| Cachao strings
I was very fortunate to hang a few times with Cachao here in Miami. He played my basses live and on recordings. He said to me that if he had a choice he would prefer guts. He always rented basses, even locally because his acoustic was in unplayable condition (in need of repairs) and his other bass was an ampeg baby bass. He ALWAYS played whatever strings came on a rented bass. My experience with him was that he preferred spirocore weichs (similar tension to guts), why is this? Because he liked his action as high as possible because of his technique. He would play using his second finger mostly pulling forward like rockabilly slap players, he said that was the only way he could get a percussive and loud sound on the acoustic . I asked him if he had any influences from the old time slap bassists, he said no, but he knew personally all of them (Milt, Pops, etc). Check out the Calle 54 DVD. To me the Bebo Valdes/Cachao duo is the highpoint of the dvd (Michel Camilo/Anthony Jackson too). | 
You should check out the Andy Garcia movie Cachao: Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos. Cachao, Paquito muy caliente.
