Double Bass The Best Hybrid String is... Drum roll please...

[Marcus Johnson]

The other thing to remember is; nobody in the crowd gives a rat's a$$ what your strings are. Most of them are thinking "Wow, that is a lovely cello".

 

[bassfiddlesteve]

"Wow, that is a lovely cello".

Now that's what I'd call a hybrid string.

- Steve

 

[bassailor]

i'm playing presto jazzicato since last november. Not the loudest string on earth,but they have a rich, fat tone and are surprisingly bow friendly; also the Galli black Nylon deserve a try, more bowables than it seems.

 

[marco zomer]

I will try the Gamut strings very soon.
But untill now I realy love the wound gut of Piratro Eudoxa. They bow very nice, great sound. And they have a good sound for jazz pizz, with enough sustain.
So I would say Eudoxa is a very good hybrid string.
I played Velvet Anima's as well. For jazz i love them even more. They are bowable, i would say very bowable. But the arco sound is not as superb as with the Eudoxa's.
Velvet Compas could also be a good choise. Could be even better than the Evah's. May be i'll try them some time.
Until now Eudoxa for me is The Hybrid String.

Marco

 

[Jimnastix]

Velvet 180s are the best I had so far: section work, solo repertoire, big band and combo were all a pleasure.
evah weichs are what I now have: also great but a bit stiff for my Bohemian 100yo, and my lh down low.
I'll try gamuts next: bowing on gut is gonna make any other string seem easy!
Btw i heard John Moore in Pittsburgh kill spirocores for solo and excerpts. But his bass was as much of a monster as he was ;-)

 

[Marcus Johnson]

I'll try gamuts next: bowing on gut is gonna make any other string seem easy!

Gamuts bow beautifully in my experience.

 

[Eric Hochberg]

Spiro Weichs, Evah Weichs, Compas 180 Suit and Spiro mittle/Obli combo all worked well for me. I'm with Marcus in that I have to sound "appropriate" in a wide variety of musical situations, and I prefer not to have to change strings regularly, but I do when necessary. I would say Spiros are the best all around hybrid string for many styles of music.

I'm getting ready to change out my Velvet Blues now, as bowing them is not a pleasure. What to go with...?

 

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

Gamuts bow beautifully in my experience.

I liked bowing the Gamut D and G. It was a different sound but once I accepted that PC sound they were good.

 

[Mark_T]

Anyone here use Superflexibles?

- Steve

I seem to recall my first teacher once called them "Super-inflexibles", but I thought at the time he was referring to a budget string used by a lot of schools. Perhaps the name has referred to different strings over the years? That was kind of a long time ago - maybe 15 or 20 years.

 

[Marcus Johnson]

PC sound

There's less of that with the Gamut Pistoys, in my experience. Less nasal.

 

[Jeremy Allen]

Gamuts bow beautifully in my experience.

This is another of those exploded myths. You don't have to be a period player to figure out how to bow gut strings. One of the doctoral student whiz kids at IU picked my bass up when I had Gamuts on it and immediately did everything he already could do on steel strings, because his arco technique was strong. And a jazz student of mine managed to get the hang of it in about three months, and there was no scratching/weirdness after that.

I'm currently enjoying going the other way--keeping the gut conception in my head while playing on Spirocores. Of course the sound is not exactly the same, but the vibe is more what I'm going for. I guess for the old guys, every string was a "hybrid" string.

 

[bass81800]

Kind of surprised no one has yet mentioned Corelli 370 F. I have had them on my kind of dark sounding carved bass for well over 6 months. More articulate and brighter piz than the Bel Cantos, and they even seem louder. Good for bowing too. Better for bowing than Weichs, that have been on this bass previously. Corellis seem to be settling in well.