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Double Bass Gut Strings: Are They Worth It To Try? (part I)

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Kevin Hsieh

Kevin Hsieh

Jun 2, 2007
1,043
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New York City
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#1
Been considering giving gut strings a shot for a while. IIRC most players have steel on the bottom and gut on top.

Is it worth the 200+ commitment? I have strings that I like quite a bit (LaBella Blacks) but something is still missing. If I tried the gut string experiment, I'd have the LaBellas around. My string height can be described as medium-low. Please be aware that I'm on a college student's budget.

Anyways, would to hear your opinions and your suggestions for gut setups. I'm looking at the Dlugolecki with something like Evahs on the bottom. Please help!

Cheers
 
#2
yo Kev

I did the gut thing when I was your age, raw gut across all four strings. I was obsessed with the old school sound. My action was way too high and nobody else could play my bass.

I enjoyed my "gut" period while it lasted, have no regrets and gained some fine perspective on all the bassists from back in the day who played on guts cuz that was all there was.

They are a unique sound, but bow like crap, come out of tune a lot and are less easy to amplify to my liking. Today, I use steel Evahs on the bottom but LOVE the gut wrapped in steel for the top strings, but, again, I have no regrets about the time I shelled out 300 bucks (in NYC, actually) and played those guts for all they were worth for about a year.

If you feel compelled to try them, I'm sure you'll go for it. You may find your sound through them, but at the least you will gain perspective and experience.
 
#3
Unwrapped gut (or tynex wrapped, like Golden Spirals) do indeed present arco challenges (but that's what everybody used to use, right?) but Oliv's or Eudoxa's can have a beautiful cantabile sound bowed, my teacher is using Oliv's on his bass right now, and it's pretty killer.

I don't know Kev, what are you looking for? I used to play Golden Spirals and I'm very happy with the sound I get from the Animas. It might just be the combo of the strings and my bass, there are a couple of cats who do the "mixmaster" who don't like the way Animas sound and feel on their bass but really dig the sound and feel on mine.

What are your Tuesday's like? I'm gonna be taking some time off from the daygig in a couple of weeks and, if you have eyes to fall by my Tuesday session and do a little playing, I could arrange to bring my bass in for you to play, see if you like'em. There's the studio bass that has Corelli's on it if you want to do a little back and forth or some two bass hit or something as well...
 
#5
Kevin,

First of all, don't buy a set of gut strings that cost $200. For a full set of top-quality guts (Gamut or Dlugolecki) you're looking at more like $400. Don't buy plain gut E and A strings, the gut-core, steel wound E & As are what most gut players have used for years (maybe a few used a plain A).

Are they, worth it? :eek: Gut strings have wonderful, unique properties that you'll only experience if you try them. But they have a whole host of drawbacks that go along with them.
You just have to see whether the +s outweigh the -s for your playing style and needs.

If you want to venture into the dark side, start by buying a plain G and D and match them up with something less expensive on the E&A like Evah Pirazzi, Velvet Garbo or Anima, Innovation Super Silver, or even steels. If you like the direction you're going in, then try some gut core lower strings. You can get the traditional roundwounds from (Gamut or Dlugolecki), or flatwounds like Olive or Eudoxa from Pirastro (alas, my favorite, Pirastro Pizzicato, has been discontinued).

Here's a tip for starting with a G&D. IMO, cheaper guts are less problematic on the G than the D, so buy an Efrano or Lenzner G (around $48, the Gamut is $80), but splurge and get a Gamut D (around $100).

Good luck!
 
#7
Ed Fuqua said:
What are your Tuesday's like? I'm gonna be taking some time off from the daygig in a couple of weeks and, if you have eyes to fall by my Tuesday session and do a little playing, I could arrange to bring my bass in for you to play, see if you like'em. There's the studio bass that has Corelli's on it if you want to do a little back and forth or some two bass hit or something as well...
Click to expand...

feel the love. hakuta matata
 
#11
Ed Fuqua said:
Last time somebody tried that with me was on the subway, I hadda smack'em....
Click to expand...

Yea, that NYC subway love is infected. Gotta watch out for that stuff.

Reminds of a story . . . .

. . . . waiting for the W/Q to brooklyn late night, at 2am, nobody's on the platform but me and a couple of my friends, some other late night stragglers and some "bums". My friends decide they can't wait for a smoke (none for me, thanks) and light up right there on the platform. Plain clothes nabs em immediately, and as my friends are being carted off, 3 or 4 "bums" on the way out of the station ask the Plain Clothes, "whatdya got?", to which the plain clothes replies, "couple smokers". I think everyone on that platform that night were undercover cops.
 
#13
i know there not plain guts and the op was asking about plain guts but i highly recommend the velvet animas. i love my set. the high pressure required for bowing made me switch the D and G for eudoxa's and i've been in heaven with the animas on the E and A and eudoxa's on the D and G. with good high action, you come really close to the traditional gut sound with none of the playing issues a jazz musician who uses the bow a lot or practices classical music at home may encounter.
I think the real questions are when considering these string choices are, how high do you like your action? and what kind of tension does your bass like? I played spirocores for many years and ended up choking my bass since the high action i like plus my instruments larger than average scale length resulted in too much tension.
 
#14
adbass said:
Yea, that NYC subway love is infected. Gotta watch out for that stuff.

Reminds of a story . . . .

. . . . waiting for the W/Q to brooklyn late night, at 2am, nobody's on the platform but me and a couple of my friends, some other late night stragglers and some "bums". My friends decide they can't wait for a smoke (none for me, thanks) and light up right there on the platform. Plain clothes nabs em immediately, and as my friends are being carted off, 3 or 4 "bums" on the way out of the station ask the Plain Clothes, "whatdya got?", to which the plain clothes replies, "couple smokers". I think everyone on that platform that night were undercover cops.
Click to expand...

the most crazy stuff is the taxi driving cops. saw a taxi pull over a taxi outside of small's at 4 in the morning. it blew my mind


</diversion>

thanks for all the responses guys. I've tried guts on Taal Ronen, Ari Roland, and some other people's basses and I like it except for the fact that they were used to a much higher string height. I'd like to try them on my bass. I'm going to see if glivanos can set me up with a used set and see how i like them on my bass. i'll report back!
 
#15
adbass said:
Yea, that NYC subway love is infected. Gotta watch out for that stuff.

Reminds of a story . . . .

. . . . waiting for the W/Q to brooklyn late night, at 2am, nobody's on the platform but me and a couple of my friends, some other late night stragglers and some "bums". My friends decide they can't wait for a smoke (none for me, thanks) and light up right there on the platform. Plain clothes nabs em immediately, and as my friends are being carted off, 3 or 4 "bums" on the way out of the station ask the Plain Clothes, "whatdya got?", to which the plain clothes replies, "couple smokers". I think everyone on that platform that night were undercover cops.
Click to expand...

Geeze, just write 'um a ticket and be done with it. Did you have to carry all their gear back to Brooklyn for them?

Kev, don't know what to tell you. I think going through a Gut phase is almost a right of passage, but most people (jazz people anyway) seem to go back to steel at some point. I'm still tempted sometimes, usually whenever I listen to Mingus, Sam Jones or Butch through headphones or on really good speakers. There is something fundementally awesome about it, but fairly impractical for most.
 
#16
I love my guts ;) Artone D+G. I didn't really like the bottom string so I have Garbo E+A. This setup is really balanced in both sound and feel. I guess Evah's as bottom strings would work just fine aswell. I also tried a Gamut lyon G for a while along with my Garbo set. Damn fine gut string, worth the extra $$.
 
#20
I'm still preferring my bass strung with guts. The other bass has Velvet Garbos, that one is for the potential outside/weather affected gigs for stability. It sounds good, but there is a major difference between the Garbos and real gut strings.

Now, understand that I'm camped in the land of pizzicato with no need for a bow, so that helps me be more comfortable with guts, maybe more so than other players who have the need or requirement to use the stick.

If you do get to experiment, let us know your thoughts. Also, my advice would be to allow a few days for them to settle and adjust to your bass before giving up on them.

They're not for everybody, I understand that, but most of the time, there's tone galore.
 
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