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Double Bass My string journey documented (to be Continued)

#143
A raised saddle can help to reduce pressure to the top. I don't know if that one is available in the US, but Thomann has the Moser HVU for that. Not that complicated to install (I did it myself on my carved bass), but you need an additional piece of wood between bass and saddle to raise it over the top.
If you can do that yourself it is even cheaper than a new set of strings and you can select one of three heights, all higher than the original saddle. Just take time to install and adjust it and measure your afterlength a with a correctly seated bridge before so you can adjust the tailpiece.
Some additional set of hands would help when stringing up.
 
#144
Sam Dingle said:
Let us know how that goes. I hated the Obligato D and G after a week. The full set of spiro mediums are good to me.
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Will do.
Chris Fitzgerald said:
I hated them from the first time I took them out to a gig. Sounded great in the living room, got buried on the bandstand and would not cut through.
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The bass is in the last stages of lacquer curing after the belly came off. Right now I'm essentially working my way into the scene here so no gigs on the books just yet but very interested to see how they hold up on the bandstand now that you say that. I must've not read some of the latest posts because I do remember that combo being touted on earlier threads some years ago. In any case, I will have plenty of time to evaluate in the comfort of my living room and it will be a simple matter of getting a Mittel D & G to make a set.

BTW, I also noticed the info about the extended E string gauge in that the Mittel Ext E is the same diameter as a normal Stark and the Weich Ext E is equivalent to a Mittel E. Is this correct? I definitely ordered a Mittel Ext E so I may be in for a surprise although as a lot have said, if you have the chops, it sounds great.
 
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#145
I think the Obligatos are a great choice of strings to get started on. I used the Obli G&D with Spiro A&E on another bass for a couple years - it was a good balance for that instrument. The Oblis feel softer tension-wise and they do have kind of a hybrid quality being a metal coated synthetic material.

My experience coming from electric bass was that the Spiros were louder, punchier, and seem to last forever.

Why not start with Weichs and work from there? I’m about 2.5 years into a set of the regular Weichs and so far so good.
 
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#146
Jason Hollar said:
I think the Obligatos are a great choice of strings to get started on. I used the Obli G&D with Spiro A&E on another bass for a couple years - it was a good balance for that instrument. The Oblis feel softer tension-wise and they do have kind of a hybrid quality being a metal coated synthetic material.

My experience coming from electric bass was that the Spiros were louder, punchier, and seem to last forever.

Why not start with Weichs and work from there? I’m about 2.5 years into a set of the regular Weichs and so far so good.
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I'd used Weichs for years and years so I'm very familiar with them. My biggest problem, and why I started turning to other hybrid strings to begin with, was that I found the D and particularly the G string to be pretty awful with a bow. Believe me, I had plenty of time to try to work it out but it just didn't work on my bass. I've also liked exploring a more gut-like sound on the top strings. I'm not ready to jump straight to plain gut just yet but I do like the sound of it and most of the players I really enjoy seem to play gut. I like to experiment and if I end up going back to full Weichs or Mittels in the end, all the better!
 
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#147
Chris Fitzgerald said:
This is a great point, and one that can't be stated too often: after a certain point, strings and setup are the means to achieve the sound we are hearing in our mind's ear. If that sound is a bigger and more powerful sound than the strings are capable of producing, the natural inclination is to try harder to make them sound the way we want. In my experience, this rarely works (if ever). If you are hearing a spirocore sound with a spirocore attack, it's probably best to play spirocores. The same goes for the different gauges and varieties of string.

Different strings are capable of different things, but it's probably best to go with the strings that are inherently closer to the sound we are going for and just deal with the realities and side effects of that string. I will never be a gut player - I just don't hear that way; but I know several people who sound great playing with that sound because they hear it. One of them, a long time ago, told me he loved my sound and asked what bass and setup I used. I told him and he bought a hybrid LaScala and put Spirocores on it. It happened that a year later, we ended up on the same gig at a showcase with two bands. He was unhappy with his sound and asked me to play his bass to see what I thought. I played it, and thought it felt and sounded great. He said it sounded exactly like what he always loved about my bass.... but only when I was playing it. He eventually sold that bass to one of my students and bought an old German bass and put gut strings on it. He sounds great on that bass and is very happy, and works all the time around town. Point is, he found his voice. We are both lucky to have found what we like! At this point, we are best served by focusing on our playing.
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Due all respect and love, but you will be playing guts in 5ths tuning, after a couple of decades :D
 
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#148
Just got a real time demo of what higher tension can do to a bass. Been on Daddario Heli Hybrid Lights for about a year and my G string was sounding super dead. Decided to break out an old 1.5 year aged Zyed Med G and give it a whirl. Not only did the G itself have more volume and punch but i feel like the higher tension on the bridge opened up the other strings too.

This is on my Upton ply. Pretty sure they recommend medium strings for the basses and i can see why.
 
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#155
Sam Dingle said:
Rabbit hole because? I tied a G and didn't hate it but didn't need it over my spiro G.
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Only because if they grab you, it's hard to go back. You are safe if they didn't grab you. How did the G bow compared to the Spiro? To me the Dominants have everything I love about spirocores without everything I hate about spirocores... except they still have the banjo thing for the first few weeks. If you had a brand new one, you didn't really get to experience true Dominant bliss.
 
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#158
Sam Dingle said:
Steve I tried super flexibles on my teachers bass and couldn't deal with the fat D. Annoyed me.
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I used SF extensively back in the day primarily as an alternative to Spiros, being that I was playing all kinds of music then, and the SF were to me a nice bowing string once fully broken in, and at the same time offering at least some of the brilliance of Spirocores. All that would sort of meet OP’s query.

And I never noticed the relative fatness of the SF D back then (must have been too busy trying to play well), but there must be a reason why Thomastik hasn’t changed the design after all these years, even after getting feedback from the bass community.

I do remember liking the D in particular for pizz and bowing. But I guess if it doesn’t feel right, it doesn’t work.
 

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