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String ID. Does any body recognise these strings?

Discussion in 'Strings [DB]' started by martin durkin, Jul 16, 2013.

  1. Jul 16, 2013 #1
    martin durkin

    martin durkin

    Jan 7, 2013
    North West England
    Hi. I recently bought these secondhand, but the winding has a slight break where it crosses the bridge so they're done for, and there is the metallic buzz when bowed etc! But they sound deep and dark and almost gut like. They are medium to low tension and off the bass do not feel like they have a steel core. They're really flexible. I did a search but that came up as chromecor for the E which has green winding both ends, and sensicore on the A which is blue both ends. But they are the same type of string. The ball end is brass and numbered 3 and 4, for the A and E respectively. I'd like to know what these are because despite the winding issue, the strings sound far better than my helicore heavy orchestrals, and bow much easier. ImageUploadedByTalkBass1374009645.448730.jpg ImageUploadedByTalkBass1374009662.255087.jpg
     
  2. Jul 16, 2013 #2
    KUNGfuSHERIFF

    KUNGfuSHERIFF

    Feb 8, 2002
    Upstate NY
    Chromcor have a solid steel core, and in your photo you can see the core is braided as it loops around the ball ends.

    They look like cheap Chinese shipping strings to me.
     
  3. Jul 17, 2013 #3
    DoubleMIDI

    DoubleMIDI

    Feb 28, 2010
    Germany, Nordrhein-Westfalen
    It is neither Chromcor nor Sensicore (which have a white synthetic braided core).

    Could be either italian Galli double bass strings (I never had them and cannot remember the silk colours, but they make rope core double bass strings) or chinese strings (which is much more probable). Manufacturing quality looks more like chinese strings. They often have a lower tension. The only chinese rope core strings I know try to mimic Spiros, having red silk on both ends.

    If the winding broke in the afterlength or in the peg box, you might get some shrink tube from an electronic parts store (get a diameter that is slightly greater than the biggest string diameter (usually on the pegbox silk) cut it to length (a few millimeter more on both ends than the loose winding) put it over the area and heat it with a lighter. It will shrink and the windings won't loose any more. If it's on the bridge or nut or in between, this won't help, of course.

    If you like lighter rope core steel strings, try either Spirocore Solo 3/4 downtuned to orchestra tuning, Spirocore 4/4 Solo (downtuned too, has even less tension), SuperSensitive Pinnacle or Presto Balance Hybrid Light or Orchestra Light (availabe from Jonas Lohse in Germany). For really low tension Presto Balance Orchestra Solo downtuned to orchestra tuning.
    The Prestos are very bowable, even the Hybrid version, and sound very nice.
    The Pinnacle is a light string that is a bit brighter but not as bright as normal Spiros.
    The SuperSensitive Supreme is no longer manufactured, but it might have been nice for you.
     
  4. Jul 17, 2013 #4
    martin durkin

    martin durkin

    Jan 7, 2013
    North West England
    Thanks kingfu/double midi. The strings do look a bit cheap, esp with the cheapish looking windings and ball ends with numbers stamped onto them in a somewhat patronising way! They do however sound really good, and I am going to put some shrink wrap on them for that reason, despite their probable heratige! Thanks for the suggested string advice. I've never heard of many of these! Due to what I've read on this site I was looking to upgrade to Animas or Obligato's, possibly with quality guts on D and G, but at the moment this is way out of my budget. That's why I picked up these strings, to try to get a feel of different strings. But I don't like overly soft strings. I've tried spiros and they're ok, but I wouldn't class them as an upgrade from what I've already got! Helicore are good for training you for accurate bow placement/speed/pressure etc., which is useful for the transition to gut, as they're unforgiving. ( I played violin for 12 years). I like the reedy sound of gut like strings, eg Paul Chambers, where the bass takes on an almost baritone sax sound! I think I'll need to realise that my 3/4 has a string length of 103cm which considerably drops the tension of my helicore orchestral heavy tension.
    eg
    106/103=0.97
    Gives me tensions of
    G 62.1, D 66.3, A 70.8, E 72.5
    Which are very similar to medium spirocores! So I'll have to consider this before any purchase!
     

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  5. Jul 17, 2013 #5
    DoubleMIDI

    DoubleMIDI

    Feb 28, 2010
    Germany, Nordrhein-Westfalen
    Since you are in the UK, you might want to try Innovation Braided (140B-set, nice bowing for orchestra and soft nice slightly modern sounding jazz pizz) or Honeys (140B, bowable but not as nice as the Braided, huge pizz attack with a medium dark sound, rather old school).
    In the UK you can get them really cheap. Worth a try, at least the Braided.

    The Braided has a bit less tension than the Honeys and the Honeys approximately the tension of Spiro Weich 3/4, maybe a little bit less.
     
  6. Jul 17, 2013 #6
    martin durkin

    martin durkin

    Jan 7, 2013
    North West England
    Thanks doublemidi I'll read up on these and see if I can see/hear some video footage. Need to pay for a blown head gasket this month so I've time for some research!