I have recently bought one of these Archer basses as a return to playing after 20 years of not really doing much and after a bit of setting up - bridge height and some working of fingerboard - it now has a decent action. My previous bass was a quite nice French Jacquet School, but I'm not sure yet about this very nice looking (in terms of the wood) bass.
It's fine for pizz work with the supplied strings - they are actually quite nice and smooth sounding, but for arco work its terrible! My guess is that this is most likely the fault of the default strings and that I need to invest in some better ones. After a lot of reading, I am tempted by the D'Addario Hybrids but does anybody really know that this will make the difference I'm after.
Some more info perhaps:
Slow slurred arco is fine - warm even sound across all four strings.
Slow detached arco - also OK but bow attack needs some effort to ensure consistency (& strong left hand)
Fast detached - terrible scratchy noise - strings hardly speak at all! - and this is what I want the bass to be able to do!
As said, I assume I need better strings, but before I fork out the £100+ needed ... can anyone think of anything else I should try setup-wise first?
Archer "Professional" double bass
in EUB and Double Bass
Posted · Edited by hudson_m
I have recently bought one of these Archer basses as a return to playing after 20 years of not really doing much and after a bit of setting up - bridge height and some working of fingerboard - it now has a decent action. My previous bass was a quite nice French Jacquet School, but I'm not sure yet about this very nice looking (in terms of the wood) bass.
It's fine for pizz work with the supplied strings - they are actually quite nice and smooth sounding, but for arco work its terrible! My guess is that this is most likely the fault of the default strings and that I need to invest in some better ones. After a lot of reading, I am tempted by the D'Addario Hybrids but does anybody really know that this will make the difference I'm after.
Some more info perhaps:
Slow slurred arco is fine - warm even sound across all four strings.
Slow detached arco - also OK but bow attack needs some effort to ensure consistency (& strong left hand)
Fast detached - terrible scratchy noise - strings hardly speak at all! - and this is what I want the bass to be able to do!
As said, I assume I need better strings, but before I fork out the £100+ needed ... can anyone think of anything else I should try setup-wise first?
Mark