OFC's?

[Ken Smith]

I had a Piano/Bass Jazz duo gig yesterday and wanted to bring a fairly big bass to play without an amp. I brought my 4/4 Panormo school bass but it's strung with Original Flat Chromes (g,d,a) and a Flexocor 92 stark E/C. I didn't need the extension but I wanted a big Organ-like bass. As it turned out the strings performed way past my expectations for a Jazz-like sound. I had as much sustain as I needed and didn't have to play hard at all.

I had tried these strings, a full set including the E/C on my Hart which is my main bass but they didn't work as well tonally with the Bow as did the Belcantos so I put them aside for the future. The Panormo school bass had a better jazz pizz response as compared to the Hart which besides being a smaller bass ('only' a 7/8 Maggini, lol) was also a darker sounding bass. Go figure..

I would now like to add the OFC's to the list of Orchestra Strings that work well for Jazz. They play smooth and sweet with sustain. As a matter of fact, I played a few upper register harmonics in the 3rd position on the G string and they rang quite nice and that's with a 4/4 deep ribbed 200 year old bass. These strings surprised me so I thought I would share my experience.