Pirastro Olivs?! Rant alert.

[Paddy Morris]

WTAF is going on with Prastro Olivs?  I had an idle look on Bass Bags, who are usually pretty reasonable value for strings, I've always found.   A full set of Olivs are now £900!!  I mean, are they made of unicorn gut or something?

 

It does make you wonder who exactly they are marketed at, who is their target player?

 

If you compare that with say Evah Slaps which are still less than £250 for a set on the G4M site.  Olivs are maybe a bit nicer under the fingers. sound richer (to me, based on only having an Oliv A string!) and take a bow much better, but are completely not worth nearly 4 times the price.

 

I have a friend who is a pro orchestral player as is his wife, and I know for a fact that neither of them will be paying the equivalent of a mortgage payment for any strings at any point ever.  So I wonder who Pirastro are expecting will buy a set at that price?

[Beedster]

It's as much to do with international economics as anything deliberate by Pirastro I'd guess? Since Brexity/Trumpin, it's simply crazy  

[NickA]

Yes, they are made of unicorn intestines, hand wound by Bavarian nuns, high in the alps.

 

I think they were originally aimed at pro level classical soloists playing basses that cost £50k+ .   A louder and more projecting sound than eudoxas.

 

Not sure about pro double bass players these days, but cellists seem to have given up on them and switched to steel and tungsten ( Larsen and thomastik) which are cheaper, stay in tune and last forever... and sound very good.  Even pirastro recommend using Eva Ps for the A and E rather than olives across the board.