Oliv Strings! Nightmare!

[SevenSeas]

Oliv strings;

They sound great, (I mean really great) they feel great (better than all the sets I have tried) they feel pretty easy to play.

BUT.

1) The tuning is to an extend ridiculous, it has been getting slightly better.

2) Heres the worst part... woke up this morning the 'G' string was broke, got an audition on Monday so had to go to a local shop to get it sorted.

Charged me £62 for the work. (which is overpriced) by far)

£97 for an Oliv string. (D & G ) = £194 + 62 = £256.

Great....

[thisnameistaken]

I'm currently using Velvet Animas and - similarly - the G is very easy to damage. But if they are the sound you want you accept the trade-off I guess.

High quality guts will always be very expensive and a bit fragile. Unfortunately nothing sounds quite like them.

[Hector]

I use a D'Addario Zyex for a G string (stop sniggering at the back). Nice alternative with a tone in same ballpark.

It's quite gut-like in sound and feel, but is very low maintenance with respect to climate. Settles in fairly quickly, after about a 3-7 days depending on how you play. They're quite cheap, so could be worth giving one a try, or having one as a backup? A full set runs £130, so I can't imagine singles would be too dear, certainly less than Olivs.

[Rabbie]

Guts are not that fragile, they can last for years too and if an Olive G broke that quickly it must be due to a manufacturing fault or to incorrect fitting to a bass (I.e. around winder or jaggy bridge or nut slot or over winding past pitch)

[Clarky]

Sorry for the OP's expensive troubles. I had no issues at all with Olivs apart from tuning stability. They play and sound utterly wonderful, the nicest strings of all to my ears. I now have Velvet Animas which do a passable impersonation and are less variable but am tempted to slap on an Oliv G again

[Marc S]

[quote name='SevenSeas' timestamp='1384356906' post='2275640']
... woke up this morning the 'G' string was broke......


[/quote]

There's a cue for a blues song if ever I saw one

Sorry to hear of your woes
£97 sounds excessive!

As a relative newbie to the world of DB
I have no idea how long my strings will last
But I'm keeping the set that came with the bass as spares

Even if they are a very different string
At least I'll have something as backup....

EDIT: Meant to add, I've put a new set of Innovation Silvers on
They took a while to settle in, but they sound good
and stay pretty much in tune

Edited November 14, 2013 by Marc S

[Clarky]

To revive this thread, I recently re-acquired a set of Olivs I had sold on to another BCer as I missed their warm, rich sound. Fitted them and the next day the metal windings on the G string had unravelled around the C position. The strings hadn't even been fitted since I sold them on first time so was very irritating. The string was useless (the unwound metal wire is very sharp and potentially finger-shredding) and so I threw it away and had to fork out £80-odd for a new replacement.

In the US, Gamut do a rewinding service (for $55/£30-odd) for wrapped guts that have unwound, wish Pirastro offered the same!

Edited August 26, 2014 by Clarky