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Double Bass Velvet strings megathread part II

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#921
Arco was really troublesome but not impossible. When they and or I got heated up they got way to sticky and I slowed down to much, fell out of the pocket. I got covered with stinky green funk after each gig.

I'd rather play with Guts or Spiros.
 
#922
johnz said:
I suspect you'll have some fun with them for a while.
Click to expand...

This is probably my most reasonable expectation. I tend to overplay Spirocore weichs in the heat of the moment, but I have a shoulder problem that show's itself every time I go up in tension. (I've worked with a few teachers and doctors on it)

So, I'm sure I'll overplay Animas too, but maybe they'll be different enough, that it will force me to adjust my technique. I saw Ray Brown play the crap out of weichs twice, so I know it's not the strings fault. Rufus Reid plays Animas with abandon, so there's got to be an adjustment to make.

There may be a technical problem/fix to my issues with more tension too, but I'll be damned if I know how to find it.

I'll give arco my best shot, it's not my bread a butter, but I do care something about it.
 
#923
Excellent attitude!

Please don't let my remarks about arco on these strings discourage you. The arco's been a bit of work for me - in a good way. Because I need lots of work on arco YMMV.

For what it's worth, I tend to take any self deprecating remarks by Marcus with a shovel full of salt. My spies and minions tell me he's one heck of a player (and really nice to work with as well). I'm sure his idea of "decent arco" is a whole other world from mine.

Anima's can be really fun. Hey, the arco's even great - when it happens ;)
 
#924
Well, thanks for that , John... I didn't know you had spies this far out west! :D

But that Anima G really did give me fits when I tried to bow it. I just had a hard time zeroing in on the pitches, and my cats hated my arco practice sessions. :rollno: In comparison, the Gamut guts are MUCH easier for me with the bow. But I remember Ed Fuqua mentioning that someone played his bass with the bow, and it was happening. So I have to feel that it was at least partly "operator error". I'll bet Michael Moore or John Goldsby could make 'em sing.

Other than that, I really enjoyed the Animas, and they sounded huge on my bass. I didn't even mind the black residue on my fingertips.... the "Velvet Badge Of Honor".
 
#925
Had an unexpected chance to try some Animas in what turned out to be a shining example of Velvet's customer service courtesy of Nuno. I had purchased a Low B from them direct, and at the time I thought the amount had processed my account, but in actuality that actually happened two months later when my account was too low to cover it. When I told Nuno about it, he immediately offered to send me a FREE set of Animas for my troubles. NOT expecting that at all.

I had been using Garbos before, and have to say that the extra bit of clarity and ease of playability of the smaller-diameter Animas is just THAT much better sounding on the bandstand, IMO of course. Plus I literally put them tonight before a gig, stretched and re-tuned them during about 3 hours worth of practicing, and had ZERO tuning issues the whole night. I should also say that their B string, though pricey, is HUGE sounding.
 
#927
I've been using Velvets for little over 2 years now. First Animas, then anima E and A with garbo D and G. The Animas were hard to bow, but with some work they would submit. The garbos dont really bow, but slaughter pizz in a merciless fashion. I do believe I will return to an entire Anima set. I find Velvets to be just way more fun than steel and cheaper/less moody than gut.
 
#928
So, I'm a few weeks into a set of well used Animas and I gotta say that I love the right hand experience. I have noticed that in my years of playing with spirocores, I had gotten away from using the side of my pizz finger the way that i liked in favor of using finger tips more. Not a concious decision, but also one I had trouble correcting. With the Animas, I went back to the old technique and I feel at home. Left hand is pretty comfortable too and I need more time with them to see how I adjust over all.

The tension is nice, not as floppy as I was afraid they might be. Sound is pretty good, but not great. These strings are pretty old and it's tough to know how much of a factor that is. I think the tuning is finally stablizing.

The volume out of my bass dropped way off, which surprised me. My strings are I think a good height but I've moved them up and down a bit and can't find a sweeter spot. Interested to know what you users think about that? How much of that is typical vs maybe a product of age of the strings?

Troy
 
#929
Maybe they're just tired out? Or maybe your bass just prefers more tension in order to get it to speak? I dunno, mine were always LOUD on my bass, but now that I think of it, they weren't much of anything when we tried my set of Animas out on a student's Eberle ply bass. They do take time to settle in as I recall, more than some other string choices.
 
#931
I thought they sucked the life out of my bass when I tried them on the Queen. I've enjoyed them on the Cleveland but in the heat of the summer they were intolerable to me.
 
#932
They didn't work out too well on my Hofner. Pretty lifeless sounding. However I have had basses where they were just terrific on. Phil do you still have Evah Weichs on the Cleveland? I'm thinking of throwing a set on my ply...
 
#933
So, played a few gigs with them and they are off. I liked the gauge and the tension. I've heard them sound good on other basses and they didn't sound bad on mine, but volume was way down and there wasn't a lot of character. The strings were used, so maybe they had lost something, but most likely they just weren't what I was listening for. I could see trying again some day. I didn't adjust the soundpost or swap endpins or any of the things that might have helped. I just ran back to Spirocores because I have some things coming up that I didn't want to be worrying about.

One of them was today and boy, is it good to be home. My bass is loud and has bite and snark and richness again. I need to stop fooling around.

But, props to Velvet. I think it's one of the few unique products on the string market. Everything else really falls into one of a few categories.
 
#935
Oh I know, believe me, I know. But I'm getting MUCH better. I had the same set of Spirocore Weichs on there for about a year and half. I got a newer set of Weichs through the classifieds and thought I would replace them, but tried a few things first. I did and then I ran home. I'm healing.

I really don't like the thin gauge on the weichs, which is one of the reason I keep trying other things, but I like everything else about them, so I may just have to deal with it.

The Animas were nice and interesting. If I was committed I could probably make them work, but I'm not. I've got some work coming up that I want to be my best for and just need my old friend for that.
 
#936
I hear you Troy.

I get to see quite a few basses wearing different strings and setups. Sometimes I get to change their strings and their setups too and as much as I dig Velvet Animas and Thomastik SuperFlexes and Innovation Honeys and Super Silvers, Spirocore Weichs are remarkable for their constancy. I have yet to find a bass that doesn't sound good wearing a set of Weichs...

When well broken in they can have a thickness and a singing tone too.

And that's not all! They are very solid arco strings too, especially with Nyman's rosin - I suck with the bow, but I have clients that can make beautiful bowed sounds on Weichs.
 
#937
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