Jazz/Pizz String taste and choices...

[Ken Smith]

I want to bring up this subject of taste and choice as not everyone hears the Bass the same way for jazz much less plays the same Bass. Years ago when I played Jazz the main string was Spirocore. I do remember a few using Ropecore by Thomastic as well but these are now called Superflexible and I think they have a new formula.

When I started back playing a few years ago I was told to try Obligatos. They worked fine on my Batchelder Bass which I used for all styles of playing including Orchestra.

In the last few years I have tried a ton of strings so I will list them as best I can. Spiros, Superflexible, Animas 180 (the bowing ones), Varicore, Helicore orch, Flexocor, Orig Flexocor, Olivs, Oliv/Eudoxa mix, Oliv/Jaegar Forte mix, Orig Flat Chromes, Permanents, Flexocor/Perm mix, Jaegar Forte, Jaegar F/Eudoxa mix, Labella Gut/Gut wound, Labella Steel/orch 7720, Eurosonics and a bunch or proto-type test sets from both Labella and Eurosonic (JR music).

I have played other sets as well while trying other Basses but these I actually put on the Basses I owned. Also, some of the Basses I acquired had old versions of Flexocor and Eudoxa steel (orig Flatchrome).

For an older type Jazz sound I have found that the better the Bass, the more kinds of strings that sound good on it. Some other Basses are more picky and only work with one or two string types. Just yesterday I switched A and E strings between two Basses. On my Bollbach Lion I had orig Flexocors on it at first but were a few years old. I had a set of Jaegar Fortes in my cabinet unused/unopened for about 2 years. I put them on the Lion and it sounded better in minutes. Still sweet on the top but easier to play on the bottom. Then I thought about my Eudoxas on the Bisiach across the room. At first I was going to switch the two Basses and just change strings between them but was worried I could damage the Olivs or Eudoxas. Yesterday I took a chance and swapped just the A and E and both Basses sounded better after. The Bisiach had more growl with the Jaegar E than did the Lion and the Lion sounded better with the Eudoxa E than either the Jaegar or the Orig Flex.

Every Bass I string up must have some kind of Pizz quality. Recently I got my Batchelder back after it was in NY and Germany being shown. I have some other customers looking so I brought it home. The Obligatos were 5 years old and not sounding good at all. The Bass was not set-up like it was 3 years ago when I put it up for sale as people just messed with it. I did a quick set-up and put this slightly used set of Thomastic Superflexible/Rope cores on it. WOW, talk about agressive growl. I have been told they are not as lively as Spiros but on this Bass they sounded great. I had old Spiros on the Bass when I got it about 6 yeas ago or so. These sound much better to my ear for this Bass as far as that newer growly Jazz tone we've heard since about the '70s.

On my Gilkes I have liked either Orig Flat Chromes or Flexocors for an older Jazz tone. Actually, I use Flex Starks on most of my Basses and get a thicker deeper Jazz tone. My Loveri likes the reg Flex over the Starks as the heavier ones choke the top. Still, it has some zing on that deeper toned old Bass sound.

So, a lot depends on first, what you want to hear and second, what Bass you are stringing up. This is often an expensive learning process finding what works for both you and your Bass.