Yes, the interspersed bass notes. Nataly Haas was in town last week (with Alasdair Fraser), they played some of those old 1600-1700 Scottish tunes with octave jumps, and interspersed bass notes (Key to the Cellar, etc), and she made those bass notes stand up tall and sing loud on her cello. first time I heard them played properly like that. I have to do same now.
As for the thomastic strings, I wore out the winding on an A string on my octave. (it did not break, a plain E broke instead. new strings are in the mail from juststrings.com). And they are quite dull. They say "the brightness should be in the playing". So true. Have to work hard to make thomastic strings sparkle. Then when I play a mandolin with bright strings, result is positively dazzling. I use Wegen 2.5mm trimus picks.
As for the neck, we will know in a couple of weeks what the luthier has to say. I am tempted to order a good one from Nyberg ($$$, he is local here), but then I cannot take it to an Irish bar or busk on the street...
Bookmarks