arrgh. my wound guts are buzzing! What to do?

toman · #1 11-07-2003, 11:14 PM

Wow. I went to practice to day, and all of a sudden my bass sounds like complete poo and my strings are buzzing like crazy. I'm assuming the core has shrunk, maybe from the cold winter weather? Anyway, what can I do, this really sucks!

kip · #2 11-08-2003, 09:26 AM

One thing I've noticed is that my wound gut strings (Velvet Anima's)always require a good warming up, 10 to 15 minutes of scales, etc. before they settle in and sound right. Might be further exacerbated by the cold weather. Is your practise room cooler now than in the summer?

toman · #3 11-08-2003, 04:20 PM

well the wierd thing is that it happened all of a sudden. I play everyday, and it didn't do this the day before yesterday. My room is pretty warm, probably the same as it is in summer although I know it's not as humid a it should be because I leave a window open. (some things just have to comprimise; I can't live in a greenhouse...) Can would gut strings be oiled or anything to swell up the core? Or are my strings toast...

kip · #4 11-09-2003, 08:38 AM

Well, if you have another set of strings, put them on and see how it sounds. This might be a good place to start eliminating possibilities.

toman · #5 11-09-2003, 04:33 PM

I know changing strings will solve the problem, since the problem is the strings themselves. Unfortunately, I really like these strings and I can't afford another couple hundred dollars for some new ones. Therefore, I'm trying to find a way to solve my problem rather than just give up and put on some other strings.

**Adrian Cho** · #6 11-12-2003, 05:29 PM

What wound gut are you using?

See
this thread for the reason about why I now always detune my wound gut strings. I don't know whether it will help you but I found it interesting that you suspect a shrunken core and I suspected the same thing in my case although the broken windings was my greatest concern. Come to think of it now, there may also have been buzzing problems too. I certainly don't have any problems with my wound guts now (buzzing or otherwise).

toman · #7 11-12-2003, 07:45 PM

I'm using Eudoxas. As of today, they're starting to get back to normal, so I'm not sure what happened. I haven't done anything to them except deal with it and play them for the last few days, and I think they're going to be ok. These strings are starting to get pretty old, the wrap is sparating in a few places and like that, so I think I'll be replacing them soon. maybe then I'll start de-tuing them... All I know is that I'm glad i'm not doing any serious performing right now, because if those strings did what they did the other day right before a performance I'd be screwed.

kwd · #8 11-14-2003, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Might be further exacerbated by the cold weather. Is your practise room cooler now than in the summer?

I'm thinking about trying guts early next year. I practice in the garage. I'm in CA so the temp rarely gets below 30 deg at night. That being said, should I even be thinking about gut strings?

**Adrian Cho** · #9 11-14-2003, 01:41 PM

Guts are definitely a pain with the unstable tuning but for some of us, they are worth it because there's nothing else that can really emulate their sound and feel. I've tried Obligators, Innovations, Spirocores, Flexocors, Animas, and none were what I was looking for until I started using the Olivs and Eudoxas.

toman · #10 11-15-2003, 03:28 AM

I have no problems with gut, ordinarily. You do have to tune them more often than other strings, but it's a good tradeoff for me. I don't think it would be a big problem for most people unless you play in a lot of different places every day. i.e. if you're a student or something they might be a bit of a pain. I'd still use them though.