Strings in the 20's & 30's

[Wallyphonic]

Anybody know what sort of strings jazz players used in the 20's and 30's?

Obviously they were gut, but all plain gut? wound A&E? Plain A wound E? Silver wire? Copper wire? I can't find any photos that are clear enough to really see what the strings look like.

There's been lots of talk about Artones and the like that guys were using in the 50's, but what about before that? Any brand names?

I dig the sound on those early recordings and I'd like to know what they were using.

Thanks!

[superman]

Labellas have been made for a long time,as well as Sweetones,
I have some old packages from a brand called Wondertone,,My mentor Joe Zinkan who started playing in the mid 30s,told me he once used a brand called Armor,,yeah same as the meat company,,I have seen some tennis racket gut under the Armor brand, but have yet to see any bass strings,,Artones are also old but i'm not sure how far they go back,Most old pics I have back into the 30s show basses strung with a plain G&D and wound A&Es,,then some used a plain A also.The old new stock string I have are a bit bigger in gage than most of the newly produced guts.they work really good on some basses.

[Wallyphonic]

Thanks for the info! I think I'll try to get a hold of some heavier gauge guts and see how they sound. I've been going back and forth between a plain A and a wound A for years. I love the tone of the plain A but it's just a little too dead. I've never found a vintage plain A. I wonder if they were any better than modern ones?

[Johnny Atomic]

Originally Posted by superman

Labellas have been made for a long time,as well as Sweetones,
I have some old packages from a brand called Wondertone,,My mentor Joe Zinkan who started playing in the mid 30s,told me he once used a brand called Armor,,yeah same as the meat company,,I have seen some tennis racket gut under the Armor brand, but have yet to see any bass strings,,Artones are also old but i'm not sure how far they go back,Most old pics I have back into the 30s show basses strung with a plain G&D and wound A&Es,,then some used a plain A also.The old new stock string I have are a bit bigger in gage than most of the newly produced guts.they work really good on some basses.

About 10 years ago I bought a BUNCH of weird ass old guitar strings on ebay. They were from the 30's thru the 50's, lots of weird old defunct companies. Some of the coolest looking packages I scanned, made screens of, and made T-shirts of them with the intent of selling the shirts. I worked my ass off, and they looked awesome, but didn't sell worth a ****.

I made one of the Armour Helmet brand. I still wear that shirt a lot.

[Gearhead43]

Damn Johnny I would buy a few of those shirts, if you had them in XX-lard. Should make some more!