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Double Bass Double bass string history

#61
Paul Warburton said:
I replaced Scotty in the Pat Moran trio and later she got me my little month in the Bill Evans trio with Philly Joe Jones. This was 1965 and most of us were using Lycons, which were actually popularized by my mentor, Red Mitchell.
Before the advent of Lycons, we were using Artone guts on top and various brands of steels on the bottom. A bassist friend of mine once described Lycons as sounding like a piano string because of the ping attack point and the long sustain. I would agree with that, and sometimes on the open A and E strings, the sustain would actually blossom and get louder, so you had to control that. As mentioned above, I met Scotty backstage at a Kenton concert. He didn't even put the bass (the carved Mittenwald with the suction cup on the end-pin spike, which you can clearly see laying on his bed in the pic in Helene's book). down long enough to shake hands, but just kept playing this crazy **** while we talked
He was using nylon on top and nylon wrapped steels on the bottom. When I heard him with Chet a couple of years later, he was using all Lycons, but switched to guts on top and Lycons on the bottom.
Before all that happened, the Go-To strings in jazz were Artone, bare guts on top and steel wrapped guts on the bottom.
To this day, IMO, Lycons were the greatest jazz bass strings ever. Because we were ampless, they gave us the best chance to be heard in those days. I miss Lycons.
Sorry about the long rant.
Click to expand...
Reviving this zombie thread ...as what uncle Paul has to say here is really interesting:
‘Lycons were the greatest jazz bass strings ever’.

That caught my attention. Does anyone make a string that is comparable to Lycons? Are they gut or rope core?
 
#64
Yeah, it's curious that there aren't more posts about people trying and using the Prestoflex sets, given the purported Lycon connection. I have thought about trying them myself, but haven't quite been motivated to yet.
There are some recordings on Herve Jean's Stringmatrix site, and to me it sounds like they have just a touch less midrange growl than Spiros but a nice clear, open snap to the attack. Of course that will vary between basses and players but it seems like something that could be appealing.
 

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