Well, maybe I don't want everything, maybe I'm not sure what I need. I'm really listening to bassists like Slam Stewart, Ray Brown, Milt Hinton. Trying to get a good pizz, slap and arco tone on the same bass with the same strings! I've tried plain (if cheap) guts, and there's not enough definition, especially in the E & A...plus them strings are just too freakin' big in diameter. Got some Helicore Orchestrals, great bowing, but not the slap I'd like. Also Innovation Rockabilly strings, which I really like in feel, gauge and tone, except for bowing. So what the heck am I looking for? I'd eat up something like the Innovations if I could get a better arco tone. Or does Innovation make a similar string that bows better?
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Double Bass Trouble is, I want EVERYTHING
- Thread starter Beowulf Kingsle
- Start date
- May 6, 2003
- 5,272
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- Proprietor Fifth Avenue Fret Shop. Technical Editor Bass Gear Magazine
Greg Clinkingbeard
Commercial User
- Mar 11, 2010
- 244
- 18
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- Endorsing Artist: Höfner, Pyramid Strings, Dr. No FX & Asterope cables
- May 6, 2003
- 5,272
- 160
- 64
- Disclosures
- Proprietor Fifth Avenue Fret Shop. Technical Editor Bass Gear Magazine
Synthetic core string, flatwound steel wrap. It has normal steel string gages. Pizz is strong, fat, gut like. Arco is easy and clean, not midrange heavy like gut. It's not a heavy steel string like a spirocore so slapping it won't be to painful.
Like anything it's a compromise for all the things you want a string to do. It's not the best arco string, not the best pizz string, not the best slap string. It's decent at all of them. There is no one perfect string for all styles you are trying to cover. So far the Evah Weich set is the best set of compromises I can think of.
Like anything it's a compromise for all the things you want a string to do. It's not the best arco string, not the best pizz string, not the best slap string. It's decent at all of them. There is no one perfect string for all styles you are trying to cover. So far the Evah Weich set is the best set of compromises I can think of.
Thanks for the info! I may have to give those Evah Weich's a try. If anyone has a connection for them at a good price, please let me know. Or better still, if someone has a used set they'd like to sell, or trade for...I have several sets to trade 
Innovation 140H(honey) is a hybrid string that bows just wonderfully and has a gut like sound. Similar to Dominants, but a bit bigger sounding. I also like the Evah Weichs. Great sounding hybrid strings.
+1 for the Innovations, although I prefer the 140B(raided) D & G; the H's sounded a little plastic-nasal for my bass. Haven't tried the EP Weichs; too damn expensive & rare here in Oz, & they sell too quickly on the Classifieds
Mind you, with the Aussie dollar being what it is at the moment...
EP weichs and Innovation Honey´s are both good choises. But on my bass the best solution is Velvet Anima strings.
With them you can get that old school bow sound you´re looking for and slapping them is easy. The pizz sound is the best combination of old and new sounds in my opinion.
They also amplify better than EP´s and Honeys at least on my basses with Fishman FC and a small mic (DPA and K&K). They´ve also lasted very long for me. What a great strings they are!
With them you can get that old school bow sound you´re looking for and slapping them is easy. The pizz sound is the best combination of old and new sounds in my opinion.
They also amplify better than EP´s and Honeys at least on my basses with Fishman FC and a small mic (DPA and K&K). They´ve also lasted very long for me. What a great strings they are!
