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Double Bass Velvet strings megathread part II

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#941
TroyK said:
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.
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I installed a set of (slightly 2nd hand; thank heaps again, David! :)) Anima's a couple of days ago & I've been trying them out (actually, I've been doing more re-tuning than playing, but that's settling down now). Wow. Wow. I love these strings. Beautiful amount of thump, tone & sustain. Pretty similar to my Weichs in terms of the things I like, an improvement on all the things I didn't. Was going to go a set of Garbo's to begin with, glad I went for these instead.

I can relate to your comments about overplaying the Weichs; yet I find that with their extra thump, I don't hammer the Anima's as hard to get that leading edge 'bite' and now tend to focus more on my playing and less so on trying the get the sound I want. I haven't tried arco yet, but that'll come shortly.

The only thing I've found is that, due to their coarser texture, the Anima's tend to pull on & tilt the bridge over more than the Weich's ever did... (Yes, I've graphited the bridge slots a-plenty)
 
#947
Hey Troy, I just clicked on your profile and noticed that we had the exact same bass! I was amazed to notice that your bass looks EXACTLY like the one that I had that nobody could tell me what factory it came out of. I never did try animas on it, but like you found that Spiros did the best on it, as it was a pretty dark sounding bass, and the spiros really brought it to life. Regrettably, painfully I had to sell mine to try to survive this recession last year. Ce la vie...
 
#948
TroyK said:
I get night and day more front end bite with spirocores.
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Mittels or Weichs? I tried Mittel's once which were clearly meatier but, other than being pretty tough on my newbie fingers, they choked my bass up something awful. The Weichs, with their lower tension, addressed the choking problem and were preferable to Corelli 370tx's (a little too nasal), but at the cost of thump. I'm assuming it's a very instrument dependent thing, as my teacher uses Mittel's and they sound great with some nice punch; however, his bass is significantly older (1880-ish) and seems to respond to higher tension strings better. It has a fuller, rounder, deeper sound to mine (10 yrs old max).
 
#949
I had the velvet blues on my bass for quite a while and was very happy with them, but when my bass came back after having a bad rib crack repaired, the Blues sounded different--much brighter and more twangy. I've read that it's not uncommon to have a change in tone if the top is removed/glued back, as mine was, and that it would settle in over time. That turned out to be true--the bass got less twangy. But the blues were still sounding different than they used to. I swapped my old spiro weichs back in on the bottom three strings and I'm really happy with that at the moment--weich E, A, and D and Blue G.
 
#950
Ok, still loving my Anima's (although my f/b could do with a shoot to account for some string buzz with the greater amplitude of the strings' vibrations, even with a high-ish action). However, I've noticed that my Anima tailpiece loop cards (the part in between the loop and the section that joins onto the string itself) is narrowing under tension, pretty much in the same way that chewing gum does when you stretch it out of your mouth (see pic (of the strings, that is, not of me chewing gum) ;)).

Part of me thinks this is normal and what should happen to a material under tension. However, I'm also concerned that it's localised to a small distinct section (particularly on the D & G strings), rather than spread out over the available length. This worries me that it's a potential weak spot & may break soon.

Has any one else seen this happen, and is it a problem? Do Anima breakages tend to occur at such narrowed sections?

Thanks!
 

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#954
Been using Animas for about a month now and really like them. Only problem is that as they age, they get looser and are starting to buzz around half position and also around the octave when i'm digging in. This is mostly the A and D strings but the G is starting to do the same thing. Will having my fingerboard planed with a deeper camber solve this? How much camber is necessary for these strings?
 
#955
I guess it's dependent upon your bass' existing setup. My bass, which was set up by Arnold Schnitzer and Wil De Sola, has never really demanded drastic changes, regardless of the strings. I put Animas on right after Spiro Weichs, didn't change anything , and it was fine. Same with the guts I have on there now, though I'll probably jack it up a bit when I get the full gut set going in the fall.

Your luthier can advise you on the proper setup for your bass.
 
#956
Hey Garbo-users,

I've read a lot about these strings and it seems they are the strings that I'm looking for (A and E, and maybe even a full set in the future). I've read they blend great with top gut strings. Right now I have a full set of Chordas Carlos Henriquez, and tbh I like them very much, but they detune very fast. It could be the weather ofc. Yesterday I went to the first rehearsal of my new band. It was very hot in that room and fans were blowing "fresh" air around. Not really ideal circumstances, I know. I had to tune my strings after every song and still they kept going out of tune after playing for a couple of hours... It was almost embarasing.
So my question is, how is the stability of the Garbos? Do they stay in tune better than gut strings? If they do then I'll probably gonna check'm out. If not, then I might as well keep my Chordas on.

Thanks in advance,

Norre
 
#957
They're a lot better in holding tune than wrapped guts and combine very good with high end guts. I use the Garbo E+A together with Gamuts and it works perfectly. Of course, they're somewhat brighter than wrapped guts.
 
#958
They stay in tune just fine. Not quite like an old pair of spiros, but just fine. I recommend the low tension variety of garbos. The regular ones are great, but if your action fluctuates with climate changes and they get out of their sweet spot, they feel stiff. Whereas the low tension ones are a bit more flexible and gut like, to my hands anyway.
 
#959
Hey Norre, there's been a lot of discussion on guts and tuning stability.

I never went full gut, but Gut G and D with A and E spirocores (or some other non gut string) worked really well for me - 90% of the gut sound is in the G and D, and the A and E sounded fine and gave me a tuning reference and not so much pain in the wallet.

I've been trying Garbos on my removable neck bass (a big boomy Cleveland ply), and TBH they're not really sounding good. I much prefer Velvet Blues for a gutlike sound. On the Cleveland the Garbos sound like mud.
 
#960
Thanks for your comments guys.

Of course, they're somewhat brighter than wrapped guts.
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Just exactly how much brighter are they? The reason I prefer gut strings is because they are not bright, so it wouldn't make any sense to blend "bright" strings with the gut strings. However, since everyone is saying Garbos blend well with gut strings I assume they are not *that* bright ... are they?

I recommend the low tension variety of garbos.
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Is there a big difference (in tension) between the light ones and the regular ones? Which ones is closer to the wrapped guts?

I much prefer Velvet Blues for a gutlike sound
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How do Blues compare to Garbos? Tbh, I don't mind a "little" muddines. I don't really like bright strings with a lot of sustain. I might as well take a BG if I wanted that sound :D

Greetz,

Norre
 
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