DB Strings at Ken's Corner..

[Ken Smith]

Although I am not in the DB String business, I do have my personal favorites. The only problem is that I like different Strings for different Basses and for different playing styles as well. Orchestra Strings and Jazz String have different needs for the most part but that also depends on the player and his needs.

There are many playing styles between Jazz and Classical so feel free to discuss whatever floats your boat string-wise.

If you think there should be separate sections here for Jazz/Pizz and Classical/Bowing or any other styles in regards to Strings, please let me know. For now, I think we can just let it rip and see what shakes. We can always modify the Forums to meet the demand rather than the other way around.

In either case, don't get all 'wound up' about it..;)

[davidseidel]

On the topic, as you mention whether this should be in sections for jazz/pizz and classical/arco it strikes me that before the "improvement" of metal strings these categories may not have even rated a mention. I am not sure but it seems to me that in those days of gut strings a bass player was a bass player and it was not necessary to carry a different set of strings depending on what music you might play. Having spent some time playing classical and much more on jazz I still find the only strings suitable for both are gut. The only problem is now that pure gut strings are not deemed suitable for a section. Well they were suitable for most of the history of orchestral performance so why not now?! Or were the old time players more skilled then?
The problem with most or all "classical " metal strings is they are damped so that certain ranges of tone or frequency are much repressed. OK they are then more forgiving to bow but quite thuddy when pizzed. Metal with les damping seem to give lively pizz but tend to sound harsh when bowed. Undamped gut strings wound or not give a full range of color and vibrate freely whether bowed or plucked. None of the "gut like" synthetics really do this IMHO. Gut has a more musical range of highs to lows.
Anyone care to comment?

[Johnny Layton]

It looks like having a section for arco, pizz, and hybrid strings might be best.

The hybrid string forum section will likely be most lively.

[Ken Smith]

Ok, I hear you loud and clear. Thank's for mentioning it. That was why I asked in the first place as I knew we would get to this. When I do get the sections done, I will move the existing posts to where we think they belong but only if necessary.

We can have this as "DB Strings in General" and then have the 3 other sections with Hybrid being the added section.

[Marcus Johnson]

That might be a hard call to make in some cases, since some strings do many things well. Where would Spiros go, for instance? They work great for pizz, are commonly used for arco. Conversely, Olivs are somewhat marketed as a great arco string, but there are quite a few folks pizz'ing on 'em (pardon me!:o ).

As always, I'm sure there will be lots of lively discourse here on strings. The ultimate love/hate relationship!

[Michael Case]

I would assume if you're looking for info on a good string for arco you'd go to the arco string section. The same with pizz, regardless of what the string is marketed as. For instance I use an Oliv/Obligato mix, I play 99% pizz and 1% arco so my comments about Olivs would fall under pizz. Does this make sense?

[Ken Smith]

I would assume if you're looking for info on a good string for arco you'd go to the arco string section. The same with pizz, regardless of what the string is marketed as. For instance I use an Oliv/Obligato mix, I play 99% pizz and 1% arco so my comments about Olivs would fall under pizz. Does this make sense?

Yes, 100%. Many strings have multiple purposes for various music styles. On the other hand, some strings work better on some Basses or with different players. Usually it's the Bass/String match. Bows help too in that area as some Bows just work better, period.

The sections are now up and running.