Red-O-Rays made by LaBella? Artone? Kaplan?

[Salty]

TBverse....

I can't seem to get a clear answer in the archives.

Who made the classic Red-O-Ray strings?

Thanks a million
Matt

[Francois Blais]

I think they were made by Kaplan, which was bought by D'Addario.

[Gearhead43]

Yep, the ones I have say Kaplan.

[superman]

red gut strings have been made by just about every company,,the oldest I have are Labellas, which date from the 50s, there is nothing special about red gut strings other than color,,they are just dyed red,,gut string makers used red dye stings mainly for harp strings,,they are colored for placement on the harp,,I remember seeing some greenish blue guts when I was a kid,,same thing they were dyed to be harp strings
I think the string companys put out sevral different brands to offer more selection,,I know Labella had Labella,Newtones,Sweetones,LaScalea, and another one,,Artone had the Gold Label and red label,,one was plain other was red,I think where the redO rays got popular was when they came out with the Tynex winding,this was a very big improvement,,I have seen Red gut tynex wound strings with the brand Conn which made band instruments,,but it was still a Labella string,,and I even once had a gut E string in a Fender package,,figure out that one<<<Kent

[Salty]

Wow thanks guys. Especially your extensive post, Kent. But what I still can't glean from your post is who made strings that are CALLED Red O Rays? An is the Tynex obvious to the eye? Or is it feel? Thanks again!!

[superman]

I went and looked through my old strings and did find a couple of RedO Rays,,Kaplan Musical String Co.,,I'm not sure where this co. was I think these are made by Labella, by the type of loop knot that is on the end,,but who knows. One of my mentors who played back into the 30s, told me he always liked Armor brand strings,,I have seen tennis strings with that name but no bass strings yet. As for tynex, it is a plastic wrapping used mainly on the G&D strings,"think fishing line"
but I have a few A strings that are tynex wrapped
I really like the tynex wrapped for summer use ,,plain guts can get too sticky and you can ruin them if your not careful.
The Red O Rays & Golden Spirals came back sometime in the mid 80s,then went away,,but returend latter under Daddarios name,,I remember the ones in the 80s were good except the silver wrapped A&Es went to some sort of a ground wrap,, which were very hard on the fingers,, and hard to play.
when they came back in the 90s I don't think they offered the A&E in gut,,all I ever got was G&Ds, hope this helps,Kent