Upright bass players in country/bluegrass

[hgrind]

Hi, anyone knows what kind of strings these great bass players uses?

Barry Bayles, Kevin Grantt, Mark Schatz.

[brianrost]

Barry Bales mainly use Helicores (gut D and G on one of his basses).

Mark uses Spirocore weichs.

Kevin, I dunno.

Most guys use steel strings these days although the "classic" country/grass sound on older records is gut strings.

[M Ramsey]

Kevin Grannt is playing a combination of guts and steels on his old King bass. He has just acquired an American Standard and is in the process of getting it set up. I don't have any info as to what he will use on it, though I suspect it will also be the steel/gut combo.

[hgrind]

Thanks! Do you know exactly what kind of Helicores Barry Bayles uses? I really don't know much about this, and thought maybe I could try a setup like one of my favorite bass players. I see there's both Pizzicato, Hybrid and then Light, Medium and Heavy. I appreciate your help!

Henning, Norway.

[relacey]

Bluegrass Bass Place has a thread on this very topic.

[M Ramsey]

Originally Posted by hgrind

Thanks! Do you know exactly what kind of Helicores Barry Bayles uses? I really don't know much about this, and thought maybe I could try a setup like one of my favorite bass players. I see there's both Pizzicato, Hybrid and then Light, Medium and Heavy. I appreciate your help!

Henning, Norway.

I do know that Barry HAS used Gamut gut strings on top (G & D, unknown gauges) and HAS used Helicore Orchestral Heavies and at times Medium Orchestrals for his A & E strings.

If I get to catch up wiht him before too long, I'll pick his brain.

I can say the Helicore Orchestral strings are very smooth sounding, i.e., they don't have that nasaly, bright period to work through when they are first installed.