'The Bass'

[Ken Smith]

I just strung up a new Bass I acquired with regular Flexocor and a Stark 'E'. I could not believe the growl the Bass had for jazz type pizz. It has its normal booom orchestral pizz sound but played as a Jazz Bass, it just 'smokes' with those strings.

I am throughly convinced now that the actual Bass can have more to do with the growl than the string itself. On many other Basses, these strings would just go 'thud'. One might be thinking "this must be a bright sounding Bass, no?" NO! It has more of a low sweet smooth Organ type sound actually.

The Bass I am referring to is my newly acquired ex-Riccardi Storioni Pear shaped cornerless Bass c.1780, formerly attr. to d'Salo.

For Bowing, these strings are one of the top choicies for Orchestral players but rarely used for Jazz. I have used Orchestral strings for many of my Basses recently and the Jazz sound is just fantastic. Sometimes due to the added smoothness and depth of the Bass and String combined it gives more of an 'old school' sound but regardless, on the right Bass, Orchestral Strings can tear it up on the Jazz set.