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.

[Bloopdad1]

Unfortunately the price of strings has rocketed over the last 10yrs.

Its around £1000 for a 4 string set of Eudoxas and a little bit less for Olives (and many of us play 5 string basses raising the cost to £1350 - if we were to pay top whack). 

There was a time when you couldn't get a chair in a section if you didn't have Eudoxas on your bass... 

But back then the Pirastro rep would pop in the bass room and just fill up the basket with a few sets to be used free of charge. 

Not these days. 

Many bassists just stick a set of Evahs on and wait for them to get really old and thuddy

(I have Evahs on the top 4 and an original Flat Chrome B). 

Instead of going to Bass Bags, try asking your Luthier to order for you, they often have an account with Pirastro and will have a little discount. 

Also keep an eye out on Amazon of all places... Sometimes a set of Eudoxas pop up at almost half price!

Also consider Tempera Hybrids - they're very close to gut and come in around £450.

Might suit you better if you're primary a pizz player as they're quite soft. 

Also look at the Passione strings if you're mainly arco (thuddy pizz though) 

 

Evah slaps wouldn't be used. 

[NickA]

A Shout out for bassbags simply as they are local and have always been helpful for me ..and also my local emergency luthiers.. and they do get a discount and do pass some of it on.  For a set of Eva's, I didn't find anywhere cheaper.  But Amazon and eBay do indeed throw up all kinds of occasional bargains.

 

Big question is...do you really need guts, and all their expense and inconveniences, when synthetics are so very good these days.

 

Personally I like steel wound steel rope core strings best for pizz ..but the rest of my orchestra would rather I didn't 😂.