Replacement Strings For An NS WAV

[ezbass]

I’m wondering about replacing the strings on my WAV which I’ve had for a few months now and Spirocores seem to get a lot of love on DB, but does anyone use them on an EUB? I’ve heard a demo on YT of a Harley Benton EUB with Presto Jazzicatos that seemed to improve that instrument, any experience of them here?

[JPJ]

When I was researching before purchasing my NXT, a lot of NS owners recommend the NS Traditional strings as being a big improvement over the stock Contemporary fitted at the factory. I considered changing mine but at £163 a set I might wait awhile 😉

[Paul S]

I put a set of Innovation Rockabilly on my Stagg (once I had modded the scale length) and it totally transformed the sound.  Black nylon tapewounds, they felt marvellous to play and looked cool as flip, too.  But, again, not cheap.

[Downunderwonder]

18 hours ago, JPJ said:

When I was researching before purchasing my NXT, a lot of NS owners recommend the NS Traditional strings as being a big improvement over the stock Contemporary fitted at the factory. I considered changing mine but at £163 a set I might wait awhile 😉

The NS Traditional are indeed da bomb on mine. So so close to TRT now.

[ezbass]

5 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

The NS Traditional are indeed da bomb on mine. So so close to TRT now.

Sorry for my ignorance - TRT?

[Downunderwonder]

28 minutes ago, ezbass said:

Sorry for my ignorance - TRT?

The Real Thing.

[Henrythe8]

Also interested as the traditional EUB have a longer scale length, so I'm always lost. 

BTW, checked on Thomann, the Omni bass is now over 1800€, it was around 1000 in 2019 when I bought mine... 

 

[ezbass]

On 06/02/2023 at 09:27, JPJ said:

When I was researching before purchasing my NXT, a lot of NS owners recommend the NS Traditional strings as being a big improvement over the stock Contemporary fitted at the factory. I considered changing mine but at £163 a set I might wait awhile 😉

£110 at Bass Direct at the moment.

[Bloopdad1]

Bloody 'el...! 

If you think £160 is expensive for a set of double bass strings you ought to Google Pirastro Eudoxa! 

They're about £650 for a standard 4 string set! (and my main orchestral bass is a 5 string....) 😁 

Gulp! 

[Downunderwonder]

13 hours ago, Henrythe8 said:

Also interested as the traditional EUB have a longer scale length, so I'm always lost. 

BTW, checked on Thomann, the Omni bass is now over 1800€, it was around 1000 in 2019 when I bought mine... 

 

NS strings are made shorter for NS basses with little after bridge length required and peg box being compact with BG style tuners. My NXT can string through to the back to take regular bass strings if required.

[Downunderwonder]

8 hours ago, ezbass said:

£110 at Bass Direct at the moment.

That didn't last long, I just checked: now £153!

 

£137 at Acoustic Centre.

[ezbass]

9 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

That didn't last long, I just checked: now £153!

 

£137 at Acoustic Centre.

Wow! The coincidence of that beggars belief. Is BD trawling the pages of BC to make website corrections, based on product interest?

[Downunderwonder]

10 hours ago, ezbass said:

Wow! The coincidence of that beggars belief. Is BD trawling the pages of BC to make website corrections, based on product interest?

Someone probably tried to order and the boss said to hell with give away string pricing.

 

I noticed Gollihur have theirs out of stock "due to needing to sort out discrepancies in specifications on the latest batch". The mind boggles. I thought D'Addario were pretty good for reliability.

[Owen]

My experience with my NS was that changing strings changed the sound, but changing bridge height was pretty radical as well. I went to a set of Inno Honeys with a jacked up bridge and it was literally like a different instrument. 

[Burns-bass]

On 07/02/2023 at 22:25, Bloopdad1 said:

Bloody 'el...! 

If you think £160 is expensive for a set of double bass strings you ought to Google Pirastro Eudoxa! 

They're about £650 for a standard 4 string set! (and my main orchestral bass is a 5 string....) 😁 

Gulp! 

Don’t want to hijack the thread, but are they worth it?

[Lowhead]

Thanks downunderwonder, I was about to order the HS Trads from Bass direct, but have just ordered from the Acoustic centre. Saved me £20, ta!

Now in the first couple of weeks with my WAV 4, bought for jazz, but also folk which is why I want to bow. 

[ezbass]

48 minutes ago, Lowhead said:

Thanks downunderwonder, I was about to order the HS Trads from Bass direct, but have just ordered from the Acoustic centre. Saved me £20, ta!

Now in the first couple of weeks with my WAV 4, bought for jazz, but also folk which is why I want to bow. 

Please let us know how you find them. 

[Lowhead]

Will do. Bow and strings due this week, so it will be a little time (next week at least) until I can assess things.

[Lowhead]

Have had the 'traditional' strings on my NS WAV about a week now, hard to know just how much of a difference they make, due to my extreme newbie state with the EUB. The trad set do seem to need greater tension, so I think this helps with bowing. Also the sustain seems less on plucking, so creates a more acoustic feel. But it will take quite a while and some swaps between the regular and trad sets before I settle on my keepers. 

[NickA]

Re Eudoxa .... Used to use them on my cello but price aside, they went out of tune with the slightest weather change and the silver winding first turned my fingers black then wore through, freyed and made my fingers bleed.  ...if they didn't just randomly snap first.

 

Bunch of crap ... But they do sound lovely under the bow, especially if you like that slight "chuff" as they start to sound and aren't too bothered about volume.

 

£230 for my db's set of Eva's was quite enough cash ..and they're so good I've stopped swapping back to Spiro's for jazz.

[JPJ]

On 04/03/2023 at 15:01, Lowhead said:

Have had the 'traditional' strings on my NS WAV about a week now, hard to know just how much of a difference they make, due to my extreme newbie state with the EUB. The trad set do seem to need greater tension, so I think this helps with bowing. Also the sustain seems less on plucking, so creates a more acoustic feel. But it will take quite a while and some swaps between the regular and trad sets before I settle on my keepers. 

How are you getting on with the Traditional strings? I’ve just bit the bullet and ordered a set for my NXT from Bass Bags. 

[Lowhead]

The Traditional strings are going well for me, and I now plan to keep them on for the immediate future anyway. But time on the instrument has been limited by health issues, and this is slowing progress (and string assessment). They are certainly doing the job I need now though.

[Bloopdad1]

On 09/02/2023 at 13:42, Burns-bass said:

Don’t want to hijack the thread, but are they worth it?

I can't justify the price personally. But I did once buy a bass with them already on it, they were AMAZING.

Butter smooth powerful arco, solid pure fundamental with delicious mids and bell like harmonics. Build and feel second to none.

In 35yrs of playing I hadn't played better, they really suited that bass. 

I loved them and wanted to replace them.

Until I priced up a set!!! 

Gutted, but I couldn't justify the price. 

Superb "millionaire money no object" strings! 😂 

[JPJ]

So I've had the Traditional strings (medium tension) sitting on my desk for about a month waiting for time to fit them and let them settle in between gigs. As I've got a couple of weekends off, I decided to change them tonight, and for fun I decided to record a couple of short before and after clips.

The recordings were made with the NXT into channel B of my EBS Stanley Clarke acoustic preamp, DI out from there into a Behringer UMC202HD and into GarageBand on Mac. The tone on the NXT was rolled almost all off, volume about 7/8ths, and the switch set to Pizzicato. There are no plugin's used on any track. Please excuse my sloppy playing - I'm still getting to grips with the NXT!

The Traditional strings are a heavier gauge than the Contemporary's I've removed and they have proper db ball ends against the regular bass string ball ends of the Contemporary string. Strangely, even though the string is 'heavier' the tension is definitely lighter making the NXT easier to play. 

The audio clips are (in the order shown on the screen left to right)

1) Contemporary string

2) Contemporary string with Nino Mute

3) Traditional string

4) Traditional string with Nino Mute 

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by JPJ

[JPJ]

So one week in to life with the Traditional strings and I’m pleased to say they are in my opinion a huge improvement over the contemporary strings that were on the NXT when I bought her.

I’m sure the biggest change is the heavier gauge which sound and feel more acoustic double bass like. Much shorter sustain (still measured in minutes though 😂) where the decay is less linear and more natural. At last nights rehearsal the bass also seemed to sit better in the mix (through the same setup/settings). Yes they were a significant investment but so far that investment is paying off for me 😎