Most inexpensive double bass strings...

[Mikey D]

My tutor says I really need to change the strings on my upright, but funds are tight, as I am finally putting my upright in for repair (Gulp! £££), but thought I may aswell do everything at once. So I bought a realist pickup from David Gage, which arrived yesterday morning. Alot of money for a jack socket and a copper plate, no?!, but after hearing it on two basses...wow, the best.

So, where is the cheapest place to get Spirocores from?

Does anybody have a set they bought to try but decided that they didn't like them and want to pass them on cheap?

Does anybody work in a shop that can sneak them out for a £5!?*

*I'm not really saying its ok to steal.

[jakenewmanbass]

Hi Mikey,
why do you specifically want spirocores? have you considered something a little less taut? possibly nylon with a steel winding (much easier on the fingers and in my experience allow the bass to speak a little more)
OR
are you learning arco? in which case the thomastiks would be a good middle ground.

you'll be lucky to get spirocores for less than £100 wheras the Innovation silver slap are £67, at least last time I bought them they were.
feel free to probe further
Jake

[Guest Jecklin]

I get my strings from The soundpost:
[url="http://www.soundpost.co.uk/sdlbass.html"]http://www.soundpost.co.uk/sdlbass.html[/url]


very pleasant to deal with and rapid. They are based in England.

I regard it as false economy to try and get strings in from usa etc.

Spirocores are an excellent choice, and after wasting much time and money trying other stuff they are all I use.
They are the definitive contemporary music string (I don't play jazz), with excellent pizz qualities and a very exciting arco voice.

I liked innovation honeys a fair bit, just under £80, but they wont last anywhere near as long as spirocores and I found they tended to false quite a bit in the higher registers especially under the bow, but I suppose that is to be expected from a string designed to emulate gut.

As Jake said you wont get spiros for under £100.
Superflexibles are worth a look too. They aren't too different from spiros but are higher tension so if you already know you like spiros don't run the risk of potentially wasting £75.

Good luck

Thomas

[chrkelly]

Usually in my experience, it works out a lot cheaper buying from the States (even if you get stung for import taxes!). The best mail order shops are www.lemurmusic.com and www.urbbob.com. Also, Thomann does good prices for the Austrian brands, Pirastro and Thomastik.

What music are you playing and what type of sound are you aiming for?
Spiros have long been the standard jazz string, tonnes of sustain and they have a good amplified sound. They also work reasonably well on the A and E on dark basses for orchestral playing. I quite like really old ones that have mellowed a bit. Either go for the Weich or standard gauge. The starks are too heavy for my tastes
A mate of mine has the innovation silver slaps. Old school gut sound. Really low tension and massive gauge. They feel very strange under the left hand. Completely unbowable.
Pirastro Obligatos are also a good choice but you'd be lucky to get a year out of them. OK for the bow, loads of growl for pizz and more organic sounding than the spiros.
I'm just about to put on a set of Corelli 370TX. Cost me just under £70 from the US. I borrowed a bass recently with a set on and they sounded great. All the growl of spiros and then some. Very nice with the bow too.

Strings that work for some basses will not work fo others though. You may well spend your life experimenting with different combinations to find the perfect match! I still haven't found one I'm perfectly happy with.

[Mikey D]

[quote name='jakesbass' post='125679' date='Jan 22 2008, 07:46 PM']Hi Mikey,
why do you specifically want spirocores? have you considered something a little less taut? possibly nylon with a steel winding (much easier on the fingers and in my experience allow the bass to speak a little more)
OR
are you learning arco? in which case the thomastiks would be a good middle ground.[/quote]

To be honest I'm pretty new to the upright and strings etc (Been playing just over a year on upright). Players I like the sound of are: Ray Brown, Nhop, Reuban Rogers, Buster Williams and a few others. Yes, they all sound completely different.

I have been told spirocores by my tutor, Mark Hodgson, as they are basically the standard for jazz and just generally a good place to start.

They will be used for jazz and jazz only to answer any questions. But I use the bow alot for practice/intonation.


[quote name='merchant' post='125691' date='Jan 22 2008, 08:08 PM']I get my strings from The soundpost:
[url="http://www.soundpost.co.uk/sdlbass.html"]http://www.soundpost.co.uk/sdlbass.html[/url]

very pleasant to deal with and rapid. They are based in England.

I regard it as false economy to try and get strings in from usa etc.

Spirocores are an excellent choice, and after wasting much time and money trying other stuff they are all I use.
They are the definitive contemporary music string (I don't play jazz), with excellent pizz qualities and a very exciting arco voice.

I liked innovation honeys a fair bit, just under £80, but they wont last anywhere near as long as spirocores and I found they tended to false quite a bit in the higher registers especially under the bow, but I suppose that is to be expected from a string designed to emulate gut.

As Jake said you wont get spiros for under £100.
Superflexibles are worth a look too. They aren't too different from spiros but are higher tension so if you already know you like spiros don't run the risk of potentially wasting £75.

Good luck

Thomas[/quote]

[quote name='chrkelly' post='125750' date='Jan 22 2008, 09:24 PM']Usually in my experience, it works out a lot cheaper buying from the States (even if you get stung for import taxes!). The best mail order shops are www.lemurmusic.com and www.urbbob.com. Also, Thomann does good prices for the Austrian brands, Pirastro and Thomastik.

What music are you playing and what type of sound are you aiming for?
Spiros have long been the standard jazz string, tonnes of sustain and they have a good amplified sound. They also work reasonably well on the A and E on dark basses for orchestral playing. I quite like really old ones that have mellowed a bit. Either go for the Weich or standard gauge. The starks are too heavy for my tastes
A mate of mine has the innovation silver slaps. Old school gut sound. Really low tension and massive gauge. They feel very strange under the left hand. Completely unbowable.
Pirastro Obligatos are also a good choice but you'd be lucky to get a year out of them. OK for the bow, loads of growl for pizz and more organic sounding than the spiros.
I'm just about to put on a set of Corelli 370TX. Cost me just under £70 from the US. I borrowed a bass recently with a set on and they sounded great. All the growl of spiros and then some. Very nice with the bow too.

Strings that work for some basses will not work fo others though. You may well spend your life experimenting with different combinations to find the perfect match! I still haven't found one I'm perfectly happy with.[/quote]

Yeah, my other tutor, Arnie Somogyi, uses innovation strings. i personally love the feel of them, but as much as I find them so easy to play, they are too thick, not great for bowing and as has been said, the upper register defination ain't that great.

I'm looking for a nice, not too big sound, a little dark, but fairly easy going tension as I come from an electric background where my action is super low, so currently don't have the strongest of hands.

I know nothing of corelli strings, will look into them a bit.

[chrkelly]

Also, forgot to mention Daddario Helicore hybrids. £78 from Thomann. They get good reviews and I've heard that Larry Grenadier and Christian McBride use them.

[overwater#1]

I think this is what I have on my bass at the moment, and they're great!!!


[quote name='chrkelly' post='126015' date='Jan 23 2008, 12:09 PM']Also, forgot to mention Daddario Helicore hybrids. £78 from Thomann. They get good reviews and I've heard that Larry Grenadier and Christian McBride use them.[/quote]

[BigBeatNut]

[quote name='chrkelly' post='126015' date='Jan 23 2008, 01:09 PM']Also, forgot to mention Daddario Helicore hybrids. £78 from Thomann. They get good reviews and I've heard that Larry Grenadier and Christian McBride use them.[/quote]

They're certainly featured on [url="http://christianmcbride.com/gear.html"]Christian McBrides gear page[/url]. I'm a bit too much of a newb at URB to comment on this topic. But I believe my [url="http://www.noodlebug.demon.co.uk/bigbeatnut/pix/mybasses/bsxallegro.jpg"]BSX allegro[/url] (EUB) is strung with Spirocore Weichs, and I'm happy with those.

Reading between the lines above ... are Weichs the light gauge ?

Andy

[zero9]

You can get Spirocores for £93 from Thomann. I got some 3/4 size Spirocore 'soft' (English for the German 'Weich') tension strings to replace my Pirastro Obligatos.

The Spirocores produce a slightly brighter sound than the Obligatos, which you'd expect for a steel core string. The Obligatos are an excellent choice if you want a more 'organic' sound. Playability of either will depend largely on how well your DB is set up.

The Spirocores settle in much quicker than the Obligatos (which probably take a couple of weeks or so).

Tension-wise there is little to choose between the two, however, I found that the Spirocores are easier to play moving up into the higher registers.

Hope this helps and good luck with getting your DB sorted.

Wil

[jakenewmanbass]

[quote name='zero9' post='126882' date='Jan 24 2008, 01:23 PM']You can get Spirocores for £93 from Thomann. I got some 3/4 size Spirocore 'soft' (English for the German 'Weich') tension strings to replace my Pirastro Obligatos.

The Spirocores produce a slightly brighter sound than the Obligatos, which you'd expect for a steel core string. The Obligatos are an excellent choice if you want a more 'organic' sound. Playability of either will depend largely on how well your DB is set up.

The Spirocores settle in much quicker than the Obligatos (which probably take a couple of weeks or so).

Tension-wise there is little to choose between the two, however, I found that the Spirocores are easier to play moving up into the higher registers.

Hope this helps and good luck with getting your DB sorted.

Wil[/quote]

Well spotted for spirocores below £100, thats a breakthrough
Jake

[chrkelly]

Put the Corelli 370TX on this morning and have thrashed them for a good few hours. These things have tonnes of sustain! Brilliant modern pizz sound although a tad too bright but that's only cause they're brand new. They feel very similar in tension and gauge to spiro orchestras and sound very loud on my bass. I can't really speak about them any more until they've properly settled after a few weeks, but I can tell I'm going to like them. A bargain for £70

Edited January 24, 2008 by chrkelly

[Mikey D]

I've read alot about these corellis. I'm going to have to try and check them out.

i'm actually taking my bass to Rod Willmott tonight to get some work done to it-at last. I'll see if he knows about these corellis.

[Bassworm]

I've bought my strings from USAnia in the past, either from Ebay or from Bob Gollihur's site, which is where my current set of Corellis (Which I'm loving a lot) came from.

[Mikey D]

In the end I went with Spirocores as Rod did a special 'all in' price for new bridge and fitting, pickup installation, couple of crack fills, new strings, check and reinstall sound post if required and a general setup-all for what a mate of mine paid for a bridge and setup!

I'm getting the bass back next week, but am already chuffed at the quote and his previous work on other basses I have seen is excellent.

I recommend Rod to anyone around the west midlands.

[Mikey D]

Just another recommendation for Rod!

I picked up my bass last night, whereas before it was almost unplayable (it was set up for classical bowing), it now plays as smooth as butter! To the point where I can almost play things I can do on electric, but would have struggled for months to do on any other upright.

I went with spirocore weichs as he had a new set around his workshop. I chose them without trying them, so a bit of a risk, but they are exactly what I was looking for.

I play with a very, very light touch on electric, so playing upright has always been a hard switch for me. But the tension is ideal, without being too floppy. The new adjustable bridge also helps.

I look forward to being able to get some serious practice time in on it now and do a few gigs.

[BigBeatNut]

[quote name='chrkelly' post='126898' date='Jan 24 2008, 01:41 PM']Put the Corelli 370TX on this morning and have thrashed them for a good few hours.
... SNIP...
I can't really speak about them any more until they've properly settled after a few weeks, but I can tell I'm going to like them. A bargain for £70[/quote]
How are you getting on with those Corelli's, Chris ?

Just had the cracks in my DB repaired so I'm full of enthusiasm for it and I'm thinking about a decent set of strings.

Cheers, Andy

[chrkelly]

The Corelli's are very nice. A really good hybrid string. They feel quite different to other similar strings. Loads of attack on the front on each note for pizz (more so than spiros), big sustain and loads of focus but they tend to choke a bit when played really hard. Easier to bow than spiros but I dont like them in an orchestral setting as they're very bright. Have changed them for a set of original flexocors at the mo for an orchestral tour. Overall a nice alternative to the hybrid competition and very good value for money.

[BigBeatNut]

Thanks for the review
.