NickA

Congrats and welcome 🙂 Double bass strings don't really go dead the way electric bass strings can. I was using the thomastic spirocores I bought with my bass, in 1988, up until quite recently ( admitted, I did buy a set of helicores in 2001 and used them for a decade or so ). So expensive, yes, but annual cost low. And my current set of spiros were 2nd hand from these pages and cost £70 ( I think). Keep your eyes out, people are always swapping and changing strings. The wrong strings will make the bass sound dead for pizz, and if anything will perk it up it's a set of spiros. Go weich for starters to save your fingers; though personally I like the heft of the full strength sort. Evah Pirazzi strings are good, but really only better than spiros if you're going to use a bow sometimes. My first bass (at school) was a half size boosey and hawkes .. it had no low end at all and didn't pizz well. Certainly an element of deadness there. Let's face it you're not going to sound like Charlie Haden or Eddie Gomez on an East European laminated school bass, but it'll be fine for learning the basics .. just don't expect too much of it. And with the pickup and amp you'll need to play in a band, the difference is far less. Have fun!

Tim Toft. They're very good. You'll not go wrong there. I'm looking to get an adjustable on my own bass, Tim Bachelor also quoted £130 to modify my existing bridge .. so that seems to be THE PRICE. sadly I think my existing bridge is knackered.

How much??!!! "Only" £200 here: https://www.thestringzone.co.uk/categories/evah-pirazzi-slap Cheaper than normal ep. You get th slap for free!

It's the fitting the feet to the belly of the bass that's the hard part. You need to tape some sand paper to the bass then rub the bridge back and forth till the bridge feet have the same curve as the bass. Harder than it sounds. I think pros chisel off most of the foot then sand the last few mm. Worth paying to have a bridge supplied and fitted I think. Though most luthiers will find "other work" that needs to be done and you end up spending a load. Stand firm!

Here's what I have. Helicore Hybrid Series, medium tension. Steel core. Not much "thump" to them, quite soft. A deal quieter than my "full strength" spiros and less hard work to finger. NB: just listening to Eddie Gomez .. a sound I like, & pretty much thump free. Spiros apparently.

This for the dB or the new cello project? I have some dAddario Helicore Hybrid bass strings ... A guy I had lessons from says they are the worst of both worlds in that they don't pizz or bow well. I would say they bow easier than my full tension spiros and still work ok for pizz ( actually I don't think the band members can tell the difference, and the audience don't care ). Orchestra rehearsals start again next month and ( if a few clients pay invoices) I'll be upgrading to Evah Ps .. which bow AND pizz better. Upon which the helicores could go to a new home. Nothing does pizz like spiros imho, but then, I do like a "modern" long sustain sound with less thump and more mwah 😉

..was the issue with my analogue octaver; but a digital (polyphonic) one should just halve the frequency of the whole waveform.

I was a cellist first and a bassist much later. It would be really weird to play a cello in 4ths for me. What fingering to use? If you do simandl (as I do n a dB) your fingers may not fit. If you do 1f1f ( as I do on an e bass) it should work ok with the option of getting a 4th by string crossing or fingering but if you're not a 1f1f player it's another hurdle to jump. Get a cheap cello bow, it will work better than a good bass bow. I've tried a pickup and octaver on a cello. It wasn't good. But that was an old analogue boss oc2 .. a modern digital one should drop the pitch ok, though the timbre still won't be that of a dB. Try a TC electronics sub and up, very clean sound. The cello repertoire is a lot easier to play in 5ths ... But its not clear what you do want to play. Double bass parts with less finger stretching?

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/pirastro-oliv-take-care-durability-life.1101558/ Conclusion = sound nice, suprisinly good for pizz, don't last long especially under changing temp and humidity. Slap will likely kill them. Go specialist slap strings or compromise on Evahs.

Spot on with point 1. Owning a 5 has improved my 4 string playing.

My first bass has been modified so extensively that the only bit left of the original is the neck plate, which says "made in Japan" though the body and neck are from Derbyshire (Alan Marshall), the electronics from Northampton (John east) and the bridge and pickups German ( schaller and Delano ). I guess the gotoh tuners are Japanese. 🙂

Extreme classical bowing strings aren't they? My experience of top end pirastro strings is that they don't last long and don't take much abuse. Doubtless someone will disagree.

Old instruments often have modern strings. In the case of cellos and violins they've often been heavily modified to project better anyway. Plenty of 1700s instruments fitted with tungsten wound steel strings. I like the sound of my 1880s double bass with low action full weight Spiro's on it. I can hear what I'm playing and have some sustain. But yes, if people ( drummers and pianists) would play quieter and sax players would forgo the microphone we could all maybe learn to like gentler strings. NB: used to use silver wound gut on my cello, loved the gritty woody sound, but they we always out of tune and frequently broke .. now using silver wound synthetics and steel larsens.

Point! 🙂 .

My new cello bridge cost £154 fitted ( no adjustors of course ) the blank was the best (despiau, grade A, C02) one they had in stock at £84, fitting £70 (an hour's and a bit work I guess). They didn't do all the fancy stuff of removing and shaping bits of the bridge blank that some people insist on.... but it fits the belly and the finger board curve perfectly; for a £10k istrument it's fine .. seemed a bit harsh at first but now played in nicely. If I had a £100k cello I might be more fussy! The nearest equivalent despiau 4/4 DB bridge I found is £117, same price with adjusters pre fitted if you drop a few quality grades. Quite adequate for most us amateurs I'd imagine. Admitted, if you want the finest grade A blank, custom carved, then fitted with the finest ebony adjusters, it's going to cost! NB it's not the Jag technician you're paying for, it's the fancy show room, the massive tooling cost, an overweight management structure and the profit margin that heads off to India! 😉

With Squires out there why would anyone buy a Columbus. Back in the 70s /80s a real fender was £400+ (three weeks wages for me). There were no Squires. But after rent (£10 a week) beer money (£3) and living expenses (£20) I saved for a 2nd hand £90 jap jazz copy ( Grant not Columbus, but same ilk). It was aawful( dead ply body, low output pickups, slippy truss rod, bumpy fingerboard) and over the years had a small fortune spent on it ... still have bits of it. Just buy a squire... better still a Yamaha 😉

Trouble will be the cost of bringing it up to scratch. Any buzzes, rattles, soft spots, you may be talking £2k+ to fix ... in order to get a £5k bass. But yes, German. Likely Markneukirchen. 1890s at oldest. I have quite a similar shaped one, though the back on mine is carved not flat and the condition is better. Mine was valued at £7500, but I think £6500 is nearer the mark. Doubt a dealer would pay me more than £4.5k though (sucks teeth, "may need a lot of work before we could put it in the showroom")

Spot on. I've found the same .... but when playing the 4, sometimes try to find note on the missing B string

Good to see no-one has recommended Simandl !