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Double Bass Oliv or Eudoxa?

X

XSterling

Jul 8, 2012
124
17
Spain
#1
All right, time to change from synthetic to real gut strings!
I'm going to buy plain G+D... but what about A+E?!
I play mostly country, folk, old time jazz, and so on... pizz and slap too.
I've listened musicians that plays the same kind of music like Beau Sample (Eudoxa A+E) or Jimmy Sutton (Oliv A+E). Both superb players with their own techniques. But which strings would be the best for me?
The Pirastro company says that Eudoxa are brighter and with more sustain than Oliv... and I'd like to hear each note well defined when pizz but I don't want an excess of sharpy slap sound...
Anyone with experience in that situation?
 
#2
The experience I've had with Oliv/Eudoxa E & A is limited, but from what I've heard, the Olivs get very muddled on the lower strings, with some notes almost completely disappearing. Eudoxas, on the other hand, maintain great clarity into the lower register. I've always been curious about trying Eudoxa E/A with Oliv D/G... Maybe when I win the lottery.

Check this site out, it's a very useful resource when selecting strings.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
 
#3
musicmaxbezanso said:
The experience I've had with Oliv/Eudoxa E & A is limited, but from what I've heard, the Olivs get very muddled on the lower strings, with some notes almost completely disappearing. Eudoxas, on the other hand, maintain great clarity into the lower register. I've always been curious about trying Eudoxa E/A with Oliv D/G... Maybe when I win the lottery.
Click to expand...

Did you slap on both or only pizz/arco?
 
#5
The Olive G is hands down my favorite all time G string (on the bass:smug:). Currently I've got that, a vinatge Red-o-Ray D - a friend of mine suggested just the plain gut D and it is really , really, nice to have that classic old school sound available on one string, but not the dominant sound. 95% of the time I use a medium Spirocore A and a Stark E with those, but Adrian at Pirastro sent me a set of Eudoxas a while back. I've got the Eudoxa E and A on and I'm really enjoying them- great size and feel; there is nothing worse than some whimpy mandolin sized string under finger on a bass! They are a little blunt for pitz and not much sustain (compared to Spirocores), but with a bow they have a beautiful, thick, dark sound on my bass, with a lot of that classic Paul Chambers type underlying sound so I'm not in any hurry to take them off.

I find the outside chrome windings on the Olive to feel much better than the Silver winding on the Eudoxa for the G string, and the Olive is a little thicker under the fingers than the Eudoxa. I only tried the Olive E/ A for a short time, but they did not work for me. The Olive D string is in the case as my backup, but I rarely use it.

I slap, I pitz, I arco, and right now my Olive G is coming up on two years use with NO unwindging or nut / bridge issues, but I pay a lot of attention to make sure nothing gets bound up there and the slots are very smooth....but I don't go so far as to lube the slots....

'Hope that helps.

j.
www.condino.com
www.kaybassrepair.com
 
#6
james condino said:
The Olive G is hands down my favorite all time G string (on the bass:smug:). Currently I've got that, a vinatge Red-o-Ray D - a friend of mine suggested just the plain gut D and it is really , really, nice to have that classic old school sound available on one string, but not the dominant sound. 95% of the time I use a medium Spirocore A and a Stark E with those, but Adrian at Pirastro sent me a set of Eudoxas a while back. I've got the Eudoxa E and A on and I'm really enjoying them- great size and feel; there is nothing worse than some whimpy mandolin sized string under finger on a bass! They are a little blunt for pitz and not much sustain (compared to Spirocores), but with a bow they have a beautiful, thick, dark sound on my bass, with a lot of that classic Paul Chambers type underlying sound so I'm not in any hurry to take them off.

I find the outside chrome windings on the Olive to feel much better than the Silver winding on the Eudoxa for the G string, and the Olive is a little thicker under the fingers than the Eudoxa. I only tried the Olive E/ A for a short time, but they did not work for me. The Olive D string is in the case as my backup, but I rarely use it.

I slap, I pitz, I arco, and right now my Olive G is coming up on two years use with NO unwindging or nut / bridge issues, but I pay a lot of attention to make sure nothing gets bound up there and the slots are very smooth....but I don't go so far as to lube the slots....

'Hope that helps.

j.
www.condino.com
www.kaybassrepair.com
Click to expand...

And what about the slap sound on both strings?
 
#7
don't know about slap sound, but plain gut up top and Eudoxas on the bottom is a sweet setup for classic jazz tone. Olivs are kinda dull to my ear. warm, yes, but lacking the complexity of plain gut up top, and just dead down low. imho. Pirastro Pizzicatos down low are great as well w/ plain gut up top. dig Dennis Crouch, i think that's his setup, or has been. he can slap a might' bit ;)
 
#10
XSterling said:
Probably. But so many players slap them with great success too...
Any good alternative with similar pizz&slap sound for mix with plain gut G and D?
Click to expand...

I just put a set of Lenzner guts from [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] on my recently-acquired 50's Czech flat black, and I am loving them. I play roots country, gypsy jazz, a tiny bit of straight jazz, some old time and bluegrass. A good mix of pizz/slap. They've only been on a couple weeks, but for the affordable price, I'm very happy with the tone and feel. Nice full tone, pretty good sustain (as much as I need from them, even for ballads), good growl on the wound A and E strings. As soon as I put them on, I was practically given a very lightly used Dlugolecki D and G pair that I'm probably going to try on, too. It's hard not to get SAS (String Acquisition Syndrome?) and want to buy up every used gut string that pops up for sale! But I'm really happy with the Lenzners, and I think I received them the day after placing the order...fast shipping from Gollihur!

When I was starting to look into switching to gut I picked the brain of (pestered) a touring pro who played on some albums I dig with great bass sounds. He said he uses Clef or the Euro strings from Lemur, and that he'd heard the Lenzners were good, too. Those three seem to be the most affordable sets from reputable bass shops, and I liked Gollihur's thorough writeup on his site about the Lenzners.
 
#11
tyb507 said:
I just put a set of Lenzner guts from [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] on my recently-acquired 50's Czech flat black, and I am loving them. I play roots country, gypsy jazz, a tiny bit of straight jazz, some old time and bluegrass. A good mix of pizz/slap. They've only been on a couple weeks, but for the affordable price, I'm very happy with the tone and feel. Nice full tone, pretty good sustain (as much as I need from them, even for ballads), good growl on the wound A and E strings. As soon as I put them on, I was practically given a very lightly used Dlugolecki D and G pair that I'm probably going to try on, too. It's hard not to get SAS (String Acquisition Syndrome?) and want to buy up every used gut string that pops up for sale! But I'm really happy with the Lenzners, and I think I received them the day after placing the order...fast shipping from Gollihur!

When I was starting to look into switching to gut I picked the brain of (pestered) a touring pro who played on some albums I dig with great bass sounds. He said he uses Clef or the Euro strings from Lemur, and that he'd heard the Lenzners were good, too. Those three seem to be the most affordable sets from reputable bass shops, and I liked Gollihur's thorough writeup on his site about the Lenzners.
Click to expand...

+1

I have had a full set of Gotz and Lenzner strings on my plywood and carved basses. Both sounded great!! Right now I actually have Lenzner plain A and E and Gotz plain G and D. Sound wonderful. For the price, they can't be beat!

And I play mostly slap when I play bluegrass and Americana music. If that helps.

I also agree that the Golihur site was very helpful when I switched from super silvers over to gut.
 

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