Obligatos
 

Well, I'm a little late to the Obligato party, but I bought a brand new set at a good price over on TB for my Upton Hybrid.
First off, Upton recommends Spiro Mittels for these basses and that's the way mine met me. The Spiros sound big and punchy, bow OK and sustain for days. I put and old Weich set to try a bit lower tension. Although a lot easier to play. the Weich didn't get the bass moving as well.
I see why people love, and hate the Obligatos. Lovewise, they are very playable strings with a 'woody' character. The bass now delivers a better fundamental, sounds more 'old school' but with good sustain. The G is much better. :)
Hate: Even after taking great care in filing the nut and bridge slots, using lots of pencil lube, the E is coming apart above the nut! :eek: Bringing it up to about a C pitch, the string winding began to separate on the nut. I loosened it, widened the slot and lubed again. There are three distinct separations. One at the bass of the nut and two just above. The strings are now holding a pitch pretty well. If/when the E goes I will probably go back to a Spiro Mittel on the E and maybe the A as well.
All in all, as of right now I'm happy with them, but wonder if they are more trouble than they are worth.

In my Obligato days, I had an E string do the same thing, though maybe not to the degree that you describe. It held together more or less, so I left it on for the life of the set, which turned out to be about six months. I had no other problems with Obligatos during the time that I used them (maybe three sets, total). Maybe you could get a replacement from Pirastro if you let them know.

I like the Obligatos overall. But after having driven everyone on two internet bass forums nuts with my incessant string queries for the last few months, I've really come to appreciate the beauty of Spirocores. I just wonder if there
is something inherently wrong with the idea of trying to wrap metal around gut or perlon. It also seems to be a bit of a problem at Pirastro at the moment. I haven't seen too many people talking about their Dominants coming apart, or their Gamuts or Dlugoleckis unraveling.

I don't mean to turn this into a rant. I think the Spiro/Obli combo might be a really nice thing.

I never really warmed up to Obligatos. My Shen came with them. The E was flabby and the G was ultra goose-like with the bow. The A and D were fine I guess.

They do play easy enough. They may be too easy to overplay, in fact.

Part of it may have been that my teacher doesn't care for them at all. But I don't see me buying another set of Obligatos.

Although they were new and in the package, since I didn't buy them from a dealer I wouldn't feel right asking for a replacement. Just gonna see how long it lasts. The Spiro E and A are probably going on the bass next. The more I played spirocores on this bass, particularly the G, I kept wanting a warmer sound and so far, the Obligatos are the ticket.

I just put some Obligatos on the Q bass. It has been strung with Spirocores because I love them for growl, playing jazz. But it is Quinn's bass (my 14 y/O son whom I built the bass for), and he was trying to play Mozzart with those spiros and I realized how selfish I had been. So I changed them.

They bow much easier and I can notice how much easier it is to get the string started with these compared to Spiros. And they don't sound too bad pizz style. The wolf on the A string went away also and I don't need the brass wolf eliminator.

So for so good.

Ken, sometimes parenthood is a lesson in unselfishness. I've been at it for 19 years and hope to figure it out at some point. :confused:
I'm loving these strings on my bass. My bass finally sounds like I want it to.

I just wrote a longer reply, but my programm crashed.
Anyway, I played obligatos for the last 2 years, and had no problems with the 2 sets I used up in this time, other than a broken E string that I played for one year in a period where I moved the bridge aroung a lot.

I liked them quite a lot, but now I don´t care too much anymore - they bend too much under the bow, and have a bit undefined pitch.

I have TI belcantos on my bass now for a week, they are getting better every day, sustain increases (!), more growl... I´m curious how they will sound in a month. Arco is fantastic, easier than the Obligatos IMO.
If you want a string that sounds warmer thans Spiro, but has a very defined pitch and speaks fast, give BC a try.

hmmm.... funny...
I've been using Obligatos for a while and haven't had any problems with strings coming apart, or rolling and the set I am using now might be close to being 3 years old and I think that it sounds great!
I play mainly Jazz with that bass and occasionally I'll bring it to an Orchestral rehearsal where they also sound very sweet and mellow enough to blend in with the other basses.

Obligatos..
 

I used to really like them for playing both jazz and classical when I started back playing after a 15 year layoff. Every time an Orchestra player tried one of my basses with these strings he commented that they were not orchestra strings. As I got more and more warmed up and started playing heavier in Orchestra I realized he was right. With the digging in you need to do for Orchestra, they will only work on some basses. For the bigger Orchestra basses that you dig in on, the Obligatos are too light on the top and not stiff enough on the bottom. That 'roll' they talk about is from trying to play hard like you do when Bowing Orig. Flex's or Bel's. Evah's are a better bowing string I think than Obligatos as many players have done well with them. Those that thought the Evah's were not tough enough for Orchestra playing went back to regular steel cores like Flex or Bels.

The Obligatos are fun until your bow playing and even pizz playing is stronger then the response of the string on a particular bass.

I have the new Passione's on a few of my Basses. Some with Ext. and some without. One of the sets is the Stark. They sound and play like an Orchestra version of the Obligatos or Evah's.

It is not all that easy finding a string that works for both you, your bass and your style or needs of playing. Usually, it's not one single string for each bass if you have more than one. Besides your taste in strings, the bass has something to say about it as well as your bow. Listing to the wood talking to you!;)