Lycon's

After hearing so much about the old Lycon steel strings, mainly from Paul W., I couldn't resist buying an NOS set on Ebay. After putting them on my Jazz bass yesterday, I have noticed the following:
1) They are the blue set (not the Ray Brown set) but the tension and feel seem to be closer to Thomastik superflexible than spirocore.
2) The packgage says they are supposed to have a sound closer to gut than most steel strings (somethings never change).
3) The price on the string envelopes is so low that they must be leftover from the Sixties.
4) The top strings sound alot like Kolstein Varicor.
5) The A string rolls a little like Obligato but not as much.
6) Despite reports to the contrary, they bow easier than Spirocore for me.
7 If I had to compare them to other strings available today, I would say they are like a cross between Corellis and Spirocore Weich.
8) The pizz sound and feel is great.
9) They feel thinner (except for the E string) than Thomastiks.
10) Not a bad set of strings for $30. Even though they are so old. I imagine they sounded even better new.
11) They do have a freakishly long sustain but it is different than TI strings in terms of frequency vs. decay.
-Jon

 

Paul

I've been practicing bowing on Spirocore orch. gauge lately so maybe that's why they don't seem that bad. It's neat that these strings, which have been on the shelf for so many years still sound OK. I think the E string might be a little dead but that's about it. To me they sound a little more organic than spirocores, but still with plenty of sustain, so I can see why they were so popular. I guess I will keep these on for now since I like them slightly better than Spirocores so far.

-Jon