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Double Bass Olive G lovefest
- Thread starter Greg Clinkingbeard
- Start date
This is true. I'm bringing my bass in to get the nut and bridge opened up for them Saturday. I'll post an update then.
Put the D and G on today. I'm gonna wait to review them but here is a conversation between my roommate and I about it.
Me: "Hey check this out. I put new strings on my bass. They sound great!"
Roommate: "It sounds like you."
Me:"…damn it"
Me: "Hey check this out. I put new strings on my bass. They sound great!"
Roommate: "It sounds like you."
Me:"…damn it"
What does he/she know about bass? When I put my olive-G on, a few days later I was enjoying the Koussevitzky concerto and my wife was up in her "sewing room" and I was in my studio below ... she came down for tea and asked if I had changed something on my bass because it was "louder" through the walls between us.
Louder and softer are about all she can discern about my bass' tone quality. Over all the years of fiddling with setup and strings, the only change she ever noticed was the Olive-G!
Right! I recorded a video for that jam of the week thing on Facebook and he said "I don't know man, it sounds like your bass".
Just picked up a G and D oliv from the classified section. I will see how they do this time around on the bass and mix with spiro E and A.
I am especially interested in what you think of the D string. When I bought my Olive-G I also bought an Olive-D ... but when I got it in the mail I thought holy crap -- that's a big string!! So I did not mount it on my bass. Maybe I missed the perfect D-string -- dunno.
I ran EP regs and weichs with Oliv D and G on a fully carved bass and the D was pretty dead sounding pizz, fine for arco. I really wanted it to have the characteristics of the G, but it didn't. I am going to see how the D and G do with spiro weichs and obligatos on the bottom. Will report back when strings arrive.
The D sounds fine. I opened the slot on the bridge and nut just to be safe. Its slightly larger than my A (Evah Medium). The set is really even sounding right now, and the strings seem to be stretching into tune. I just got out of my jazz band rehearsal that was an hour and a half long and I had to retune once. The set going up and down the strings sounds great (I'm doing Oliv G/D Evah medium A and Sprio medium E). From the open D to the F#in thumb position it sounds fine, little more damp than the evah it replaced but I think I like it.
Strung up the bass last night w/ Oliv D and G and obligatos on the bottom. It sounds good but the spiro set still sounds better, at least for this bass (or I am just to use to the sound now). Will give them another week or so to settle in. Although, the obligatos are a lot brighter than I remembered them being.
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Obligato E/A are zingier than spiros on my bass ... perhaps louder, but that's hard to tell. Not sure I'd dig Obli bottoms with Olive tops actually.
If you don't try it do a little experimentation (couldnt hurt). Put the spiro EA back on then EAD and see how you like just the olive G. I'll be posting my thoughts on the olivs this weekend.
I had a full set of obligatos on a bass a few years ago and remember then being really thumpy, not this set. I'll swap the Spiros E and A on tonight. The G sings, but still not sure how it will do with the spiros. It definitely looses some definition with the gut core.
I hope to never use any other G string in my life besides the Oliv. It's just the best - big, fat attack with the right amount of sustain, and it really responds to digging in as well as playing gently. It's a dark-sounding string, but it has a certain brightness/clarity that's completely different from the Spiro-esque 'zingy' brightness.
I've found the Oliv D to be a bit dull, but Eudoxa D matches the G nicely on my bass.
I've found the Oliv D to be a bit dull, but Eudoxa D matches the G nicely on my bass.
Ok so it's Been a week with my oliv D/G and I think I'm ready to write a review:
I'm matching the olivs with an evah pirazzi A and spiro E both medium gauge. The tuning of the strings has stabalised as much as I think it's going to. I check the tuning in between tunes and they don't seem bad, I tune up the whole bass at set breaks and it's fine. The gauge is really nice in my opinion, I do find the D to be a little thick but not too bad, I can get a lot of pull from the string. Sound wise it's...nice. I feel as though I built them up in my head, but the string feels big and fat and sounds big. I haven't found the D to be a problem pitch or clearness (?) wise going up the neck but to be fair I only ever play as high as the F# in thumb position on that string. Any higher I usually go to the G. Arco is great, but I'm finding a lack in complexity. I miss the slight brightness of the Evahs that I had before. In terms of pizzicato, it is easy to get that fat tone I hear in my head, but hard to get the "thin" tone we know from steal strings. There is a lack of the WAH I was able to get with my Evahs I think.
I'm having issues with tension again. I have found that I'm unable to play for a long period of time now. There is pain in my forearms (didn't happen with steel strings) I may lower the strings if this continues but maybe someone can touch on the subject. Would a lighter E/A help?
Bottom line is when I play, I sound like me. If the olivs were to break tomorrow I'd be annoyed but not heart broken and just throw some other strings on. Not sure I would pay for a new G and D, maybe the G.
I'm matching the olivs with an evah pirazzi A and spiro E both medium gauge. The tuning of the strings has stabalised as much as I think it's going to. I check the tuning in between tunes and they don't seem bad, I tune up the whole bass at set breaks and it's fine. The gauge is really nice in my opinion, I do find the D to be a little thick but not too bad, I can get a lot of pull from the string. Sound wise it's...nice. I feel as though I built them up in my head, but the string feels big and fat and sounds big. I haven't found the D to be a problem pitch or clearness (?) wise going up the neck but to be fair I only ever play as high as the F# in thumb position on that string. Any higher I usually go to the G. Arco is great, but I'm finding a lack in complexity. I miss the slight brightness of the Evahs that I had before. In terms of pizzicato, it is easy to get that fat tone I hear in my head, but hard to get the "thin" tone we know from steal strings. There is a lack of the WAH I was able to get with my Evahs I think.
I'm having issues with tension again. I have found that I'm unable to play for a long period of time now. There is pain in my forearms (didn't happen with steel strings) I may lower the strings if this continues but maybe someone can touch on the subject. Would a lighter E/A help?
Bottom line is when I play, I sound like me. If the olivs were to break tomorrow I'd be annoyed but not heart broken and just throw some other strings on. Not sure I would pay for a new G and D, maybe the G.
I recently had a thorough setup done by a luthier on my bass. new bridge, new sound post, fingerboard planed, a real overhaul, so I decided to start again with a new set of strings.
After spending almost 2 years with Evah regulars, and a few months Evah weichs, I resorted back to playing my dead spiro mittel set with 4 year old Oliv G in recent months.
I wanted to start over sound wise,So I put on a fresh set of s42 mittels as to start from zero again and learn the subleties of my new setup and go from there.
Even though I promised myself to just stay with the mittels for as long as possible, I just couldn't adjust to liking the thin feeling (and sounding on my instrument) mittel G.
Two weeks in, I put on a new Oliv G, after hearing myself on a recording and ,oh man, it was like coming home! There was that fat G string sound again! Great fundamental, deep sound over the entire range of the string, nice initial attack when walking, I can also feel the difference in how it makes the bass vibrate. There is a tension and diameter difference, but it actually feels nice to have a top string with some girth.
The only minus for me is the tuning stability, even after it has settled down and is fairly stable, with a gut string, in the back of my mind I'm always thinking about the tuning of the G string when performing on stage, whereas with an Evah string or spiro string, tuning stability is something you take for granted.
After spending almost 2 years with Evah regulars, and a few months Evah weichs, I resorted back to playing my dead spiro mittel set with 4 year old Oliv G in recent months.
I wanted to start over sound wise,So I put on a fresh set of s42 mittels as to start from zero again and learn the subleties of my new setup and go from there.
Even though I promised myself to just stay with the mittels for as long as possible, I just couldn't adjust to liking the thin feeling (and sounding on my instrument) mittel G.
Two weeks in, I put on a new Oliv G, after hearing myself on a recording and ,oh man, it was like coming home! There was that fat G string sound again! Great fundamental, deep sound over the entire range of the string, nice initial attack when walking, I can also feel the difference in how it makes the bass vibrate. There is a tension and diameter difference, but it actually feels nice to have a top string with some girth.
The only minus for me is the tuning stability, even after it has settled down and is fairly stable, with a gut string, in the back of my mind I'm always thinking about the tuning of the G string when performing on stage, whereas with an Evah string or spiro string, tuning stability is something you take for granted.
So I've had the Oliv's on for just under 2 weeks. About a week ago I injured myself and haven't been able to play since saturday. I just took a look at my bass and noticed the winding coming undone in 5 places. Thats crazy. I haven't played the strings that much and they are already unwinding. The bass has been in the same room for the past week and hasn't been played, and when I was playing for a few days the bass was not introduced to any temperature changes. Maybe I got faulty strings to I emailed pirastro about it but I'll probably take them off within the next few days.
Just an update. I sent off the Oliv's just before March. I got an email from Pirastro saying they just shipped a new Oliv D/G. Thats great customer service (I think the reason for the amount of time it took was because the strings took a while to get there). I'm diffidently happy with Pirastro as a company. Just hope the Oliv's don't die in the New Orleans summer.
