fatback Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Thinking of bumping spirocore steels - how would they be to bow? Would detuned solos be better? I'm having a terrible time bowing pirastro jazzers, but I have to stick with steels for the mag pickup. Lower tension would be nice too. Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJ Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 The spiros are reportedly scratchy sounding when bowed. It can be done but some find it difficult and mainly use them for pizz. Not sure if lower tension will help with the bowing as they may take longer to grab. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marvin spangles Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 [quote name='fatback' post='1178924' date='Mar 27 2011, 10:38 PM']Thinking of bumping spirocore steels - how would they be to bow? Would detuned solos be better? I'm having a terrible time bowing pirastro jazzers, but I have to stick with steels for the mag pickup. Lower tension would be nice too. Any thoughts?[/quote] Keep the Spiro E and A and try Belcantos on the G and D . Once you break the spiros in they are not too bad. The Belcantos are very easy to bow and their pizz is pleasing to my ear. The E and A spiro will give you plenty of low end growl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatback Posted March 28, 2011 Author Share Posted March 28, 2011 (edited) [quote name='marvin spangles' post='1179526' date='Mar 28 2011, 02:13 PM']Keep the Spiro E and A and try Belcantos on the G and D . Once you break the spiros in they are not too bad. The Belcantos are very easy to bow and their pizz is pleasing to my ear. The E and A spiro will give you plenty of low end growl.[/quote] How bad is 'not too bad'? atm my strings are hardest to bow on the E and A. Are the belcantos full steel? I need that for my mag. Edited March 28, 2011 by fatback Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marvin spangles Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 [quote name='fatback' post='1179529' date='Mar 28 2011, 02:15 PM']How bad is 'not too bad'? atm my strings are hardest to bow on the E and A. Are the belcantos full steel? I need that for my mag.[/quote] I found the Jazzers impossible to bowBut that was over 10 years ago. And same with the Spiros until I improved by bowing technique. I prefer to use Belcantos on all strings for the bass that I use for classical music. They have a twisted steel rope core so I imagine they'd amplify fine with your magnetic pick up. I have used the Belcantos for lots of Pizz only gigs and they were good. Not as long a sustain or volume acoustic wise but they amplify for me just fine. My other bass was strung with Spiros and I would often go between the two basses and found that over time there wasn't the huge difference that I remembered. However If I was on a pressure gig that required subtle bowing I wouldn't risk the Spiros. There are many players that use Spiros exclusively for bowing. Not sure what you meant by "atm". Perhaps it might be best if you could borrow a set of Spiros and or Belcantos to try them out. Hope this is of some help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatback Posted March 29, 2011 Author Share Posted March 29, 2011 Thanks a lot for the advice. Tricky, this strings business. By 'atm' I just meant 'at the moment'. Sorry. I need to get a life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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