Evah Pirazzi Weichs

[Ken Smith]

Ok, now that I've had some time with these strings on several of my basses (all only briefly) I can comment on them with more experience in the tests I did.

I used the Weichs on 2 of my basses for a short time. These were some good basses as well. One was the Mougenot and the other my Big Gamba. I put them on the Mougenot after I brought the Gamba in for a C-extension. When the Ext. was completed I brought the Mougenot in for restoration and took the strings with me. Afterwords, I didn't have an Ext. E/C for the Weich set so I put a regular set of Evah's that had been on my Gilkes earlier. The only 'new' set tested was on the Gamba for a few weeks before it went in the shop.

I had heard from one of the string distributors I met while at the ISB that there was now a Weich E/C string available. So a few weeks after returning from the show I called and ordered a few sets. I put that set on my Hart which had a fairly newish set of Belcantos on it. While doing this I layed out my Martini on another bench and pulled off the 92s putting the Belcantos on the Martini while putting the new Ext. Weichs on the Hart, one string at a time.

When it was all done I actually liked the Martini with the Belcantos better than the Hart with the Weichs as far as improvements go. The Hart being an older flatter arched Top with numerous repairs as compared to the Martini, half the age of the Hart, with a high arch and only a fraction of the repairs.

As time went on, because of the shoulders mainly of the Martini as compared to the wider Maggini model Hart, I stuck with playing only the Martini. I went back and forth between all 4 of my Basses here for a period of about 4 weeks, each time ending back with the Martini for comfort reasons mainly.

I had thought to myself over and over 'how would the Martini sound and react with the lighter tensioned Weichs on it being that it has such a strong Top'. Switching strings between two basses and tuning them back up (both with bow quivers attached) takes me about 2 hours in total from start to finish. The Extension string taking the time of 2 strings on and off per bass. It's tight up in there.

So last night while working late I said, 'maybe I can try this now', looking up at the clock..10:30pm.. So.. I did it and switched the Belcantos back to the Hart and the bass actually thanked me.. I think.. smooth Bel's sing on that bass and the Weichs on the Martini feels like I have an improved bass.

Ok, orchestra bowing wise, you can 'hammer' Bel's and Flexocor's all day long but the Evah's are half way between gut and steel in playability. The Pizz on the Martini for jazz is the best it's ever been in the 5 years I've had the bass. The string response being softer is no less powerful than the heavier Bel's. The feel under the left hand I must say is about as good as it gets for me.

So, Evah Weich's with the Ext. E/C has just given new life to the Martini. Also, I will be using mainly this one bass through out the season so I will have a lot more to report back about once the Orchestra season starts. All I have to do now is fit my pickup into the bridge wings so I can take it out on the few Jazz gigs I do during the year. That's if the venue is safe for an expensive bass on the gig location..