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Double Bass Velvet strings megathread part II

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#81
Well the D broke overnight. That's the last of the original set that broke. I'm hoping that Velvet will be as understanding as they have been in the past with sending replacements. Hopefully this will be the last of my posts (i suspect that the original set was somehow faulty). Nunu, I've been dealing with these problems through the luthier that sold me the strings, (Tom Barrett) so that's why I havent contacted you!

But for now it's back to playing with a mixed set.:(
 
#82
Conor MacCarthy said:
Well the D broke overnight. That's the last of the original set that broke. I'm hoping that Velvet will be as understanding as they have been in the past with sending replacements. Hopefully this will be the last of my posts (i suspect that the original set was somehow faulty). Nunu, I've been dealing with these problems through the luthier that sold me the strings, (Tom Barrett) so that's why I havent contacted you!

But for now it's back to playing with a mixed set.:(
Click to expand...

Hey Conor
Without seeing the strings is hard to say, but i'll bet that it was something very wrong with your set, probably defective as you say, i will send you a D string today and hopefully things will work out for you, it would be great if you could send me a picture of the damage, thanks .

Nuno
 
#83
Greetings...

I've had some Animas on my bass since January '06 and have enjoyed them quite a bit. They've improved the overall sound
that my instrument puts out and I love the warmth they project.

However, I recently was playing a friend's bass that has steel strings (I think they might be Dominants) and found his instrument to be much easier to bow. So, I thought I'd ask what
people's experiences were when bowing with Animas. I don't have a lot of experience with different strings, so I'd appreciate any feedback. Thanks!
 
#84
My experience was similar to yours... I went back to steel strings after having played Animas for awhile, and it was largely because of my inability to bow them well. I really love the Animas for pizz, but bowing them was just beyond my capabilities. Maybe someone with better arco chops than mine would have a different story.

PS... Dominants are actually a synthetic core string... Thomastik's steel string is the Spirocore. That's what I'm using at the moment.
 
#85
joel said:
I recently was playing a friend's bass that has steel strings (I think they might be Dominants) and found his instrument to be much easier to bow. So, I thought I'd ask what
people's experiences were when bowing with Animas.
Click to expand...
Micheal Jackson said:
PS... Dominants are actually a synthetic core string... Thomastik's steel string is the Spirocore. That's what I'm using at the moment.
Click to expand...
I had Animas on my bass for most of this year. Can't bow them to save my life. Couldn't bow spirocores either. Thomastik Belcanto's on there now and I'm liking them. For bow they are really fabulous. Pitz is nice too. Dominants bow really well and have great pizz as well. Either would be great for double duty. Do some reading through the threads and You'll learn a ton.
 
#86
+1 on the difficulty. Bowing on Anima's was always a challenge. I got used to it being difficult but it never really got to a "pleasant" experience and were always hard to control. Like Phil, I switched to Dominants and arco is wonderful now. :)
 
#88
I've found the animas to be hard to bow, but they got easier as the strings got older. Right now, on a set that's getting close to a year, they are easier to bow than spiros--less scratchy. But they still are kind of dicey to start--the A string especially doesn't want to cooperate. I love the pizz sound and feel though
 
#89
Marcus Johnson said:
Thomastik's steel string is the Spirocore. That's what I'm using at the moment.
Click to expand...

Back to Spirocores from Animas AGAIN, Marcus? Ah, well do I know the pendulum.

I used to think Spirocores were hard to bow; then I played Animas for awhile, and I would have gladly taken an orchestra audition on a brand new set of Spiros over the Animas any day. Then, I played Garbos for awhile, and they made the Animas' arco response seem like that of a well-worn set of Flexocors. Everything, it would seem, is relative.

Now I have Dominants (maybe the best string ever, maybe not) on my main bass and Helicore Orchestra Mediums (not the best string ever) on the other bass (which I need to sell), and I have to say it's pretty nice playing every day on two different sets of strings. I'd take either one to an orchestra gig or a jazz gig. But I digress; we're talking about Animas, which are a damn fine set of strings, and if you can make some adjustments with your bow you can use them in an orchestra with only a little bit of discomfort. (Fancy solo work, now that's another story; but, by the same token, if you just want to bow some long scales and saw through some Simandl every day, the Animas are fine.)
 
#91
+1 for PB+J's comment -- somehow as my animas got older they got easier to bow, especially with the A and E. Things really got nice as the strings had been on there for almost a year. They're still a little scratchy, but livable most of the time, even for amplified arco soloing (eek!).

As I say this though, I'm seriously considering a move to a low tension steel string, like spiro solos, so Animas aren't perfect for me, either.
 
#92
Thanks for the replies, I appreciate all the info. I'm trying to stay with gut strings though, so can you all recommend some good all around gut strings to try. I have plain gut on the G string and Animas on the rest right now.

Are Olivs as difficult to bow?

Johono5 were you saying that Garbos were more appealing to bow, or worse? I wasn't sure.
 
#93
Anyone know if these strings are still in production? Nuno?? There's no mention of the on the velvet site, but they are still for sale on lemur.

If anyone here has used them i'd like to know what you think about:

1) the tension of the strings when playing at orchestra tuning (it's lower, right?) Do you need to adjust the bridge due to the looseness of the strings? (raise action.)

2) If the string sound deteriorates after tuning to solo then back to orchestra (are the strings even designed for this treatment?, or are you supposed to decide on either solo or orchestral tuning and stick with it?)

Thanks!

EDIT: I just found them on the velvet site. Right where they are supposed to be. Duh.
 
#96
The tension of the Compas 180 Suit is 3 kg less than the regular Compas 180, some players who use them , told us that their basses just prefer lower tension strings and that they didnt change nothing at all. same goes for the bass we had here with the Suits, i dindt change the action and they sounded good.
I asked Stephan about often changing from orchestra to solo tuning, and he said that nothing wrong should happen, the strings were made with that purpose in mind and tested for that
thanks

Nuno
 
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