Posted by fiddlepogo on Wednesday, January 15, 2014
The first one to get the Tonicas was Booker, which had Zyex before. Booker is my bright sounding Bucharest.
It had sounding pretty good with Zyexes, I thought, but they sure were tired. I put them on last March, and they'd been on Stinky for a bit before that.
At first, I didn't like the Tonicas on Booker, and my weak finger wasn't liking them either, but then I tuned in down to Baroque... and I really like it down there. (GbDbAbEb) Booker was the first to get the Prim Lisa E, which is a VERY sweet E string. More on that later.
Then, I replaced the old Tonicas on Carthy with the new ones, which are the new formula.
I hadn't realized that the Tonicas on Carthy were as tired as they were.
I put 2 old Zyex on Stinky low side, and an old Tonica for the A. I wanted to see how the old strings compared with each other. They didn't match, so I needed to go one way or the other. I decided to go with the Tonicas, since they seemed more responsive and 3 dimensional. Today I finished that.
I also put the Prim Lisa E on Carthy, and also on Stinky, in both cases replacing the Lenzner Goldbrokat E's. Booker has a medium one, but I put Light E's on Carthy and Stinky.
The Light Lisa E on Carthy is a winner, even tuned down, because of the tilted back bridge making the scale a little long, I guess.
The medium Lisa E on Booker is also a winner, tuned down.
Both are VERY sweet.... they might be too sweet matched with steel strings, but with my synthetics, they are perfect... except there is this odd feeling- NORMALLY I'm trying to bow the E more gently to make it match the sweetness of the synthetics- NOW I can just kind of relax on the E, and need to bow the 3 synthetic strings more gently to match the sweetness of the Lisa E!!!
These E strings could SPOIL you!!!! It's looking like they are a good choice for fiddles with a problematic E.
It's odd but nice having two Baroque tuned fiddles. I'm concerned about the finger though. I really did want to have Booker be my standard A440 tuned fiddle, but that finger! Stinky has a shorter scale, so I think I can get away with standard on it, but we'll see.
I may have to try LIGHT tension Tonicas if I want a standard tuned fiddle, because of the finger.
The Lisa E on Stinky is still settling in. Since it's the light tension one, it may not have enough tension for Stinky, but we'll see, and if not I'll put the medium on it. I'm hoping it works, since the E on it has been a problem for a long time.
(later edit)
The Tonicas are fine on Booker when tuned down, but when tuned to standard, Booker + Tonicas = NASAL! ;-P
So yeah, I might be trying me some Dee a dairy, oh! Helicopters.... but with the Titanium A.
3 comments on “Tonicas and Prim Lisa E strings.... so far, so GOOD, mostly!”
Humbled by this instrument Says:
Tuesday, January 21, 2014 @4:31:33 AM
I've had my Helicore mediums on my main fiddle for...drum roll...two years in April. Played tons of gigs, daily practices. No unraveling A ever. Intonation still very good. Tone still fine. Should change them, yes, but sloth and a rebellious nature keep them on.
fiddlepogo Says:
Tuesday, January 21, 2014 @7:14:02 AM
Sloths only HAVE three toes.... must be TOUGH playing fiddle with only 3 toes!
Humbled by this instrument Says:
Wednesday, February 5, 2014 @9:37:50 AM
Changed my Helicores a week ago. New Helicores. Brighter but they'll soon deaden a bit. I like that they stay in tune whatever the condition, almost. Hot, cold, high altitude. IIRC, Lou uses Tonicas on one of his fiddles and likes them a lot. They didn't work for my fiddles (or maybe it's just I?) (I? Yeah, I'm using a subjective case personal pronoun following the linking verb ("Be" verb) "is...."
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