gut strings

bassfore · #1 06-06-2008, 10:53 AM

Any ideas on how to keep gut strings from unraveling any further once they start?

Bobby King · #2 06-06-2008, 01:35 PM

If you're talking about flatwound gut strings like Olive and Eudoxa, often they'll develop a separation where they pass over the bridge. Sometimes if you leave the string alone and don't take it on and off, it will still function OK. If it starts to unwind over the fingerboard somewhere you're pretty much screwed. Once I had a Golden Spiral that started to have the nylon windings come loose behind the nut. I used a small piece of tape to secure it and prevented it from unwinding any further.

Eric Rene Roy · #3 06-06-2008, 03:49 PM

If your talking unwound guts, maintenance maintenance, maintenance! An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right?

Guts will develop "hairs" and those hairs must be trimmed. Toe-nail clippers work well and fit easy in your bass bag. Some 400 grit sandpaper is good too...sand them just a little bit when they get rough and/or after you trim a hair.

You can oil them too...no hard or fast rule on how often. It kinda depends on 1) your hands and 2) the humidity where you live. Some people have acidic/oily hands...if your one of those, oiling them fairly regularly might really help.

To fix a badly unraveling string, Buy a new string!

There is no true fix as once the serosa fiber is severed it will continue to unwind. The serosa fiber is as long as the string...the thicker the string, the more serosa fibers that are bundled, twisted and dried. If some of those fibers break and start unwinding...they just want to keep going. You may try a drop of super glue just at the unraveling point...it may or may not help...but that's just a temp fix.

salcott · #4 06-06-2008, 09:42 PM

To maintain plain gut, render a couple of pounds of lamb fat. You'll get a few ounces of lamb lard, and there's nothing better for keeping gut strings happy. Just rub a little in once a week, avoiding of course the bowed part of the string. I got this trick from Oscar Zimmerman in '74 or thereabouts.

Jason Sypher · #5 06-07-2008, 12:51 AM

Lamb fat? Now that's a first!

salcott · #6 06-07-2008, 08:47 AM

I did it and had a set of LaBellas go over four years with no unraveling. The rendering process is not too smelly, and the results were worth it. If I played gut now, that's what I'd be using. A decent substitute is pure lanolin, available at a drugstore. I found it a little sticky for a while after application whereas the lamb lard was absorbed right away.

bassfore · #7 06-07-2008, 09:51 AM

I'm talking about Goetz gut strings. The real deal. You're talking about real grease, Lard?

salcott · #8 06-07-2008, 12:49 PM

Yup. Real lard. Applied sparingly and sensibly. As far as I know, this applies to any unwound gut string. They are, after all, made of sheep gut. It seems reasonable that a sheep-derived grease product would be ideal for this purpose. That four years on a set of LaBellas was in Rochester, NY, BTW. Brutal winter, dry heat, humid summers. You'll have to google your own rendering instructions, though.

salcott · #9 06-07-2008, 01:04 PM

If ya don't want to render your own, this looks worth a try. A couple of other sources I found didn't have 100% pure tallow.

http://www.baar.com/Merchant2/mercha...duct_Code=3780

Gearhead43 · #10 06-15-2008, 10:56 PM

Or you could just use EV olive oil like most folks who play on plain gut. Other good choices are Almond oil, Walnut oil, Mink or Neetsfoot oil. Oil them once per week, rub the oil on with a piece of paper towel with a couple dabs of oil on it, wait 10-20minutes for it to soak in, wipe off any excess, and you're done!

Also clip any hairs that form with toenail clippers, that will help prevent unraveling. Sand the strings with some 400-600 grit whenever they get rough, oil them frequently and they will last for years. Plenty of info on gut string care over on the Rockabillybass.com forums, also.

TeleTubby · #11 02-08-2009, 10:36 AM

Newbie gut stringer here, received a used set (unwound G,D,A, and wound E) a few weeks back so thanks for all the posted input on keeping them in good shape. Couple questions...

1) Since I haven't installed them yet, what's the best way to treat them now? Is there any way to get the string to straighten out where it was previously wrapped around the tuner. or is this even a concern?

2) Once they are installed, when oiling on a regular basis, do you de-tune in order to treat as much of the string as possible or do you just treat the playing area between the nut and bridge?

...thanks again for all the great advice!!!