bassman1489 said:
i guess i'm brand new to this thread, but i just ordered a set of compas 180's today (at the recommendation of my teacher), and after reading all these stories of breakages, i'm getting really scared!! should i be expecting a string to break within 10 months? and for those of you who have experienced breakages, have they been the kind that can take an eye out?
please comfort me and tell me that my strings won't break as soon as i put them on...
Just make sure that the metal windings of the string dont go on the tuning machines, on the 180's only the thin ending of the string(red part if im not mistaken since im not seeing the strings) should contact the tuning machines. the 180's are Velvets' thinest strings so, if the metal part of the string will go in the tuning machines, the string can break.
About the life of the strings... we have players who are playing the same strings for years and they are still holding up good. For me its funny because for years i played gut strings only (i still have a plain G on one bass ) and i changed them every year,sometimes twice a year, i just felt that the strings were loosing flexibility, anyway, for me, to change strings once a year was like a ritual. so, if i can get a year or 2 for a set of strings, im a happy man. since i've been working at velvet, i received a couple of strings that broke after 3 or 4 years (i even received one that stephan told me its one of the very 1st ones, more than 5 years old) and owners want a free replacement because they say they are used to play the same strings for 10 years, so everything is relative. my personal opinion is that you should play the strings while they sound good and have the same flexibility, we really dont know how long a Velvet string can hold, but because they are made of natural fibers, they cant last forever, thats logical. We usually give a 12 months warranty on our strings because we think its a reasonable amount of time , but of course, for people who are used to play the same strings for 10 years, maybe its not enough. we had some problems in the past with some strings which come out defective, the production was destroyed but some were sold and are still out there, and those rotten apples not only give us a bad reputation but also make us sad because we know somewhere out there theres still some strings which may have problems, thats why when a breakage occurs, we always ask players for a picture of the damage or the string, that way we can see what happened, anyway, if theres any problem with your strings, you can always contact me at
[email protected].
Thanks in advance
Nuno
