Roto RS400, yet another strings query

[sumorabbit]

Hi all,

 

Suffice to say I have a very large pile of upright strings. Having had a few bad bouts of RSI, I had to go from steels to lower tension over the years. I play mostly functions these days, and by that I have to cover slap playing as well as the long overplayed post modern style. 

 

I finally settled last year on the RS400's (useless for arco but I've had to compromise), I have however bumped them to further alleviate RSI flair ups. Perfectly happy with ADG strings, I've learned to accommodate my playing to the floppiness. the E however is just near useless (using a bumped A). It's dull and muddy, I miss the steel string growl down there. My playing now avoids the E for 90% of the time.

 

Does anybody have a suggestion of a string to try for the E? I've tried a Spiro A and E, Silver slap E, Euro sonic tape wound (this caused a lot of blistering for some reason), Gut a like A and E (copper and my ph don't mix, green within a week), Sugar slap A, SBW A and a few others I can't recall at the moment. I'm willing to dump some cash into getting this right, especially as Christmas gig season is impending and I'm out on upright for 6 gigs so far. 

 

I will add I use 2 pickup systems with a mixer close to hand, a copperhead into Fishman plat pro and a shadow RB-pro, I use either depending on the genre of the gig. 

 

Thanks peeps 

[Beedster]

Wish I could help but good luck finding a solution, I switched from guts to steels for a gig a couple of months back because I needed to use a mag PUP for volume/feedback reasons, and I was in pain both during the gig and for days afterwards. you're absolutely right to avoid that at all costs 👍 

[Burns-bass]

When I had injured my arm (43 year old men probably shouldn’t play football two days before a gig) and I swapped to Golden Slaps which we met fine.

 

I now play Orchestral Spiros now so slightly lower tension than Weichs and sound rich and full bodied. 

[sumorabbit]

2 hours ago, Beedster said:

Wish I could help but good luck finding a solution, I switched from guts to steels for a gig a couple of months back because I needed to use a mag PUP for volume/feedback reasons, and I was in pain both during the gig and for days afterwards. you're absolutely right to avoid that at all costs 👍 

 

At its worse the RSI took me out of playing for around 12 months, I don't want to end up in that place again for sure. Gigs are literally more than 50% of my income, so I can't afford to be injured.

 

I used to use a mag pickup with eurosonics, light enough tension but they made me blister like crazy. I don't think I could ever go back to steels now for fear of injury. 

[sumorabbit]

Weichs were my preferred string, I can't use them anymore. I'm stuck in the ballpark of similar tension to gut now, maybe a smidge higher. Sadly I'm not sure the Orchestra spiro would be low enough. 

 

I did like golden/silver slaps, the silvers mucked up and went sticky really fast though