Chris Woods strings?

spacecanoe · #1 08-08-2005, 01:43 PM

Anyone know what strings Chris Wood uses? I dig his tone. Alas i know its not just the strings but I am curious none the less.

**Jeremy Allen** · #2 08-08-2005, 02:48 PM

I seem to recall reading in an interview back in MMW's heyday (or are they still in their heyday?) that he used Olivs for the G and D and something steel on the A and E (Spirocores perhaps). He does get a great tone, very expressive and personal.

Bassmickeyd · #3 08-14-2005, 09:42 AM

As of Bass Player mag., issue dated Oct.1998; "Chris uses Goetz gut strings on his 1920's Pfretzschner upright." I'm sure he's moved on and uses somthing different, but, back then that's what he used. I saw him once in a outdoor concert setting, and, unfortunately he wasn't having a good bass day sound wise, but, I really liked the band.
Later

"They can land a man on the moon, but, they can't get the drummer to lay out durning a bass solo."

jmpiwonka · #4 08-19-2005, 10:07 PM

i think chris used steel strings back in the early days (notes form the underground, its a jungle in here) but i think these days he uses pirastro oliv strings. i got an article he had in one mag that was real recent, within a few months, and he has guts on the D and G strings, perhaps the rest of the OLIV set for his A and E strings.
i saw them in austin back in april or may and he definately didn't have an agressive steel string sound.

jmpiwonka · #5 09-05-2005, 09:07 PM

maybe these strings are olivs.
that pic is from about 5 months ago.

http://mmwpics.com/images/0424chris1.JPG

anonymous0726 · #6 09-06-2005, 12:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmpiwonka

maybe these strings are olivs.
that pic is from about 5 months ago.

I got the image in Photoshop and messed around with levels so that I could get a good read on the colors. The top three strings definitely look like Olivs. The bottom string looks like an Obligato, although the wrap at the ball end seems longer than on the other strings.

jmpiwonka · #7 09-06-2005, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ray Parker

I got the image in Photoshop and messed around with levels so that I could get a good read on the colors. The top three strings definitely look like Olivs. The bottom string looks like an Obligato, although the wrap at the ball end seems longer than on the other strings.

yeah, i just opened in photoshop and zoomed cut and sharpened a little bit and i agree with you. the E string looks to be an obligato while the other three are definately Oliv's.

i figure you guys know about taking the extensions off the picture url to get back to the diretory but if not.
http://mmwpics.com/

kurt · #8 03-13-2006, 11:44 PM

Personally I liked Chris Woods tone better before he started using gut, based solely on their recordings, but I don't know what kind of strings he used back then. To me his tone lacks definition now without having gained much in the way of warmth, kind of like floppy rubber bands. Part of that may be due to the recording process I don't know. This is just my opinion though and I haven't listened to them much since Combustication.

jmpiwonka · #9 03-14-2006, 11:39 AM

i have some nice live recordings of them and i really like his tone, espcially up in the thumb position.

have you ever heard the album titled "tonic" by them? it is all acoustic playing, recorded live with mics on stage at the venue tonic in NYC, if you are interested in hearing what his bass sounds like acoustically then you should seek out that album...you can even hear a little arco on the song "afrique". that is one my favorite mmw albums.