Has anyone tried these for slap or bluegrass? For the price I just had to order a set. Another question...Are Gut strings easier for a beginning slapper? Any help would be welcome.

Hey groove,

Weedwhackers are very popular with slap bassists, as are guts. I have just started to learn slap. I play guts, but that's because I want the Bob Moore/Classic Nashville sound. Slapping is something new I want to do. Check this place out, and get into the discussions with the slap community:

http://www.rockabillybass.com/phpBB/

Bill

Amazing...a set of upright strings for less than a pack of electric bass strings. I'd sure love to hear more from people using these things...I might just have to order a set to try.

I tried a set of Labella black nylon tape wound strings (Ron Carter) and really liked them. However, after the end of many a long gig, I found them to have a bit too much tension so I eventually switched back to a lighter metal guage.

So, will these big honkin' boingers sound good with traditional jazz? I'd love to go gut and try for a Paul Chambers vibe, but I'm afraid to spend a couple hundred bucks on a good set of guts, modify my instrument to fit them, and then discover I might not like them afterall.

I have a Barbera pickup so I've got plenty of gain to amplify nonmetal strings. In fact, the Labellas sounded pretty darn full with my setup.

"So, will these big honkin' boingers sound good with traditional jazz? I'd love to go gut and try for a Paul Chambers vibe, but I'm afraid to spend a couple hundred bucks on a good set of guts, modify my instrument to fit them, and then discover I might not like them afterall."

You can use them short term without widening the nut or bridge slots without damaging the strings.
Give them a try. If you don't like them, you have not modified the bass & it didn't cost much.
I love the A, D & G strings. Much like guts, E string does not have enough tone or sustain for my tastes.

I use Barefoot Larry's D & G. on my bass. I play mostly acoustic western swing, about 2/3 slap. I love these things, and can't reccomend them enough. The tension is very low (lower than any other strings I've played), and for slap the sound is truly excellent. the A string sounds good too, I am gonna put it back on eventually. The E sounds a bit dead though, and it's huge! Most players just use another brand E.

They sound a lot like plain guts to me. one thing to note is that they are absolutely smooth to the touch. If this is a problem, take some 600 grit sandpaper to them, for a bit of texture. I personally like the smooth feel.

Barefoot gets them in a translucent/clear color, and dyes them black now. He will give you a clear set if you ask him (He has been working on dying and sanding to produce a faux-gut look, but hasn't perfected it yet). If you go to a hardware store to buy the trimmer line, you will end up with a mis-matched, brightly colored set of clown strings. The most common commercial 'wacker clors are neon orange, bright green, dark red, or dark green. They are usually different colors in different guages. Be sure and not get that serrated trimmer line, ouch!

They amplify well with my Rev Solo, and the volume matches my metal E & A. They will bow if you build up some rosin on them, but my ear isn't really trained for arco tone, so I can't really comment on that.

It's worth it to try them out, especially if you slap. If your thinking of plain guts, but don't know if they are right for you, these will get you 90% of the sound for 10% of the price. For $20, there is really not a whole lot to lose.

http://www.traditionmusic.com/stringsfaq.html

http://www.traditionmusic.com/store.html

I put a set of Barefoot Larry’s weedwacker strings on my old Cleveland American Standard that I use for jazz only. I’m surprisingly pleased as is our guitar player who loves the sound. Another bassist who sat in with us likes them so much that he’s getting a set.
Under your ear they sound a little less sustaining than a steel string but not very much. In the audience there is plenty of sustain, warmth, definition and bloom. Previously I was using Spirocores and I don’t think that I will be going back to them. I may try real guts or Animas but for now these are working great for me. Unamplified, I perceive them as quieter than steels but I haven’t tested that out in a large room. For bowing they work well enough using sticky rosin such as Carlsson or Oak. I did use 600 grit sandpaper on them to get rid of the gloss as well as some left hand squeaking. They do stretch a lot but after 5 days they seem to have settled. As they settle the sound and pitch becomes more focused. The E sounded really dead at first but is quite acceptable now. I’ve had them less than a week. I’ll report later on any new developments. That’s the end of my rambling thoughts.

Jallenbass, any new feedback on these strings??

depending the treatment theses kind of strings receive, sound could be different.
i tried Larry's ww and found them a bit unprecises, but very easy to slap for sure. E was too flabby howewer.
recently, a guy sent me a set of similar strings, here in France, that he treated with thermic method as it seem and they sound surprisingly defined, with nice harmonics and excellent "punch". Even in jazz, its very nice to hear.
compared to "classic" strings, even gut, theses WW are nice for slap, old school jazz, swing, but lack of sound as soon you play near the end of the fb...

Do you have an internet site for these French strings? I'd like to find out about them. I don't use weedwhackers now, but I was the one who discovered that dyeing them with powdered dye made them sound better, so I'd like to hear about this thermic method you speak of.

Jallenbass, any new feedback on these strings??
Two things:

Thing one - these strings punch through instead of cut through. You really don't need much in the way of highs. Maybe that's the same with real guts? I really like that quality.

Thing two: I like the sound of the E string as thumpy as it may be but I really have to play it lightly or else it rattles against the fingerboard. I might try a real unwrapped gut or maybe a dolce Jargar.

Actually three things - Not all of the higher positions are as clear but I don't care because I love the sound everywhere else. And they're $18.85 shipped to my door.

Jimmy, check your mp ! :D

These are my initial impressions:

They arrived saturday, and I installed them sunday. It was not as hard as I thought it would be. I had to use my needlenose pliers to hold the ends through the tuning peg holes, because they would slip out. I put about 4-5 wraps around, and then cut the ends with strong clippers. The clipper on my pliers was not strong enough, which was a good sign! The whole process took about an hour. The strings themselves looked and felt like the top three strings of a nylon acoustic guitar, only much thicker. The same thickness as guts. Once I got them on, they seemed to have the same pitch and tuning problems as guts. No worse. I immediatly started practicing on them in a band situtation, and I was very, very impressed. The tone was almost exactly the same as guts! Warm, deep, even articulate! In fact, my ears could not tell the difference at all. The tension was as low as guts, and the only difference really was the slick feel, which I have heard you can rough up with sandpaper. As far as I am concerned, these are the strings I will use on this bass from now on. Keep in mind that I am using a piezo pickup (K+K bass max) and am not playing classical or modern jazz. I am using these strings for roots music. I would not advise using these for arco, or in an orchestra or baroque setting. My band plays traditional hawaiian, western swing and folk. These strings are the most incredible things I have ever played since guts. I only wish I had made the 20 dollar investment sooner. I just ordered 4 more sets this morning! The value is obscene, as these strings will more then likely last a few years, and by all accounts, only sound better and hold their pitch more in time. Barefoot larry seriously needs to consider selling these things at all the major music chains, as they are perfect!!
PS, as of this morning, they had only dropped about 1/4 a note in pitch, and only two of them at that. The other two stayed perfectly in tune. I am sick that I payed 140 for metallic sounding Eurosonics, and had thought about other gut substitutes. IMHO, metal will never sound or feel like guts completly, but these things sure do! I will never pay 300 dollars for guts again. I will post if there are any changes soon with the sound, feel or tone!

BTW, since you brought it up, I have bowed weedwhackers successfully. They're not quite as easy to bow as guts, but they are bowable.

wow , this is serendipidous , a g**tar player told me about this just last week.

I would jump on them, because Barefoot Larry could sell these things for a LOT more!

I would pay 40+ for these things...compared to 300 for european guts?? I did the math!!

By the way, the correct name of this product is "Barefoot larry's hillbilly slap strings"!!!

Lucas - It sounds like you have experience with gut strings. Which ones have you used?

Hi, I am fairly certain they were either Lenzners or Clefts. I know they were not the most expensive guts in the world, and whatever they are, they came standard on the KING DOUBLEBASS, which is the chinese model. They sounded very good, but took about a solid two months of playing to really stretch and then mellow out and stop squeaking. Then, they sounded great.I was very bummed when the g string snapped! I think these HSS strings will do the trick! They have already started holding their pitch better then the guts, (On for two days) and the best thing is that weather changes will more then likely not effect them at all. One thing I have noticed already is that although many people have complained about the flabbiness of the E, and in some cases the A, both these strings so far have more punch and clarity then the gut E and A I had. To be fair though, I have not compared them to the top of the line European guts that sell for 300-400.

This is my two week update:

I expected to have tuning problems, but have had none! These strings have held their pitch! The only slight complaint I have are that there is a certain left hand "sqeakiness" that I am not sure will go away. The guts I used before had the same issue, but it went away after a few months. Other then that, these things are excellent for what I need them for! So good, that I ordered 4 un-colored sets, which I got very quickly!

4 sets? Geez! That's a lot of spares! Well, glad you like them. People argue that they're a joke, but I argue that if it works, it works.

I too had the squeakiness problem with them, and quite honestly, I don't think it goes away. However, you can just chalk it up to the nature of the instrument and people will buy it. I understand that the E and A open up like guts do after a while, but I never could wait that long so I'm using a full set of Eudoxas right now, but I can easily envision the whackers going back on my bass at some point, because I am what they call a string whore.

not trying to hijack the post, but since you mentiones Eudoxas, Jimmy... Did you need to get any changes made after the plain guts to fit the eudoxas on your bass? I'm thinking on getting a set of those or maybe olivs (yeah, right! as soon as I rob a bank! ;) ) But I have Guts and I was wondering about that... OK, back to the weedwacker stuff:

I've never tried them, but most of the people that have, love them... so there must be something to them. There are so many kinds of materials strings are made out of: Steel, Nylon, Silk, animal intestines... I don't see why plastic wouldn't work.

Hi. I actually was very skeptical at first, because so many people had said they produced no sound at all. The only people talking highly of them were the RAB slappers. No one mentioned them as a choice for fingertstyle. I do some slap, but 98% of what I do is fingerstyle. I figured for the price, what the heck!

I always liked the mellow sound of a guittarone used in Mariachi music, and I realized those strings are mostly all vynyl and plastic, so I made the leap.

Last night, I had a few beers and practiced along with CD's. I went through several bossa nova CDs, then some western swing and finally I played through the entire Rat Pack live CD (yeah, Frank, Sammy, Dean) I was pleased to be able to get a jazz-like clarity on all the songs! In fact, I noticed that I had plenty of volume from my outfit, which I did not really expect. After all, I am using a KING DOUBLEBASS (which is very heavy and braced-not known for acoustic volume) and these weedwhackers. Regardless, the sound was excellent, even the E and A.

Some things I really like here are the feel. I was using Eurosonics for a while, after my guts, and even though they sounded great, they still had a metallic under-tone, and I could still feel the metal in these strings. These Weedwhackers have much more of a gut feel, as far as being soft and gentle on the hands. it really takes no effort to play on them at all.

I suppose I could buy spools of the stuff, but Barefoot larry already has them sized just right, and the putting the knot in would be a trick, unless you had two vices and pliers..so it;s good that they are ready to string. Probably these strings are not for everyone (Bop and classical purists) but for doing a wide variety of stuff, they are awesome! And don't believe the hype about no sound from the E or A...there is an audible pitch even right away. I am sure it will improve in time! My guts took much longer to set in, and the E and A were always sub-par..

not trying to hijack the post, but since you mentiones Eudoxas, Jimmy... Did you need to get any changes made after the plain guts to fit the eudoxas on your bass?
Nope. When I got the guts, all I did was file out the bridge slots and had my luthier file out the nut slots, and he was very careful not to cut the nut slots lower than they were. So putting Eudoxas on it wasn't a biggie. Had I an unlimited amount of money, I might have bought a new bridge and nut, but it doesn't seem to matter.

I noticed someone asked about the E string, so I am bumping this thread:

After 6 months I could not be more pleased, and wierdly, they bow great! On my King DB, the action is perfect and the 170 E makes no contact with the FB, but on my strunal, the E requires a lighter touch, or it will clack. If I had to, I might use the Eurosonic on the E, but the other three are excellent sounding!

Hey I am thinking about trying the helicores on the E and A and the weedwhackers on the D and G for playing bluegrass with ocasional slapping. Has anybody tried this and have an opinion? I have heard there may be an issue with too great a diference in tension between the steal and plastic?

I use a Corelli E&A, and a weedwhacker D&G, and it works real well for slapping.

A lot of slap players that use 'whackers use something else for at least the E, and sometimes the A too.

I'd like to try the Supersilvers on the E&A, I bet they would match up real nice.

hello
does anyone tried those weedwacker strings on EUB? i have a Palatino EUB and would love to try them. does anyone have experience with them on EUB?

I tried to buy some Weedwackers online from the UK and got nowhere. The money went from my Paypal account pretty promptly then nothing. There was no order confirmation by email. I left it a couple of weeks but then over the next few months I sent emails and left phone messages and eventually I got back an email written in a very bad tempered sounding tone which said that these strings were hand made and refused to give even a rough estimate of a delivery date. At no stage was my order confirmed and it all ended with an offer of my money back, which I gratefully accepted. Not recommended :scowl:.

FYI - there is a seriously long wait on the "Hillbilly Slap Strings" right now. (No one seems to know why) For anyone looking to try out weedwacker strings as a plain gut substitute, I recommend the FMI (fantastic musical instruments) version. These are frequently on ebay. I got mine very quickly and after the very lengthy playing-in time they sound good.

Basically the same strings as the without the wait. I would have rather ordered the HBSS, but can't see waiting 4-6 months.

i ordered the weedwackers strings fron ebay (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=180189680324&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=008) and got them two days ago and installed them on my Palatino EUB.
first impressions:
cons:
its tricky to install the E and A strings because they are too wide for the hole in the tuning post. need to melt some nylon with lighter and cut some stuff with cutter. hard work, but done it eventually.
need some time for the strings to get tuned and stay tune.
need to widen the slot on the bridge, because the E and A are wider than steel strings. didn't done it yet, and because its EUB and piezo pickup, i am not sure its really necessary.
to the pros:
they are really easy for the fingers - really easy to pluck and slap and to fingering on the left hand and the tension is really low.
the sound is nice, fat and thumpy. its really easy for walking bass lines, and i sure its will work great for Latin and Cuban and also for blues and jazz. i am not sure it will work very good on thump positions for solos, and didn't tried with a bow.
not great sustain.
that it for now.
hope to update after some time.

3 year update:

I have had the same set on since I posted about this three years ago. Those strings cost about 20 bucks back then, and if anything, they sound better all the time. They don't go dead or break like other strings when they get old. My 3 extra sets are in storage, as I have never needed to replace even one! The bass has gone from rainy and foggy climates to desert climates. No change. I rarely have to even tune my bass anymore.

At first I thought they would only be good for roots music, but I have used them in pretty much all environments. Be cautioned, though. If the totally clacky, high end modern jazz tone is your thing, avoid these. I do use them for bop, and they sound good enough. For country, Rockabilly, Bluegrass, folk, ethnic, etc...these things are even better then guts, INMO.

update:
i do like the fill of the A, D and G strings. the sound is nice. although sometimes i have weird finger noise. but the great fill is covering.
but i don't really like the E string. its too loose and wimpy..
what should i do?
i noticed the some people here, replaced the E string with something else. what are the suggestions?

In an interesting counter-story, I tried bass strings in my weedwhacker once. I thought the steel/nickel construction might have been a breakthrough in durability, and that I might have inadvertently stumbled upon a lucrative concept.

In fact, the bass strings lasted only a few seconds in the weedwhacker before coming apart completely and quickly. I am probably lucky not to have hurt myself.

Lucas, and John, I am wanting a gut string sound, but can't handle the cost or maintainence of real gut. After about four years now (original post being 2005), how are the weedwackers, or Hillbilly Slaps holding out? My bass was originally set up for guts, (so I just need to get the seam work done), but has been strung with steels for several years now (was never set up for steels by previous owner when he installed them, other than replacing the bridge, and I have the original bridge). How is the tuning, tone, etc. Still worth the investment?

I purchased a set and got an upgrade for free so I could try the enhanced version of the string. I had the modify the bass a bit (machine heads) to accept the thick strings. The short of it is that the strings never pitched correctly. The D was always flat. Customer service was great but we went through 5 sets before getting a set that worked. All was good for about 60 days. I played a few gigs...sound was killer fat, wall shaking lows but quickly stretched and I took them off. Went back to my workhores for many years Thomastik Spirocore Solo. I used the whackes on an Ampeg BB4 4/4.

I'm a pretty new player (less than a year). I've been thinking about trying some whackers since I play a lot of rockabilly and swing type stuff.

How does the tension compare to steels?

Does anyone use these with a fishman full circle? Opinions?

Lucas, and John, I am wanting a gut string sound, but can't handle the cost or maintainence of real gut. After about four years now (original post being 2005), how are the weedwackers, or Hillbilly Slaps holding out? My bass was originally set up for guts, (so I just need to get the seam work done), but has been strung with steels for several years now (was never set up for steels by previous owner when he installed them, other than replacing the bridge, and I have the original bridge). How is the tuning, tone, etc. Still worth the investment?

The investment is great! 30 bucks is nothing!
These work for just about every type of music except classical and hard bop, bebop or really clean sounding contempory jazz. These give you the old bass sound, I believe. I have had my current set on since 05. That's 4 years and they sound great. I actually removed the metal E I was using a while ago, and have all whackers.

However, I must say over the years my ears have craved a different tone, and for developing hand strenght I now use Spirocore weichs on my main jazz bass. I still have the wackers on my King bass, though.

These are very easy strings to play. Low tension, big, fat, thumpy.
They don't do much for developing callouses, though. And the volume is not as good acoustically. (example, I just did an entire gig last weekend for 3 hours using my spirocore weichs, with NO amplication. The sound carried all over a paved backyard area, no problem. I doubt I would have been able to pull that off with the whackers)

I'm a pretty new player (less than a year). I've been thinking about trying some whackers since I play a lot of rockabilly and swing type stuff.

How does the tension compare to steels?

Does anyone use these with a fishman full circle? Opinions?


bumping this - can anyone offer any input to me?

One last bump for anyone that is interested. I just got a set of superior weed wackers that I'm going to get installed in the next week or so.

the tension of my weedwackers is much less the steels.
sorry. no fishman. they are installed on my Palatino EUB with its on piezo pickup and the sound is very nice. but i don't play rockabilly.