Paul Gabrielson...odd combo

[two fingers]

So out of the blue a friend calls me yesterday and says he has tickets to The Kingston Trio at a really small venue near where I live. I'm not really into folk music all that much but I kinda like ALL music so I thought "what the heck". Firet off, their vocal harmoies were UNREAL. Good songs. Good personality. But the real fun was the basist, Paul Gabrielson. He is a JAZZ bassist from NYC. First of all, I hope some of you guys who play acoustic (not URB but acoustic bass guitar) read this because his tone was OUTSTANDING! He was playing a Martin acoustic bass through a GK 400RB and an Ampeg 4-10! Who would have thought those things put together would have produces a very warm, and yet boomy, tone? Was it EXACTLY an URB tone? No, but it was VERY close. Also, he played the very simple lines like a pro. He concentrated and very rarely (but in good form) threw in some tastey harmonies. But then.... during Scotch and Soda (VERY cool song BTW) he did a quick solo. It was just one acoustic guitar chording while he did it. It was nothing short of a MOMENT. I'm gonna cut this off because it's getting long. But if you get a chance, even if you're not "into" them, you should go. Cheers Paul. Good show.

[Paul Gabrielson]

Thank you for the nice compliment. I have since sold the Martin Acoustic Bass but I think the key to the sound with an acoustic bass guitar is get strings that let the top of the instrument have some flexibility. The strings I was using were made by Thomastic and the were a nylon core with phosphor bronze wrapping. I play mostly upright bass but I really wasn't trying to get this bass sound like an upright because it just isn't possible. I just wanted the sound to have a some flexibility. My only criticism of these strings is the gauge is too light. If any one has a way to let them know this and they did make a thicker gauge string, I think we would have a winner of a string for Acoustic bass guitars