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Double Bass What strings are THESE?

TroyK

TroyK

Mar 14, 2003
8,127
10,484
Seattle, WA
#1
I just got my 3 LP set called "The Bass" courtesy of a friendly TBDB'er and our helpful classifieds. The cover, (which I'm scouring the internet for a .jpeg of, but so far, can't find one) features a bassist in thumb position from the tailpiece up to about the neck join.

I don't know who the bassist is. It is a non-adjustable bridge, no pickup is evident, there is a rubber mute on the A and D strings between the bridge and tailpiece.

I don't know when the picture was taken, but the copywright on the set is 1974 and the bassists's watch and cuffs look about right for late '60's/early 70's. The set is on the CBS/IMPULSE! label.

The strings are metal wound and look a little big heavy in gauge, but not overly so. The tailpiece silks are solid royal blue. Never seen that before. Any ideas?

I've very excited about hearing these records and am only trivially interested in the strings, but I am into the string trivia, as you know. Would also love to know who the bassist is, but that's probably a reach. I'll read all of the liner notes, maybe there's a clue in there.
 
#4
I have a set of Lycons on of all things
an Ampeg 'Scroll' bass guitar. See picture

I can confirm they have royal blue silks.
My first teacher gave me the set of strings
because he'd broken the g,
but it was still long enough to fit this bass.

About the 3 LP set "The Bass":

my father got me a used copy of that when I started playing and was interested in jazz.
It was my crash course introduction to jazz and jazz bass.
My copy didn't have the booklet and I thought everything on it was 'new'.
It was a long time before I found out that most of my favorites on it had passed on.
 
#5
Lycons it is! Wow, we can even do it with extinct strings, impressive.

Hey Randy, how does that Ampeg sound? I've never seen one of those. Looks pretty cool.

By the way, do you still have the records? I could potentially scan the booklet for you.
 
#7
TroyK said:
....The strings are metal wound and look a little big heavy in gauge, but not overly so. The tailpiece silks are solid royal blue. Never seen that before. .......
Click to expand...

Oh great. I was just logging in to see if anyone could help ID my strings...
They're all steel, peg end silk E-G goes green, black, gold, red. Tailpiece silks are solid royal blue.:hmm: Is that really that rare?

I wouldn't say that they're heavy guage anything - but they seem quite high in tension. Are the Lycon's a synthetic or steel core?
 
#9
Well, thats a good question now isn't it..
I have a Strunal that I'm renting but may make a purchase out of. They came with the bass. I'm new enough at this that I have no idea how to tell how old/broken in/dead a set of DB strings is..
All I can say is they hurt my hands, and sound terrible under the bow, as far as I can tell.
 
#10
They haven't made Lycons for quite a while. How old is the Strunel? I can't imagine the you're renting a bass with 20 year old strings on it. But, if they're not Lycons, then there is some other string running around out there with Royal Blue silks.

Isn't DRURB our resident Lycon expert?
 
#11
Yeah - I did a little search and found a link to the page with Paul Warburtons quote about them.... So yes, I realize now that they'd be quite old! I doubt that they've been on that bass and played for 20 years... Long and McQuade's been around long enough though, that its still a slight possibility they were NOS they had kicking around when they set the bass up. Or - being a 4/4 its not been rented out as often (it was the last one they had when I picked it up) The bass has definately seen some action too - I'd say it could be around 20 years old.
 
#13
TroyK said:
Lycons it is! Wow, we can even do it with extinct strings, impressive.

Hey Randy, how does that Ampeg sound? I've never seen one of those. Looks pretty cool.

By the way, do you still have the records? I could potentially scan the booklet for you.
Click to expand...

Hi TroyK;

Well it doesn’t sound at all like a fretless bass guitar more like a baby bass which I guess is it's big brother. It originally had guts on it (!)
But the guts were really disintegrated when I got it used and my teacher gave me the Lycons out of sympathy. I've still got the original envelopes they came in. (see DRUB's avatar) I'm going to snail mail that envelope to DRUB when I find it again.

I had left that bass at my mothers when I went to college and just got it back last December. I keep putting it off but I want to try weed whackers on it because as I remember it sounded better umm ...I mean really cool with the guts.
The bass is way too big to fit it a standard BG gig bag but this guy:
http://xstrange.com/
Makes a reproduction of the bass and gig bags.

I took the bass to a rehearsal recently and it wasn't bad if you like lot’s o thump. What is cool is that even with the flat finger board it still feels more like an upright because it uses Double bass strings has a longer scale and it works best with the strings cranked up.

My record set is in storage at my mothers up north.
Maybe I'll bring that back this winter.
No need to scan. I’ve got most of it on CD now.
BTW could you check Mingus’ version of Haitian fight song on the LP set?
I think the solo intro is edited on that record compared to the original version.
Or maybe it is a completely different take.
It’s really been bugging me because it’s been so long since
I heard the version that is on the 3 LP set.
I might just be remembering it wrong.
 
#18
I'm not convinced that moles strings are from the seventies. He stated that he's renting the bass and he has no idea how old the strings are. I don't believe they're Lycons. I searched using Quinn's string search page and got 3 out of 4 matches for the Innovations. My guess is the shop that is renting him the bass strung it up with inventory that wasn't selling.

Just my $0.02.

-J
 
#19
I suspect that we're talking about two different sets of strings. The ones on my album cover were photographed no later than 1974 and I can't see the peghead.

The references to the peghead colors are from a currently rented Strunel. MIGHT be the same thing, but I'm guessing not.

Do we know what the silks on Pro-Artes looked like and when they were made?

What about Thomastics in the 60's-70's. Wasn't there a "precision" string or something?
 
#20
Yes, I agree we are talking about two different sets of strings. I was answering moles query about his strings. Unfortunately a little bit of wishful thinking on his part lead to the confusion. I believe his strings are modern.

I have no clue what strings are on your album over, but hope they are Lycons.

Thomasik superfexibles have blue silks at the tailpiece, but I don't know when they were first made.

-J
 

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