Double Bass Steel/gut combo question

[Aaron Cohn]

Fingers--I'll be interested to hear how you like the Eudoxas after this busy week. I was a Eudoxa loyalist for a few years--they're great-sounding strings. I suspect you'll get used to the difference between them and the lower strings before too long.

A word of advice, though: make sure to keep your old weichs (or other strings) in your bass case. It's one thing to fight through one set with an unraveling string; it's quite another to begin the next with a string that sounds like it has rivets. With luck this'll never happen to you but be prepared.

 

[Marc Piane]

Thanks for the caution Aaron. I do keep an old set of Weichs in my case though since I was using Weichs up until last week I never needed them.

So far I am really happy with the whole set I have on there right now. Stark E, Obligato A, Eudoxa D and G.

The Eudoxas are starting to settle in. I wasn't blown away at first. They had a gut thunk with a really 'glassy' sheen. Didn't like the sheen. Over the past few days they have settled down and are really getting a deep, warm tone. They still seem to have a little bite without the harshness. So far so good.

The other thing I am really digging is the volume. I played a wedding reception sans drummer without an amp and the harder I dug in the louder I got. Now once my callouses catch up I'll be golden.

 

[larry]

The only wound gut I've liked yet was the Olive D/G and they have reliability issues.

Dom A or Spiro Med A I guess.

Lol...you say Olivs have reliability issues and then you suggest Dom???

I've had an Oliv D & G for a while. The G is a few years old, the D is about a year. I'm just thinking about replacing the G. I guess I'm lucky. I've got Superflexibles on the bottom, and they are sounding dead to me. I think I want to try either Starks or at least Orch. to try to extract a little more power. I have them pretty low for gut - around 9mm - and still sound great. I might try raising them up a lot higher just to hear the difference.

Aside from the difference in thickness between the A and D (the Oliv D is about the same as the Superflex A), it's no big deal. Can't beat the sound of gut (even wrapped).

 

[Marc Piane]

After having lived with the current string setup for a couple weeks I am pretty happy. The Obligato A string is not perfect. I think that is the best string in a set of Obligatos but it is a little flabby between the Stark E and the Eudoxa D. I'm going to try a Mittel in a few days and see how that goes. I played my other bass that has Weichs on it and I felt like I was playing toy strings. The volume difference was pretty major too.

My fingers have also caught up. The first few gigs were pretty painful. I actually got a blood blister. Ouch. I cried on the inside but after that initial shock everything was cool. Now I am ready to (in the the immortal words of Marcus Johnson) "invade small countries".

 

[Adrian Cho]

Plus, walking in thumb position is a new experience with gut. Steel kind of craps out in thumb position. The sound thins out a bit. Not with gut. You'll get the same fat tone up top that you get in first position. Walk up the G string and experience the power in thumb position.

One thing to note is that it is the opposite when playing arco. Gut craps out up in the higher register under the bow where steel is fine.

 

[Jason Sypher]

My D is bigger than my A and I have no problem with it. Just give it a little time. BTW I've got spiros on the A and E but the whole chorda E and A thing sounds pretty cool to me as well...

 

[Mark Perna]

I played my other bass that has Weichs on it and I felt like I was playing toy strings. The volume difference was pretty major too.

I started on Mittels and once tried Weichs and that was pretty much how I felt about Weichs too.

 

[Marc Piane]

Just an update if anybody is interested.

I replaced the Obligato A with a used Mittel (about 6-8 mo old). Now I have a Stark E, Mittel A, Eudoxa D and G. I think I found my setup. The sound is HUGE.

I played a gig last night. It hurt again. The Mittel A is considerably stiffer than the Obli but is much more well matched to the strings on either side.

I have run into some of the pitch problems people have talked about with the Eudoxas but I can deal with that if they keep producing the great tone I am getting now.

As long as my hands and arms hold up this will be my setup of choice for a while.

Hopefully the windings on the Eudoxas will last...