The Pistoy Gamut Gut Thread

[MT Spaces]

Originally Posted by Marcus Johnson

Monday's MLK day. No USPS.

Thanks Marcus ..... I forgot. I will suggest a song when it is my turn and try to play sweetly .... "I'll Fly Away". At the beginner bluegrass jam next Monday night I will try to support some newbies even though their timing drives me Stark-Raving-Crazy.

BUTT HEY ... Isn't That What a bass-player is for ... Timing ... (Like I know what that Concept is ). I need to help them and Myself along to the next level.

JFK, MLK, RFK, Veet-Nam ..... I am of that-age ..... I watched the bad-news of JFK's melon being shattered in Dallas Texas by a high-power sniper-rifle on a little B/W TV in 5th grade math-class in the outback (Lewistown, Montana) and knew I was watching Something Real-Bad. So Sad .

GearHead ..... Guess I won't try to mail you anything on MLK Day.

BUT .... When you get the Plain Light Pistoy Gut A .... Don't over-play it ... Easy Does It ..... On a decent bass .... Otherwise ... It gets way-wonky. Hit it before the beat .... Gentle-Like ..... It takes time for the note to develop.

Don't think it Sucks according to your ear as you play it .... Out Front (or ampped-up) .... It can sound Huge . Don't give-in too-early. Listen to a live recording. The Gamut Plain A truly is a pain-in-the-arse but it Works for roots-music. Someday I will make-friends with Her again (Assuming you send Her back after a Good-Spanking ... No Hurry Pal ) .

[Gearhead43]

Thanks Bob, I've done well enough on all-plain cheaper guts so I think I can handle the pistoy.

[MT Spaces]

Originally Posted by bonaventura

.... Even you, Boner Bob, Mister Pistoy 2008/09, seem to have lost the ebullient enthusiasm and poetry you once had for Pistoys. Maybe Pistoys aren't new and exciting ....

I know this Post is Old Hat ..... From Our Pal Bill (aka ... William H. / From SwizzerLand) .... However ....

He questioned my "ebullient enthusiasm and poetry for Pistoys." I will answer Bill Thusly .... Way-Back When The Month Of August 2009 ....

Actually Happened .... Before The Investment Bankers .... Sucked the corpustles out of every living bloodstream on The Planet ....

I was playing the bee-jee-beers outta my Pistoys .... Bluegrass garage jams .... Old country-stuff ... Fiddle-tunes ... and Cajun.

Crud ..... Saint Bill .... Can't we just Get-Along . Send me a mailing address ... No-Cal or No-Europe (whatever) ... I would like to send you some (bad-local) bluegrass-jams that we do around here. If you don't like our music ... Then we can keep-on insulting each-other (which is pretty-fun anyhow ) .

[JeffKissell]

Originally Posted by Bob Knebel

.... When you get the Plain Light Pistoy Gut A .... Don't over-play it ... Easy Does It ..... On a decent bass .... Otherwise ... It gets way-wonky. Hit it before the beat .... Gentle-Like ..... It takes time for the note to develop...

+1
It's a very compelling string but it's a handful to get it to balance from the player's point of view. I found it slower and quieter to my ear but out front it was pretty balanced. It didn't sit as well with the Dlugolecki gut though...
Good Luck G43!
-J

-Jeff

[JeffKissell]

Oh Sh!t I forgot to put an emoticon in my last post...
It's a good thing there was one in Bob's quote...
:rolln o:

[MT Spaces]

Originally Posted by Gearhead43

Thanks Bob, I've done well enough on all-plain cheaper guts so I think I can handle the pistoy.

I'm sure you can Pal ! You play country and all-kinda Root-5 crap .... And know how to slap.

Just becuzz I am sending you a-spendy-purty-pistoy for a test-drive .... It don't mean that I expect a BJ from you .

Say Hello to Cindy ... She could try the Palin A Pistoy next.

Which website am I on anyhow ... ??? If GearHead is on base .... Then I am in the batter's box ..... Damn I Suck at getting anyone home.

[MT Spaces]

Originally Posted by JeffKissell

Oh Sh!t I forgot to put an emoticon in my last post...
It's a good thing there was one in Bob's quote... .....

KISSELL ... YER FIRED PAL !! Go find a band that needs a UpRight bass player and quit bugging us.

[JeffKissell]

Listen Bob-
I'm a comin' to Montana at the end o' the summer and I'm lookin' you up pal! I wanna see what all this jambraggin' is all about. BTW all I have these days is UpRightBass bands and not a jazz gig among em...
-J
.
.
.
.
oh yeah

[MT Spaces]

Originally Posted by JeffKissell

Listen Bob - I'm a comin' to Montana at the end o' the summer and I'm lookin' you up pal! ....

Hey Jeff ..... Do Not Mess With Me ..... Coming To Country? Sweet Deal ... I will show you around .... Do you fish ?? We will play some bluegrass.

Actually ...... Montana is a Sad Depressed State that We Locals hope that Folks visit and spend money and then Go Home before a Wild Animal Eats Them .

But Hey .... Whatever .... We like new-meat and so do the Wolves, Grizzleys, and Cougars .....

I have a place to stay for anyone Stupid Enuff to visit The Wilds and play some music with us around here ...

[Wallyphonic]

Gearhead- I'm curious to hear how that Pistoy A sounds and feels compared to a "standard" quality Clef/Lenzner/Efrano string.

I've been struggling with a plain gut A for awhile and I'm wondering if the Pistoy would be noticeable improvement.

Anybody else out there that can compare the two?

[William Hoffman]

Originally Posted by William Hoffman

okay, you get the benefit of the doubt this time... because, after all, you "love" me.

but you don't need to try to keep your mind open for me. you can leave it closed. :

Originally Posted by Menacewarf

You may have just set the record for emoticon use!

true feeling inspires use of emoticons. love, hate, and love-hate. but quality matters, not quantity.

Originally Posted by Bob Knebel

...Nothing Fancy. Works Swell with a Heavy Pistoy G.

hey, Bobby! tell us about that Heavy Pistoy G. i'd love to hear a few words from you on that topic. you being the true Poet of Pistoy... btw, i really liked your most recent words on the Pistoy A:

Originally Posted by Bob Knebel

...BUT .... When you get the Plain Light Pistoy Gut A .... Don't over-play it ... Easy Does It ..... On a decent bass .... Otherwise ... It gets way-wonky. Hit it before the beat .... Gentle-Like ..... It takes time for the note to develop.

Don't think it Sucks according to your ear as you play it .... Out Front (or ampped-up) .... It can sound Huge . Don't give-in too-early. Listen to a live recording. The Gamut Plain A truly is a pain-in-the-arse but it Works for roots-music. Someday I will make-friends with Her again (Assuming you send Her back after a Good-Spanking ... No Hurry Pal ) .

Now, that's the good stuff, folks, the real deal right outta the horses mouth!

and that, Bobby, is exactly what i've been telling the fiddle player in my bluegrass band (the who said the sound from right next to in front of my bass was not deep enough in her ear): listened to from out front, the mids and finger articulations pretty much disappear and all the audience hears is just the purest warmest bass sound!

Originally Posted by JeffKissell

Listen Bob-
I'm a comin' to Montana at the end o' the summer and I'm lookin' you up pal! I wanna see what all this jambraggin' is all about. BTW all I have these days is UpRightBass bands and not a jazz gig among em...
-J
oh yeah

oh yeah i forgot to say i'm a comin out there to Montana too. can't wait to hear the jambraggin' Bob.

[Gearhead43]

Originally Posted by Wallyphonic

Gearhead- I'm curious to hear how that Pistoy A sounds and feels compared to a "standard" quality Clef/Lenzner/Efrano string.

I've been struggling with a plain gut A for awhile and I'm wondering if the Pistoy would be noticeable improvement.

Anybody else out there that can compare the two?

I'll let you know when I get to try it out. I can only imagine it being better than a Efrano or Lenzner, etc.

I have been using an Olive E&A for a long while now and like them alot - but they hold tune worse than any string I have tried. It's to be expected with guts, but the metal wrap/gut core fluctuates far worse than plain gut with temp changes. Not to mention I had to sell a child to afford them, hope Angelina Jolie is happy with her purchase. .

The Olives were OK when it was warm here (most of the year really) but with the cold weather they go WAY flat as you start playing and the strings warm up. Let the bass sit a while and get cold and they go way sharp. I still love the tone of them though, especially for slap. (for pizz they are just OK). Being a hardcore gut addict, I am used to tuning alot, but these are a bit much.

[Wallyphonic]

I've been using an Olive E and A for years so I know what you mean about the tuning thing, but that doesn't really bother me too much. My problem is the sound of the A string. It's definitely the best wrapped gut string I've found but it still sounds too much like a metal string - slight metalic overtone and "growl", kind of hard sounding slap and slightly louder than the gut D. Unfortunately the plain A's I've tried are just the opposite - too dead, undefined, floppy and a little quieter than the D string. I need something in between the two! Maybe the Pistoy will fill the bill?

p.s. I hope Angelina wants another child. I would definitely have to sell one to afford a Pistoy A. $200+ for one string!!!??!!

[Mark Perna]

Originally Posted by Wallyphonic

I've been using an Olive E and A for years so I know what you mean about the tuning thing, but that doesn't really bother me too much. My problem is the sound of the A string. It's definitely the best wrapped gut string I've found but it still sounds too much like a metal string - slight metalic overtone and "growl", kind of hard sounding slap and slightly louder than the gut D. Unfortunately the plain A's I've tried are just the opposite - too dead, undefined, floppy and a little quieter than the D string. I need something in between the two! Maybe the Pistoy will fill the bill?

p.s. I hope Angelina wants another child. I would definitely have to sell one to afford a Pistoy A. $200+ for one string!!!??!!

Try a Gamut wrapped A. $134. You'll have some of the same tuning problems that you had with the Olive but it sounds great. I was using a Garbo A for awhile and while it wasn't bad, the metallic tang of the string started to bug me after a while. The wrapped Gamut A solved that problem; there isn't any metallic ring to the sound. It is slightly more defined and starts a little quicker than an unwrapped D but clearly a gut string.

mark

[Wallyphonic]

Try a Gamut wrapped A

Yeah, I was thinking that if the pistoy A doesn't look to be a major improvement over the other plain A's I've used, then I would try the wrapped gamut. I tried the Dlugolecki wrapped strings and didn't really dig 'em (the D&G are awesome though). Hopefully the Gamut would be better.

Do yours have the copper or silver wire?

[Mark Perna]

I have silver wrap on mine. I'm not sure what the difference is between the silver and copper. The wrappings are somewhat rough, almost like a round wound electric bass string. It's a great string though. Mine's useable all the way up into thumb position (the Garbo A that I had on before really crapped out above 5th position). No metallic clinky-clank against the fingerboard either.

The other advantage of Gamuts is Dan Larson offers a rewind service. If the windings ever go, just ship it back to him and for $50 he'll take the old wrap off and re-wrap it. The one I'm using now is on it's first re-wrap and it came back like a brand new string.

mark

[Mark Perna]

Errata: The price of the wrapped Gamut A is $106 not $134. The wrapped E is $134. Got them mixed up.

mark

[William Hoffman]

Originally Posted by calivox

Try a Gamut wrapped A.

Originally Posted by Wallyphonic

Do yours have the copper or silver wire?

I can second Mark's suggestion to try the Gamut wrapped A. Great tone, high quality string.

I'm not sure what the difference between copper and silver is either. I've got the copper mediums A and E (i posted pix in posts 26 and 28 of this thread). The copper wound A started out bright, with overtones, but that new brightness has faded over 18 months and now it sounds really great. No problems with it so far.

Tuning, oh yaeh, it reacts to humidity changes. But that's the deal with wrapped gut. Doesn't bother me anymore.

The only thing I am still wishing for is a bit more tension and volume on the E string. Ordered a heavy E for a replacement.

[Wallyphonic]

I can second Mark's suggestion to try the Gamut wrapped A.

You guys sound very convincing. I might just have to give it a try.

What's another $106 when I think of the many thousands I've spent on gut strings in the last 25 years

[Chris Rhoades]

Originally Posted by calivox

I'm not going to recopy Big Bob's Dada Magnum Opus again but, in reference to one of his lines, I might have been unfair to the Pistoy G when I called it "plastic-y". After I took it off, I did some adjustment work on the bridge and the whole bass sounded a bit better. The Lyon G just happened to be on there to get the credit. I still think I'll be leaning toward preferring the Lyon G though. It is an amazing string.

The

mark

What did you do to your bass to help with the "plastic" sounding gut G string?