Belcantos for Jazz?

[Ken Smith]

After a mini-String search (more on that here) I put a set of Belcantos back on the Martini that were on the bass briefly awhile back but the Hart at that time needed them more so like a good sport the Mr. Martini is, he gave them up respecting the wishes of his elder!

Today however, I pulled them off the Hart and put the Bel's back on the Martini where I wanted them originally. The Hart is doing just fine with its old Flex.92s back on that were on for the most part since its restoration in Oct. of '07.

The Martini has some decent tension and not a lot of after ring to the notes which for Jazz is better I think than having a mushy sustain with no center to the note.

For me, Jazz Bass should not be that buzz saw type sound that makes more noise than it does music notes. Somewhere between the old Gut sound and the modern Spiro tone is what I personally like. The Martini has a nice clear Pizz tone acoustically but I've yet to test it with my Amp and Pickup. I think these will sound more like a mature older type sound than Spiros but not at all that gut like. Fat Steels basically.

My goal has always been setting up each Bass so it can do everything with the same set of strings. My old Italian Bass some 25-35 years ago was mainly strung with Spiros. I played everything with that bass from Jazz to Orchestra and it was just fine. The Martini at 91 years old is less than half the age of my old flame and it needs what it needs to be versatile across the board. I think Belcantos can be universal on the right Bass.

I must mention here that the regular E string Belcanto is lighter in gauge and tension that the slightly beefier Extended E/C string. A major difference between the two for the better as far as having an extension.