metal core slap strings? jazzicato vs slaphappy weedwackers

[BassInMyFace]

remarkable lack of info on the presto jazzicato strings

[url="http://www.presto-strings.com/doublebass.html"]http://www.presto-strings.com/doublebass.html[/url]

the internet has very little to say about them. anyone had any first hand experience?
i am looking for a more slap string (synthetic coating)but need it to be metal core for my mag pickup. am dead set on using mag as gigs im doing completely require that reliability and volume.

they are £110 compared to some slap happy weedwackers on fleabay for £60. these now have steel cores in all 4 strings so should work on a mag. have asked the seller what performance is like with a mag but no reply yet. im guessing the jazzicatos are gonna be nicer and more "complex" but worth double the price??

failing that, does anyone have any other ideas on mag friendly slap strings?

[thisnameistaken]

The psychobilly guys I've known who slap steel strings buy solo sets and tune them to standard tuning, usually spirocore solos.

[BassInMyFace]

yeah i have a solo set on now. want to get rid of that "clank" and replace with a "clunk" if you know what i mean. the solos are very thin as well, would like a slighter thicker guage to get to grips with if poss.

[BassInMyFace]

Fyi I have just ordered a set of the weed wackers as the seller offered money back guarantee.will experiment and report back re their mag pickup performance.

[Wayne Firefly]

[u]I got a set of Eurosonc Ultralights after trying them on another bass, they work great but you have to mess with amp settings to get thud. (Schaller pickup)[/u]
[u]Easy on the fingers and stable tuning.. great all round I thought !!![/u]

[BobVbass]

Blimey let me know how you get on with these especially if the low E gets a decent pizz sound as well - I shred my fingers every practice and gig at the mo!

[PaulKing]

Presto / eurosonic give a perfectly respectable thunk unless you have v bright lively fingerboard. Can be a bit twangy, but not the clank of steel.

Even so, I'm still a piezo guy. On Saturday night I played louder than I am ever likely to in my life. 50k rig to 18,000 people in Hyde park, on gut and presto E/A, through Underwood pick up, markbass 500W backline, drowned out by stage monitors. I even climbed down and ran into audience with no feedback. The sound was gargantuan. Bill Haley slap bass louder than ever before...

[lockpicker1969]

[color="#000000"][size=3]I was looking to but some steel cores for my Schaller mag pup but decided on leaving the innovation RBs and going for a K&K bass max, very loud pup. I liked the Schaller but I didn’t like the rattle I got off[/size][size="3"] it.[/size][/color]

[BassInMyFace]

[quote name='PaulKing' timestamp='1337105950' post='1655616']
Presto / eurosonic give a perfectly respectable thunk unless you have v bright lively fingerboard. Can be a bit twangy, but not the clank of steel.

Even so, I'm still a piezo guy. On Saturday night I played louder than I am ever likely to in my life. 50k rig to 18,000 people in Hyde park, on gut and presto E/A, through Underwood pick up, markbass 500W backline, drowned out by stage monitors. I even climbed down and ran into audience with no feedback. The sound was gargantuan. Bill Haley slap bass louder than ever before...
[/quote]

cant say fairer than that!! i do feel i copped out a little by going to the mag pickup. but I've made my bed now and gonna see how it pans out.

im optimistic about these steel cores. a bit more of a "thunk" would be a good result.

[RonM]

I'm currently trying out a set of weedwhackers synthetic gut strings and I must say I'm impressed so far. They play like a good set of guts but without all the string care and maintenance of the real ones, and, boy are they easy on the fingers or what!!!!

They seem to be equally good whether played pizza or Arco and stay in tune.

You can get 'em on eBay for about £45 Inc p & p. So if any else is tempted I'd be interested in how you find them.

[BobVbass]

well I bit the bullet and got some steel core weedwackers - replacing my spiro weichs -

Initial observations is that they don't seem much less tension than the spiros so not sure how easier on the fingers they'll be - slightly more "grippy" on the slide but that may change as they play in. Volume through the pick up is loud and clear; acoustically they're loud too - the e is very well defined. Overall they sound maybe slightly less bright that the spiros, maybe a little smoother and thuddy - very close though.

I'll try them out in anger Thursday night and let you know how they go

[bremen]

[quote name='RonM' timestamp='1337132504' post='1656061']
I'm currently trying out a set of weedwhackers synthetic gut strings and I must say I'm impressed so far. They play like a good set of guts but without all the string care and maintenance of the real ones, and, boy are they easy on the fingers or what!!!!

They seem to be equally good whether played pizza or Arco and stay in tune.

You can get 'em on eBay for about £45 Inc p & p. So if any else is tempted I'd be interested in how you find them.
[/quote]

I'm very tempted but can't find them on ebay

[BassInMyFace]

ok, rigged up a new set of the steel core weedwhackers today, had a bash at them for a couple hours and impressions are mixed.


pros=
old school thuddy tone is there in abundance. loads of bass, nice and loud and the click is really nice, not twangy but not muddy. pretty much spot on i would say for that old time sound with lovely slap tone when you fancy it.

great response through mag pickup, i was worried there wouldn't be enough metal content to drive the pickup but no concerns at all. i chopped through E string to have a look at construction and its a big thick braided steel rope with about 1mm of the plasticy nylon coating on top. the rest of the strings follow a similar looking ratio of materials. BTW absolute nightmare to snip with pliers as the steel core is very dense! wish i hadnt bothered cos it took ages.


cons=

cant get much acoustic response from E string. its very quiet and pretty slack. extending the pickup pole piece under the string compensates for amplified volume and have managed to find a decent even-ness of response. sustain on the E is non existent though. (fairly universal for these types of string but was hoping the steel core would go some way to combat this)

D and G are actually quite high tension. have tweaked the action and bridge position but cant get them to loosen up. "A" string is perfect tension, nice and loose but not floppy. disappointed that slapping doesnt feel comfortable straight away, need a lot of force to get that D and G to click. anyone got any set-up ideas i might not have thought of to take tension out of those top strings?



so in summary, these strings definitely fulfil the "synthetic gut sound through a magnetic pickup" brief. very limited competition out there in this field, presto nylon wounds, (also known as eurosonic) presto jazzicato (interested to hear any reports???) and these. thats about it as far as i can tell!!

unfortunately i cant see that you piezo pickup folks will see much benefit of the steel core. on my bass the E is flabby and i have used kevlar/synthetic core gut-a-likes with better success. if anything, the steel gives the D and G too much tension and makes slapping quite hard work. perhaps save £20 and stick with the normal weedwackers if magnetic response is not your concern.

im going to soldier on with them and see how they grow on me.

as a provisio obviously this is just how they performed on my bass. you may well have a different experience, in fact a guy earlier in the thread reports a good E response. every bass is different i guess!!

[BassInMyFace]

[quote name='bremen' timestamp='1338216101' post='1670921']


I'm very tempted but can't find them on ebay
[/quote]

Search slap happy weedwackers

[BobVbass]

So - quick update few weeks on....

They've settled in fairly well tuning wise, fairly stable although E is more difficult to tune than my old strings.

Definitely easier on the fingers, no blisters at all after hours of play. Tone wise amplified is ok - very loud through a Moses Graphite P/U -

A-G strings sound quite smooth compared to my old Thomastiks, G string very clear.

E String after initially sounding quite clear has gone fairly muddy now and strangely has also gone Dark brown/deep red in colour!

Feel and looks - A and D strings seem to be the same composition and coating, fairly matt coating, smooth feel nylon; the E string appears to be someone's secondhand washing line - slightly grippier than the other strings and the G string appears to be very thin coating, almost PTFE like and slippery.

So - any good? Well yes they're kind of ok, nice on the fingers but nothing to write home about. They're cheap and you get what you pay for I guess....

I'll keep them on for a bit and then I think I'll try one of Clarky's recommendations and buy some steel core Prestos.

When I swap them over, if anyone wants to try them give me a shout.

[BassInMyFace]

i agree with your summing up. although my E is getting better defined the longer its been on. (definitely going red, whats that about??!)
next time i fancy spending some more money on this crazy moneypit i will try the presto set too, thinking the jazzicato instead of the nylonwounds because they sound like a improvement.