played with the Gilkes and EPs. I have done a few rehearsals so far and what I hear is more volume, more presence and the most punch I have had with this Bass since I bought it 3 1/2 years ago.

The EPs are not the best growly jazz string and they are not the smoothest deep sounding orchestra string. What they actually are to me is the best all-in-one string that I have found for the Bass I am currently testing them on which just happens to be a finicky instrument.

 

[Tom Baldwin]

Try the whole set.

I didn't care for the D. With that in mind, I can't imagine liking the A or E. I'm quite content with my spiros down there. I also played two other basses with whole Evah sets and was underwhelmed. Maybe I'm quirky like you.

When it comes to strings.

 

[Marcus Johnson]

The EPs are not the best growly jazz string and they are not the smoothest deep sounding orchestra string. What they actually are to me is the best all-in-one string that I have found for the Bass I am currently testing them on which just happens to be a finicky instrument.

I completely agree, and maybe that's a better way of putting what I was trying to say. For me, they don't have that thing when playing pizz (which is what I do most of the time) where you would go "that's a Spirocore" or "that's the Animas". I think there's also a certain degree of adjusting to the strings, which I'm still doing; down the road, I may be able to definitively state "that's EPs". And finally, maybe they show their true colors when played arco to a greater degree, which is something that I do far less frequently than many people.

I think that they come closer to the sound that I have in my head than any other string I've encountered, when you factor in jazz arco playing. They don't growl like Spiros, which is fine because I'm over that. Balanced is probably the first word that comes to mind when describing them. Maybe the best thing is the way they sit in the mix with other instruments. They also feel frickin' fabulous. YMMV, IHOP, STD, etc....

 

[Uncletoad]

I am not sure what or how you are all comparing these EPs but for me, they DO have a unique personality. The few strings that I have played that have somewhat of a similar feel include Olivs, Eudoxas, Obligatos, the new Orchestra Eurosonics and Jaegars.

What they all have in common is mainly the feel under the fingers of your left hand. Soft and smooth, not wiry or metallic feeling or sounding.

Ok. I'll bite. How do they have a unique personality? Would you explain that.

The EPs are not the best growly jazz string and they are not the smoothest deep sounding orchestra string. What they actually are to me is the best all-in-one string that I have found for the Bass I am currently testing them on which just happens to be a finicky instrument.

These may just be the best hybrid double bass strings on the market today.

They do just about everything right, and very little wrong.

Apparently we agree on that.

 

[Uncletoad]

I didn't care for the D. With that in mind, I can't imagine liking the A or E. I'm quite content with my spiros down there. I also played two other basses with whole Evah sets and was underwhelmed. Maybe I'm quirky like you.

When it comes to strings.

I put the D on after the A and didn't like it at all either. I went ahead and put on the whole set and let it settle for 24/48/36 hours and it sounded way better.

If you have the whole set try them all at once.

They really do work well as a set in a way I wasn't expecting.

 

[Pete G]

If you have the whole set try them all at once.

They really do work well as a set in a way I wasn't expecting.

I agree with that completely. I NEVER use sets of just one string -- always mix and match instead, because invariably every maker's set has one or more strings that won't work on one of my basses. One is too loud or metallic; another is too faint; one may not respond well to the bow.

The Evahs, however, are the clear exception to that rule, and the only complete set I've found where each string is a winner on its own, AND they all work well together.

I thought they sounded great right out of the box, but they got better still with a couple of days to settle in and stabilize.

 

[Marcus Johnson]

Last night I did a gig at a house, with a quartet, for about fifty people.... outside on a deck. After the break between sets, we started playing again, and it took me about five tunes to realize that I'd forgotten to turn the speaker back on (EA iAMP 800)... I'd been playing unamped since the break. Didn't even notice, and neither did anyone in the band or the audience apparently. I just finished up unamped.

It is funny how they seem to complete each other once they're all installed. My original intent was to buy a set and then install an Oliv G, but they're really fine as is.

 

[Wyzird05]

Mine will hopefully (cross my fingers) be in this week. I called the distributor Thursday and he said they shipped that day.

 

[Tom Baldwin]

I put the D on after the A and didn't like it at all either. I went ahead and put on the whole set and let it settle for 24/48/36 hours and it sounded way better.

If you have the whole set try them all at once.

They really do work well as a set in a way I wasn't expecting.

I don't have the whole set. I have a few days between gigs, so I'm giving the D another shot. I'm hoping it will tighten up as it stretches. So far it still has that distant soft vibe going on. It doesn't push back under the bow as much as the G does. We'll see...