Double Bass Soft.

[FatAndy]

I apologize if this has been covered a hundred times, but just wanted to ask what steel strings will be soft under my hands on my cheap 3/4 acoustic upright. Would Helicore Pizzicatos be good?

I am more interested in comfort than tone at the moment.

Cheers.

 

[shwashwa]

they will be soft if you get the light gauge. corelli 370 forte's are pretty soft. corelli 370 mediums are really really soft

 

[Bobby King]

Spirocore Solo Gauge tuned to regular pitch.

 

[jmmcc]

Any Velvet set will do it for you...

 

[GrowlerBox]

Any Velvet set will do it for you...

Might be worth more than the bass, though. I can vouch for the softness of Corellis (and they're inexpensive), but not for the tone, on my bass, my playing, etc. Couldn't be happier since switching to Evah weichs -- not as soft, but don't have to play as "hard" to get better volume, and they have a smoother finish (the relative roughness of which somewhat detracts from the "softness" of the Corellis, in my view).

Lots and lots of reviews of each company's strings here, from infinitely more experienced players than I.

 

[nicechuck]

Personally I like the Corelli 380M's on my ply bass, I use a Prelude E string tho. Not sayin they'll sound good on yours but they do on mine and play really well, low tension. Just my personal opinion.

 

[donn]

Might be worth more than the bass, though. I can vouch for the softness of Corellis (and they're inexpensive), but not for the tone, on my bass, my playing, etc. Couldn't be happier since switching to Evah weichs -- not as soft, but don't have to play as "hard" to get better volume, and they have a smoother finish (the relative roughness of which somewhat detracts from the "softness" of the Corellis, in my view).

There may be a couple of factors that make for a soft string. I bought my Velvet Compás Blues (maybe cheaper than your Evahs, incidentally) for their low tension. More for the sake of my bass than my hands, but that's the softness factor you can check the numbers on (for some strings, not including Pirazzi so much when I was looking.) When I talked to the guys at the luthier, they were about Obligato and Superflexible, whose tension figures are not all that low but may feel on the soft side anyway - like there might be an elasticity parameter that's separate from tension?

 

[FatAndy]

Thanks to everyone again...certainly got a bit to chew on now. I use a Schaller magnetic PUP on my bass, so I can get away with ordinary strings more than most players with superb gear

 

[PRUNEFACE]

I apologize if this has been covered a hundred times, but just wanted to ask what steel strings will be soft under my hands on my cheap 3/4 acoustic upright. Would Helicore Pizzicatos be good?

I am more interested in comfort than tone at the moment.

Cheers.

Helicores no es bueno.

 

[Francois Blais]

Helicores no es bueno.

Care to elaborate a bit?

 

[FatAndy]

Care to elaborate a bit?

I have been quite happy with Helicore hybrids in the past.

 

[swingingoodtime]

I've not tried any of the lighter gauge Helicore strings, but I wouldn't call their medium gauge strings 'soft' by any means (although I’ve not tried the Pizz’s, but have used the Orchestral & Hybrid mediums). Having said that, it may vary from bass to bass; I have a theory that the newer the wood in a bass, the lower the string tension it needs to react (due to the presence of natural 'springiness' still in the wood fibres) whereas older basses need heavier gauge & tension strings to impart more energy to get the older, less-springy wood singing. Similarly, different basses can choke up under different levels of tension, so you may find a string feels ‘harder’ on one bass than another because you’re working harder to get it to speak. On my (10 yo) bass, Spiro Mittels or Helicore Orchestrals or Hybrids are incredibly hard work, whereas on my teacher’s 1880's 4/4 bass, they’re surprisingly easy to play to get things moving.

If you’re willing to ditch the magnetic pickup, guts are an option. Otherwise, the recommendations made above are all good but +1 on volume being possibly adversely affected by very light strings. Unfortunately it will ultimately come down to trying them on your ax to really know…

 

[FatAndy]

Finding the right strings could be very expensive, if you did it by experimentation

 

[swingingoodtime]

Finding the right strings could be very expensive, if you did it by experimentation

+1, But that's an inescapable truth; recommendations will only cover so much and won't say how your bass (or you, for that matter) reacts to the strings. Unless you don't care about what strings you play or you're really lucky and get it right first time, you're probably looking at a number of experiments to hone in towards what works best; having said that, (i) if you know what it is that is 'right', you probably *have* been through a number of experiments to begin with & (ii) that's what the TB Classifieds are for... : )

 

[moles]

Are you playing much arco on this instrument? If not I'd consider a set of Presto/Eurosonic Lights. Otherwise, add my +1 for Spiro weichs or solos...

 

[iiipopes]

+2. I use a set of used Spiro Weich 4/4 S42's on a 3/4 CCB, which I got for about half of new cost through the for sale section of this forum. Since I do EB gigs as well, with Fender 9050CL's on my plank, they are a good fit for me, and easy to transition.

But more importantly than strings, getting the bass set up with the proper low nut, proper "scoop" in the fingerboard, and proper bridge setup does as much to make a bass more playable than the strings do. I did my own, and it took a significant number of hours over the course of a couple months as I did it a little at a time until it hit its noticable "sweet" spot.