- May 6, 2003
- 5,272
- 160
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- Disclosures
- Proprietor Fifth Avenue Fret Shop. Technical Editor Bass Gear Magazine
Played tonight's gig on the Animas. Last nights gig got canceled as well as tomorrows. Yikes what is that. No economic recovery here in the land of cows.
These are really GREAT strings. I think I like them as much as if not better than the Dominants. The Animas are very rich. Fat but still defined. Lots of air and wood in that sound. The front end of the note is diffuse compared to spiros or dominants but the big fat note that comes after is sweet enough not to matter. Plenty of note length. Still plenty of midrange cut. No synthetic sound like the dominants get, not buzzy and zingy like a spiro. I had to raise the string height again. I'm not sure what it is now I'll need to measure later.
They really sound like a modern Jazz bass should sound. Even plugged in without the mic. Easy to swing hard on. Can't pound on them like the dominants, they just absorb the hard hit and get spongy. If I stay light they seem to really bounce. I can see how they aren't for everyone and yet others won't use anything else. They are really old school and yet very modern. Weird. The Cleveland is a really balanced bass across the range and with really balanced strings it's a better bass than I have the facility to play.
Nice problem to have.
In the room I was playing tonight the middle range and Thumb portions of the bass didn't have quite as much energy as when I had dominants on the bass. May need a bit more string height and get a bit more tension on that I'm not sure. Perhaps I need to hit it a bit harder up there. I don't spend much time there anyhow so I'm not the best judge of that. Kind of a bassy room anyhow so I suspect that may be different elsewhere.
The light tension is really nice. My hands didn't get tired as much. I ran out of gas a bit on a couple really fast swing tunes walking through I don't know how many times around. When you dig in they seem to absorb some of that energy rather than give up more sound. I need to learn how to pace myself on them.
They are just breaking in too. All that could change.
Bandmates liked them. Said they sounded like a bass rather than a big synth or an EB. They liked how I swung with them compared to other gigs with other strings.
I double on this gig as I have yet to figure out how to get through some stupid Return to Forever and Hancock stuff without the electric bass. It's pretty weird to want to put down a '69 Jazz to get back to the DB cause it's so sweet.
Nice. More later.
These are really GREAT strings. I think I like them as much as if not better than the Dominants. The Animas are very rich. Fat but still defined. Lots of air and wood in that sound. The front end of the note is diffuse compared to spiros or dominants but the big fat note that comes after is sweet enough not to matter. Plenty of note length. Still plenty of midrange cut. No synthetic sound like the dominants get, not buzzy and zingy like a spiro. I had to raise the string height again. I'm not sure what it is now I'll need to measure later.
They really sound like a modern Jazz bass should sound. Even plugged in without the mic. Easy to swing hard on. Can't pound on them like the dominants, they just absorb the hard hit and get spongy. If I stay light they seem to really bounce. I can see how they aren't for everyone and yet others won't use anything else. They are really old school and yet very modern. Weird. The Cleveland is a really balanced bass across the range and with really balanced strings it's a better bass than I have the facility to play.
Nice problem to have.
In the room I was playing tonight the middle range and Thumb portions of the bass didn't have quite as much energy as when I had dominants on the bass. May need a bit more string height and get a bit more tension on that I'm not sure. Perhaps I need to hit it a bit harder up there. I don't spend much time there anyhow so I'm not the best judge of that. Kind of a bassy room anyhow so I suspect that may be different elsewhere.
The light tension is really nice. My hands didn't get tired as much. I ran out of gas a bit on a couple really fast swing tunes walking through I don't know how many times around. When you dig in they seem to absorb some of that energy rather than give up more sound. I need to learn how to pace myself on them.
They are just breaking in too. All that could change.
Bandmates liked them. Said they sounded like a bass rather than a big synth or an EB. They liked how I swung with them compared to other gigs with other strings.
I double on this gig as I have yet to figure out how to get through some stupid Return to Forever and Hancock stuff without the electric bass. It's pretty weird to want to put down a '69 Jazz to get back to the DB cause it's so sweet.
Nice. More later.
Everything you've said about the Animas is just what I'd hope you'd say. It looks like it won't be long before I'm posting my impressions as well. 
Watch it, buddy!
. Anyway, i can really see why these strings are Velvet best sellers at the moment, i guess they apeall to both gut and metal players. I also told him that some people complain about the fact that the Velvet site is not very informative and theres not really nobody to answer technical questions about the strings. I can tell you that in a near future things will change and there will be more client support, anyway, its always a pleasure to visit him and the factory, and see the strings beeing made, hes a great guy and he even installed for free on my 1890 flatback a velvet tailpiece cord, which was the main reason i went there... Needless to say, i dont work for Velvet or am affiliated in any way with them, i just wanted to post some impressions about my visit there.
