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Double Bass plywood bass string choises

korotkov

korotkov

May 19, 2010
265
68
37
St. Petersburg, Russia
#1
hey all,

I've recently acquired a plywood copy of my carved czech bass. It looks and feels pretty much the same as the old one, and its very durable, but the tone is completely different. It's got some metal strings on that I could not identify but they look pretty old school and feel very stiff, so is the sound. I want it to be more open and a bit louder, i guess

I've got Obligatos on my carved bass with a very nice tone. I was thinking of putting the same strings on a plywood bass but i'm not sure if it's gonna suit it fine. The low tension might not work with the plywood resulting in a thin and quiet sound, am I right?

I also have a set of wrapped gut strings of unknown origin that i never used. should I try 'em on a carved bass and move obligatos to the plywood? try 'em on a plywood bass no matter what tension they produce? go with spirocore\something else?

many thanks,

- Alex
 
#2
Gut on a ply bass can be nice. Spiros can be good too if you like Spiros. My opinion on the Oblis is that they lack power, and moving them from one bass to another is believed to shorten their already brief lifespan.

Whether or not a light tension string will work seems to depend on how sturdily the bass is built.

Regarding the strings on there at the moment, post photos of the silks or describe their coloring and maybe somebody will know what they are.
 
#5
Yeah obligatos lack some power and it's pretty hard to play unamplified sometimes. I play outdoors a lot and sometimes I feel that I need a bit more volume with say three saxophones and a drummer or trumpet and guitar setup

I bought them couple of years ago and they start unwinding here and there but the tone still remains. They lack some power and clarity to me but by far there are the only strings that provide the character I desire.
 
#7
From what I'm reading, it sounds like you'd really dig gut strings, or, as a more stable alternative in cold weather, Velvet Animas. There's a lot of discussion going on about these strings in this subforum right now, so if you look around there should be a lot of good info to help make a decision.

greetings from Canada,

eerbrev
 
#9
iiipopes

nah thanks, I'm just not the TI type. I was thinking of getting bel canto solo set but now i know that wouldnt happen before I try gut strings

eerbrew

well I like Mingus sound very much, I also dig Ray Brown and Milt Hinton etc. I have to play with the bow great lots also cause i study in college here in st petersburg and I was thinking of having one of my basses (carved probably) strung with Corelli solo set. Anyways I would love to have both basses bowable for orchestra work, not just the ocasional "jazz bowing" like the velvet website says haha.

I'm also very much worried about the strings stability cause the weather here is very unpredictable. Do you think Animas and Blues are equal in that? both seem synthetic or how you call it. I'm also very interested in gut twin and gut twin '47 by cordes Lambert. they look great and sound pretty old school (maybe too old school to me)

im gonna probably restring my ply bass with one of these and leave obligatos on a carved one since you say it helps them last a bit longer, then see what happens. have to chose one set for the ply one now haha ))
 
#10
Wound guts do move around. It's not a bad idea to define them a full step when you're done playing. My Animas move a lot too. Maybe the silk core is the reason.

Lamberts are very similar to guts. I see no reason to spend money duplicating something you already have.
 
#16
I love the Eudoxa's but they are too expensive for my needs. I just picked up some Evah Perr. Weich's a and ext. E and I love them on my carved bass. Sounds like you don't want the Spiro's brass twang but the sustain. EP's have it but they are a bit mellow bowed. (Tension I thinks)
 
#17
Hey hollandsss,

Got EP solos on my carved bass for several weeks and looks like they're gonna stay. I dig the tone of EPs as well as playability. Killer pizz tone even tuned while step down to orchestral tuning. as for bowing them I must say it sounds pretty different from what I'm used to hear from a solo bass here in St Petersburg ( most of them strung w/spiros) and I'm really happy with the tone I'm getting. I even start thinking solo tuning is not that bad))

I've tried Corelli 370f solos on my friend's hybrid recently. Great strings also, nice pizz tone and very easy to bow, but they're so unbelievably thin and low tension (the bass is somewhat short scale maybe that's the reason) and the sound is too metallic modern to my taste

I'm gonna get myself a set of garbos gut or animas if I don't like the twins '47 for the ply bass to try some more, but honestly if I were limited to one set I would go with EPs no doubt
 
#18
korotkov said:
I've tried Corelli 370f solos on my friend's hybrid recently. Great strings also, nice pizz tone and very easy to bow, but they're so unbelievably thin and low tension (the bass is somewhat short scale maybe that's the reason) and the sound is too metallic modern to my taste
Click to expand...

I am surprised that you found a 370F solo gauge. From what I can see, the Corelli string for solo tuning is 360 -- 360M, 360TX -- and the 370 series is meant for orchestral tuning -- 370M, 370F, 370TX. Don't know how the 360s tuned down to normal pitch would relate to the 370s -- the 370 series are already light tension.
 

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