Double Bass Spirocore E experience so far - normal?

[turf3]

So I've been playing about 8 years and 7 of those on my current bass (first year was a rental). It's a fairly heavily built Romanian flatback fully carved (generic store-brand label, but I believe from the Gliga factory). Up till a couple weeks ago I was using the same set of Belcanto strings it came with. I play bluegrass, folk, and jazz on this bass. I use the bow pretty extensively for practice, but only for practice. My bowing sucks.

For pizz, unamplified, the low E has always been weak, so I recently bought a Spirocore Weich E. Are my experiences below about normal?

1) It still seems to be stretching out; every day when I tune up, the old A D and G strings might a a bit higher, or a bit lower, than the day before, but the E is reliably almost a half step low. Once I tune up, it stays in tune through a practice session of an hour or so, so I don't think it's slipping. I haven't changed strings on a double bass before; is it typical for a Spirocore to take several days to "settle"? It's not upsetting particularly, it's just that I haven't done this before. It seems like bass guitar strings and acoustic guitar strings settle pretty fast.

2) It started out sounding really "twangy" and that is settling down quite a bit. The tone is still somewhat different than the Belcantos. It does seem to project a bit more and might be a teeny bit easier to play. If I went to the Mittel E, would I be likely to get even more projection (all of this is about the unamplified sound), without being too hard to play?

3) It doesn't seem any harder or easier to get my crappy bow sound with the Spirocore than it was with the Belcanto. I keep reading about how tough it is to bow Spirocores. Am I just not good enough with the bow to have this be a factor? Or maybe it's something about the higher Spirocore strings?

Pardon all the questions but I am new to double bass and for sure new to the double bass string selection rat hole.

 

[DoubleMIDI]

The Spiro Weich (4/4) are easier to bow, but maybe a bit too less tension for the Belcanto. The Mittel are harder to bow. Try the 3/4 Souro Weich, more tension than the 4/4 Weich, but easier to bow than 4/4 Mittel.
The higher Spiro strings (mostly the G) are a bit unpopular, but this depends on the set.
Spiros need to be played (bowed!) a lot. They sometimes sound harsh to the player (and the pickup when amped), but not to the listeners in the auditorium.

 

[unbrokenchain]

Your experience sounds normal to me. They stretch for a few days like most bass strings, take months to lose the twang though. I wouldn't say they're difficult to bow necessarily, just tend to require more bow pressure to get started, at least the mittel variety. I've found the 3885 easier to bow than the S42s on my basses, both weichs and mittels. YMMV of course

 

[Sam Dingle]

I'd say you should replace the rest of the set with more spiro weich. But your experience seems normal to me. It should calm down and be solidly in tune soon.

 

[sean_on_bass]

It can take up to a few weeks for the tuning to stabilize, and keep in mind changing weather conditions(temp/humidity) can throw tuning out of whack alone. Whether you would get more projection out of a mittel is hard to say without trying. Different basses seem to like different tensions and i am starting to think it can be a function of total pressure on the bridge rather than each individual string. My own bass seems to resonate more when the tension is a little higher on the bridge overall.

Spiros can be bowed to satisfaction, i just see them as a very active string that is a bit more reactive to what you are doing with the bow. They have a lively response to the bow compared to a string like Evah's which has a flatter response. IMO of course.