Strings for Upton Hybrid?

Ok, I'll bite. The strings that someone else uses on his/her bass may not be the right string for you at all. String choices take into account playing style, musical style, set-up of the instrument, personal preference, arco/pizz. mix, the bass itself, and many more parameters. Sometimes, broad generalizations can be made in terms of particular strings or string tensions that just don't seem to work well on a particular model of bass. I've heard/played Upton hybrids with all sorts of strings on them.

So, tell us more about where you fit in terms of the parameters I listed. Then, folks here will likely suggest a number of strings to you. You can easily go broke trying them all and there's a 50/50 chance that you'll agree with the judgments of other players. Then you'll wind up with Spirocore Mittels.

Quite seriously, the real answer to your question is, "It depends." So, help us help you.

 

i tried many different strings on my upton hybrid. spiro's, wound guts, obligatoes, evah's. i play bluegrass and country and found the evahs do the best job for my bass and situation. like drurb said you really have to try them to find whats right for your needs and bass. i liked all those strings i listed, they all had there own character and thought all could have been usable but found the evahs fit for me. the spiro weichs were a close second for playability but the evahs had more thump and worked better for bluegrass/country.

i have not tried any string on my hybrid that i thought sucked. and have spent lots of cash going for the holy grail of tone. i have not been playing really long(about 2 years) but the old "the tone is in the hands" thing is so true, especially amplified. i think any string will sound good on that bass its just a matter of preference.

 

I had one of those basses and the RSII pickup for awhile, although mine was a 2006 Romanian design. IMO, there is something wrong with your setup to have an unbalanced sound like that. You might have the soundpost adjusted first. Also, I found that pickup to be finicky regarding fit. I ended up with a Fishman Full Circle and was much happier.


That said, I found Spirocore Mittels on the bottom with Obligatos on top to me the best match for MY bass. Although our basses may have shared some DNA, they are at best, distant cousins. Deal with your bass on its own merits and don't assume too much.

 

I have Evah Pirazzi's on my Upton. Gary suggested those to me because I play a lot of classical and a lot of jazz. I haven't tried anything else on it so far, but they sound fantastic for both. You can pull as hard as you can and no pitch distortion. They respond to the bow very nicely too. They are around 180 though for a set, so they are pricey.

 

On my Lang hybrid, I currently have Orig. Flex G, Permanent D and A, and Helicore orchestra medium on the E.. been doing a lot more classical stuff w/ this bass, but the set up isn't so bad for jazz either (for very straight ahead, I usually consult my Kay: Evah E, Chorda A, Red-O-Ray D, Artone G). Again, this is on my bass... I did the Evah thing for a while, and still have them here at home.

 

i do think that the evahs are a very good starting point.

on my upton hy at the moment i'm running a olive g/d, evah a (best a string in the universe) and a velvet gamba e ... not a 100% in love with the velvet E, although it sounds amazing ... just not quite there with the feel. but the bass really likes it, so it's sticking around for awhile.

like i said, i'd start with the evahs, that really are fabulous strings, and work from there.

jeff.

 

I have one of the newer upton hybrids. i started with obligatos but they didn't have enough thump or volume for me. I now have E,A, and D Spiro Mittels and a Superflex G and I like it much better. These strings really get the top moving whether I'm playing bluegrass, classical, or jazz (not that I am much of a jazz player, but it sound great walking)

just my 2 pennies

 

Same here. I'm a jazz guy at a classical university, so Gary recommended these to me when I ordered my hybrid. They're fantastic for my uses, which are about 70% bowing and 30% pizz, they have a low "rolling" factor, and project really well.