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Double Bass Zyex, Obligato, or Spiro?
- Thread starter FritzM
- Start date
Easier than Spiro Mittel.
I thought you have ruled them out, but I mixed things up and they are an option. But they are brighter than Spiros.
When I got my bass new it came with Spiro Mittel 4/4. I needed about a year with the bow (one orchestra rehearsal per week) until they bowed well. I was told they get there much quicker now, but you might have one of the older sets.
The Presto Balance hybrid are so much easy to bow that some players don't want them because they need something to work at with the bow. Sound is closer to Spiros than Helicore Hybrid.
I am waiting on new bow re-hair before coming to any conclusions on my strings. I am going to try black hair for the first time. I am also going to try some Oak rosin. I have had some things change on my bass lately.
My bass is dark, so I put on a Marvin tailpiece and it has brightened up a bit. So before I did this, this was my experience as I remember. I do realize that all of this is bass specific. I am looking in to DoubleMIDI's string recommendations. The Presto Balance hybrid sound interesting.
1. Spirocore Mittle 4/4 - Awesome pizz, nice volume, arco tone is a little harsh, but nice. E and A string are hard to start with bow (compared to other strings.)
2. Spirocore Weich 4/4 - Very quiet for some reason, E string was lost with the group. Bowing seemed no better than Mittles, to me.
3. Spirocore Solo (tuned down) - Great for Arco, not so great for pizz. No growl and little sustain.
4. Zyex Medium - Actually pretty good for everything. The A string had issues at first, and the E string did not growl.
5. Helicore Hybrid Medium - it has been a long time, but I remember liking them pretty good. Seems like the E string was weak sounding.
6. Eva Weichs - I tried these on my previous ply Shen, and do remember having little sustain in TP and being quite dark.
This is all of the history I have with my current bass. I teach at a local college and have 3 student basses I can experiment with. But, I believe it really depends on your particular bass and the sound you are trying to achieve. I play with a fairly low string height, so maybe certain strings would be more suitable for this kind of setup.
Based on my string comments above, maybe someone could advise me better, before I start shelling out more money.
Thank you so much for being awesome bass brothers
My bass is dark, so I put on a Marvin tailpiece and it has brightened up a bit. So before I did this, this was my experience as I remember. I do realize that all of this is bass specific. I am looking in to DoubleMIDI's string recommendations. The Presto Balance hybrid sound interesting.
1. Spirocore Mittle 4/4 - Awesome pizz, nice volume, arco tone is a little harsh, but nice. E and A string are hard to start with bow (compared to other strings.)
2. Spirocore Weich 4/4 - Very quiet for some reason, E string was lost with the group. Bowing seemed no better than Mittles, to me.
3. Spirocore Solo (tuned down) - Great for Arco, not so great for pizz. No growl and little sustain.
4. Zyex Medium - Actually pretty good for everything. The A string had issues at first, and the E string did not growl.
5. Helicore Hybrid Medium - it has been a long time, but I remember liking them pretty good. Seems like the E string was weak sounding.
6. Eva Weichs - I tried these on my previous ply Shen, and do remember having little sustain in TP and being quite dark.
This is all of the history I have with my current bass. I teach at a local college and have 3 student basses I can experiment with. But, I believe it really depends on your particular bass and the sound you are trying to achieve. I play with a fairly low string height, so maybe certain strings would be more suitable for this kind of setup.
Based on my string comments above, maybe someone could advise me better, before I start shelling out more money.
Thank you so much for being awesome bass brothers
If the Evah Weich are too dark for you, the only synthetic core that might work for you are Dominants.
With Spiro Mittel 4/4 you need to bow the hell out of the lower strings until they get more flexible, then you never give these strings away until they break or get out of tune. The problem is stiffness of the strings because the windings are so dense that they make the string stiff. By bowing them really loud, long and on at least every pitch up to the fifth, you can compress the windings a bit which makes the string more flexible. But that takes a lot of time. With synthetic core strings I bend stiff strings over my thumb (not pleasant after an hour that it takes for each string) until they got evenly more flexible. I never tried that with steel core strings.
Or go the easy way look for Spiros that are at least two years old in the classifieds. Worth the money!
The Presto a Balance Hybrids are flexible out of the box.
The E of the Spiro Weich 4/4 is a bit weak.
There are just a few strings that growl like Spiro Mittel. So be prepared to have less growl with other strings.
Helicore a Hybrid Light or Medium might be an option.
I don't think you would like the Innovation Braided if you disliked the Evah Weich.
With Spiro Mittel 4/4 you need to bow the hell out of the lower strings until they get more flexible, then you never give these strings away until they break or get out of tune. The problem is stiffness of the strings because the windings are so dense that they make the string stiff. By bowing them really loud, long and on at least every pitch up to the fifth, you can compress the windings a bit which makes the string more flexible. But that takes a lot of time. With synthetic core strings I bend stiff strings over my thumb (not pleasant after an hour that it takes for each string) until they got evenly more flexible. I never tried that with steel core strings.
Or go the easy way look for Spiros that are at least two years old in the classifieds. Worth the money!
The Presto a Balance Hybrids are flexible out of the box.
The E of the Spiro Weich 4/4 is a bit weak.
There are just a few strings that growl like Spiro Mittel. So be prepared to have less growl with other strings.
Helicore a Hybrid Light or Medium might be an option.
I don't think you would like the Innovation Braided if you disliked the Evah Weich.
I think that's a great combination also, and it's what I have on my 7/8 carved bass.
Here is a clip of a new set of D'addario Helicore Hybrid Lights on my Shen SB80 Plywood bass. The bass has never sounded better. My luthier adjusted my soundpost and suggested a lighter gauge string might be better for it that the Spiro Mittels I had on before:
And here is a clip of my carved bass with Helicore Hybrid Light E and A and Zyex Medium D and G. The bass really seems to like these strings.
Great playing Rick. Both basses sound great! Which do you prefer? A mixed set or the full set of hybrids?
I'm currently using the Zyex lights and they are working great. I do fancy trying the hybrid lights again though.
I'm currently using the Zyex lights and they are working great. I do fancy trying the hybrid lights again though.
And here is an audio clip of the Shen SB80 with a full new set of D'addario Helicore Hybrid Lights. This probably sounds a bit better than the video clips above as the mic was closer to the bass - maybe 3 feet away from the bridge.
Very easy on the hands and the bass really likes them.
Very easy on the hands and the bass really likes them.
Hi Geoff, I really can't say which I prefer. I had wanted to try the Zyex after reading good things about them. I only replaced the D and G because I felt those were getting a bit tired (the old HH Lights). They ended up blending so well with the HHL E and A which were still sounding good that I decided to leave them as a mixed set.
I would probably discern a greater difference I played more arco, but what you saw on the demo is about the only arco I have played since 'retiring' from the community orchestra after last year.
The big surprise for me was how much my plywood bass came alive with the soundpost adjustment and the lighter tension strings. If I can get my little glitch out of the D string, and if that bass does as well for jazz as it seems to be doing I might move my 'good bass' over to more of an arco bass and start practicing with the bow again. It really is a lot of fun playing arco - I wish I could find a string quintet or some such thing to give me a good reason to do that.
How are you enjoying the Zyex Lights for arco? I had thought about going to Obligatos for the arco - I think someone here on Talkbass said they can make your bass sound like it's a hundred years older. That's an intriguing concept. Now if I could just find a string that made me sound 10X better. (Maybe it's the same thing).
I think they are a decent option for arco, but not as easy to work with as the Evah weichs. I'm guessing the Obligatos would be similar...perhaps they may be a touch easier to bow than the zyex, but I couldn't say for sure. I certainly love the Zyex lights and am enjoying them a lot right now as a hybrid string. I would love to try the Zyex mediums to see what the difference is with those.
I also think your Helicore sound great so I fancy trying those again, but am resisting getting the string winder out
In comparison of the HH lights and Spiro Weich,what is the difference in size, tension and overall feel, and also which appears to be brighter.?On one of my Basses I am running Spiro Weichs.It is a very dark Bass,and after hearing Ricks's HH lights was wondering if the HH would yield a somewhat brigther sound that as Rick says, is also little easier on the hands. I have used the Helicore G string mixed with SW with pretty good results,and thinking of trying the HH in Light G with Spiro's with an idea, to change D-A after that if needed or curious. Will probably will keep the E Spiro!
Confession-recovering string addict!
Confession-recovering string addict!
with the help of geoffbassist's youtube videos, I went back again to the Evah Weich. 3rd time is the charm. They are what I hear. Smooth sound, nice thump but still clear. I do miss that spirocore E string but we can't have it all. I even went ahead and threw on the Oliv G. In terms of feel the G is awesome, but as many have pointed out, I'm not sure if the intonation problems are worth it.
Eva's (W) are probably one of the most versitle strings out there. Unfortunatly I found them too dark for a Bass I was using,and had problems with them not being able to amplify as well as Spiros.
As far as Olivs I used them off an on for 3-4 years ,D-G. It just depends what your bass can take and what you are willing to put up with.
As far as Olivs I used them off an on for 3-4 years ,D-G. It just depends what your bass can take and what you are willing to put up with.
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