Good old Weichs!

[Bin Hire]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

Unless you have a very dark smooth sounding bass, usually old Italian or German 200 years or more and play very well with the Bow classically, bowing 'Spiros reds' instead of standard Orchestra bowing strings, the 'barbed wire' sound will not blend in with the rest of the bass section.

I have seen a few Extension Es in the Reds and occasionally a mixed set with the E and A in Reds but rarely do I see any level headed Orchestra player using a full set of Spiro Reds in USA. There are just so many better choices for bowing strings. Usually a player starts with the smoothest string he can find for bowing and then starts gradually brightening up the sound testing other strings till he gets what he needs to match the desired sound of the section.

Show me a professional Orchestra with all the basses bowing on Reds. Please!

Ken, when you mention reds, are you talking about all the Spiros, or just the medium ones?
I humbly suggest that the bass is also bowed in other settings, not just in the orchestra.

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Bin Hire

Ken, when you mention reds, are you talking about all the Spiros, or just the medium ones?
I humbly suggest that the bass is also bowed in other settings, not just in the orchestra.

Red's are the medium ones and back in my younger days, there was only one kind and maybe solos. Weichs were not out just yet and Stark Reds are more recent to me ears. Are there others that are Red at both ends?

Other settings? Sure, why not but the true test I thought was playing Orchestra music or Classical type solos.

Who wants to head scratchy bowing?

No one I know..

[Bin Hire]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

Red's are the medium ones and back in my younger days, there was only one kind and maybe solos. Weichs were not out just yet and Stark Reds are more recent to me ears. Are there others that are Red at both ends?

I got confused because this thread was talking about Weichs. A thousand apologies.

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

Other settings? Sure, why not but the true test I thought was playing Orchestra music or Classical type solos.

Who wants to head scratchy bowing?

No one I know..

The Weichs don't scratch much and are quite bowable, but I agree that other strings are a better choice if one is going to bow.
Any bowing situation is a true test, in my humble opinion.