Double Bass I need your help

[showfeet]

Hello everyone!
I am a new player (in my second year of playing) and play a 50's Kay with Innovation Silver Slaps on it. It was originally set up to be a slapper's bass I assume, because of the strings (duh and high action). I do enjoy the pizz. sound of the bass, with the high action it gives off a good thump sound. The acro sound though, that is what I am not happy with. I can't play fast passages at all, where I can on other basses. So I would like a new set of strings, as my interest in the bow is growing. As for pizz. tone, I like a big, warm, thumpy, and LOUD sound, and I am not particularly fond of the bright "twangy" sound of some steel strings . For arco, I am would like a better response than my current strings.

I do have a higher action, because I like a loud bass, so softer strings would be better, but I am not particularly set on this.

Please give me your recommendations

 

[Eric Hochberg]

Evah Pirazzi Weichs or Solos tuned down.

 

[showfeet]

Thanks after reading on about them on Gollihur music, I'm pretty interested. I'll look at a few other suggestions too, before buying some.

 

[Jeff Kissell]

Pirastro Passione sounded really nice and thumpy on my bass and bowed beautifully.
Pirastro Obligato might work well also.
-Jeff

 

[showfeet]

Thanks! I've seen good things online about both of those strings, as well. This might be a hard decision!

 

[iiipopes]

Bel Cantos now come in solo version also: easy to bow, dark, thumpy pizz.

 

[DoubleMIDI]

The silver slaps are really low tension strings.
The Evah Weich, Obligato and probably Passione too have a much higher tension. So you might get problems with your high action if you want to keep that.

Try Innovation 140B. They have just a little bit more tension than the Silver Slaps and are very bowable. They have a nice soft pizz sound too. I use them for a nice round pizz sound (when plucked at the end of the fingerboard) with our big band now.
The E and A need some bending to get the string a bit more flexible for a longer sustain, but this is well invested time, even if it takes an hour per string.

There is also the low tension SuperSensitive Sensicore, that you might want to try.
If you want a rather short pizz sound you can try the Kolstein Heritage.

These are all braided synthetic core strings like the Silver Slaps.

But you might want to try to rough up the bowing area of your Silver Slaps with fine sandpaper and maybe also put a little bit of rosin on the strings in that area. It might help.

 

[showfeet]

Okay thanks. In regards to the action: what I really want is to have a loud and big sound. So if other strings give that with more tension, I'm fine with taking the action down. Thanks for the advice, and I have heard good things in the past about those innovation strings.

 

[iiipopes]

For further reading: Innovation sponsors the basschat.co.uk forum, and there is a subforum just on Innovation strings.

 

[DoubleMIDI]

For a loud and big sound with some more tension the Evah Weich are a good choice. The only thing is that they might sound dark amplified. (The main reason why I don't use them, but YMMV.)
If you want something brighter the Obligato are a good choice. Probably even better the Dominant (as long as they don't break). But the Dominants should not be tuned up and down too much or they may break.

Higher tension strings generally give a louder sound than lower tension strings as long as it is not too much for the bass (then it will sound softer and damped). But you want to put the action down.

You also might look at the Innovation 140H (Honeys) for a bit more tension and a more old school pizz sound with attack. Arco is not as good as the Innovation 140B but better than Spirocore.