Kolstein Heritage

[Jake Newcomb]

I have never tried these strings and the Kolstein strings I have tried, the Varicores, totally suck. The Heritage's though are reportedly gut-like and relatively good for arco from what I've read by people who use them. I would really like to try Pirastro Olivs on the G & D and am thinking the Heritage strings would be good on the lower strings or maybe even with out the Olivs as a complete set. Can anybody give the pros and cons of these Kolstein strings?

[Patrick Thorstenson]

I am currently using the Heritage for the A and E with Obligatos on the D and G. That combo seems to be a good match. The Kolstiens need some room to move and I had to raise my string height quite a bit for the string to begin to speak and stop buzzing compared to something like a spirocore orchestra. The strings are fairly soft so there wasn't any additional strain on the hand or wrist. I play jazz and classical with the local civic orchestra. The Kolstiens seem to been a good mix between a nice full pizz sound (without being thuddy) and arco without being too scratchy.
My only complaint (based on personal opinion) is that I find the E string a little floppy when playing pizz in an unamplified setting where I am pulling on those strings fairly hard.
My bass teacher uses a full set of Heritages and has a great sound. He stated to me the other day that he has found a few bad strings amongst the sets he has purchased so there may be some quality control issues.

Overall a good versital string for the E and A . For comparison, I have also tried Sprios, Doms, Animas (E and A) and Jargar Fortes but the Kolsteins have been the best so far for me. I have never tried Olives and wouldn't want to speculate about matching those strings together.

PJ

[davidseidel]

Yes I have tried the heritage strings and I found them the best of the synthetic core "gut like" strings. The whole set sounds pretty good but at present I have them on an old American Standard with D and G RedORays and they match very well - from my experience with Olives & Eudoxas which I love too, they should make an excellent compromise as A and E.