Double Bass Orchestra Bass String Setup Megathread

[Leonidbass]

How would you describe the difference between Belcantos and Passiones?

 

[Freud_Chicken]

How would you describe the difference between Belcantos and Passiones?

They are pretty similar in all aspects. Both bow unbelievably well, passiones feel smoother on the left hand, belcantos are a bit grittier in the sound but very similar. Belcantos are thicker and maybe slightly higher tension. They both have the same issue of the lower two strings being too muddy and loose IME. The belcanto E is more useable. IMO only the top 2 of each set are worth using unless you like a really muddy low end, and the belcantos are better for my money.

 

[the_Ryan]

What strings are comparable to Belcantos? I tried to use Spirocores on my bottoms strings and I stuck out too much. I guess my bass can’t handle bright strings. Besides Belcantos, which do work fine for me, what else is there? I have tried flexocore originals and they didn’t really work out that well. I recently heard good things about the heritage strings, but I haven’t tried them. How are they?

If you want something a little brighter than Belcantos on the bottom and Spiros are too bright maybe Flex Deluxes would be a good fit for your bass. They're not quite as dark as Belcantos/Passiones/Kaplans but they're also not as bright as Permanents or Spirocores.

 

[Yanni_bass]

For my large bass I have an eclectic setup which seems to work for me for the time being:

G: Belcanto
D: Original Flexocor
A: Belcanto
Long E/C: Flexocor (colloquial known as 92s) medium gauge

I will continue to experiment, but this so far works in the section for my bass and playing style pretty well.

 

[Mark_T]

For my large bass I have an eclectic setup which seems to work for me for the time being:

G: Belcanto
D: Original Flexocor
A: Belcanto
Long E/C: Flexocor (colloquial known as 92s) medium gauge

I will continue to experiment, but this so far works in the section for my bass and playing style pretty well.

Interesting. Of the Bel Cantos, my least favorite string is the A. I'm currently running BCs straight across, though.

 

[Sam Dingle]

I’m gonna start offering a service where if you buy a set of spiros, I’ll beat the hell out of them for 3 years and send em back to ya when they’re nice and broken in.

 

[Yanni_bass]

Interesting. Of the Bel Cantos, my least favorite string is the A. I'm currently running BCs straight across, though.

Yea so far this has been the best setup. The Belcanto A has a good combination of clarity, beefy-ness and resonance/cushion on my bigger bass. The Original Flexocor A has a lot of cushion and resonance, but it's darker which makes it sound slightly covered (though it is loud) on my bass. It's also a thicker and stiffer string which doesn't quite match the other strings. It is a nice string though for sure. The Original Flex G is too bright and thin for my taste.

The Belcanto extension string sounds nice and rich, but ends up feeling stiffer than what I'd like.

 

[Lee Moses]

For my large bass I have an eclectic setup which seems to work for me for the time being:

G: Belcanto
D: Original Flexocor
A: Belcanto
Long E/C: Flexocor (colloquial known as 92s) medium gauge

I will continue to experiment, but this so far works in the section for my bass and playing style pretty well.

That's kind of odd (to me, anyway) that you have Belcantos on the G and A, while skipping it on the D. Is there something about the Belcanto D in particular that you don't like?

 

[Mark_T]

27497477[/URL], member: 240901"]That's kind of odd (to me, anyway) that you have Belcantos on the G and A, while skipping it on the D. Is there something about the Belcanto D in particular that you don't like?

Yeah the D and G are pretty nice sounding and offer superlative playability. My favorite sounding D and G are Original Flatchromes but they’re not that much better sounding than BCs but slightly harder to play. To my ear the OFCs are sweeter and the BCs are a bit “grunty”.

 

[Yanni_bass]

That's kind of odd (to me, anyway) that you have Belcantos on the G and A, while skipping it on the D. Is there something about the Belcanto D in particular that you don't like?

Yes the Belcanto D on this particular bass was a little bright (which I haven't experienced on other instruments). The Original Flex D actually matched better, responds well and sounds quite nice.

I agree though that Belcanto D is generally very nice. My smaller bass has Belcantos G D & A with a Spiro Weich Long E