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Double Bass Gut Longevity

#41
Jeff offered for me to try his Dlugoleckis way back when I was pissing and moaning about wanting to try guts. Then, the Gamuts found their way to me, and I never looked back. Never tried the Chordas.

Anyway, at the moment, it's Obligati on the top two, and Spiros on the bottom. The Oblis are okay, kinda mehhh. The Spiros sound great. As you would expect.
 
#43
The Oblis will sound great til the first no amp gig. I have a feeling the reason they and the Spiros sound good is that playing gut strings has taught you how to get "the sound" out of the bass, and that transfers to other basses and other strings.
 
#45
salcott said:
The Oblis will sound great til the first no amp gig. I have a feeling the reason they and the Spiros sound good is that playing gut strings has taught you how to get "the sound" out of the bass, and that transfers to other basses and other strings.
Click to expand...
Oh now stop...the implication there is that until you play Gut strings you don't know how to get "the sound" from the bass.

I'm not buying that.
 
#46
The bass sounded great unamplified last night. The Obligatos aren't bad at all, and the Spiros are flat out great.

Toad's right, too, I think. I played bass for a lot of years before I ever put guts on it, and my sound is pretty much a done deal, for better or worse.

JayB, I'm actually fresh out of Animas... I think I gave 'em all away.
 
#47
Phil and Marcus, I didn't mean one HAS to have played gut to be able to get a sound; I'm just saying that playing gut teaches you things about sound production you don't get any other way. I've had musicians say to me they can tell I play uprite from hearing me play bass guitar.

I'm glad the Oblis work for you-they always sound great in my living room and crap out on the gig.

If I had a situation where the temp and humidity didn't fluctuate so wildly between home/outside/subway platform/subway car/club, etc (NYC), or more than one bass, I'd still play gut; I know there are guys who do it, and they have my respect and admiration.
 
#48
Mark Perna said:
You won't have THE SOUND anymore. No more shaking the floor acoustically. No more deep bottom end. No more HUGE "thup" at the beginning of the note.
Click to expand...

Boy, you were not kiddin'. LOL

Oh well... I'll get back to 'em eventually. These strings are okay for now. I'm heading back to Wisconsin next summer (NOT saying I'll wait that long to get new Gamuts! :rollno:)... so I think I'll try to take up Dan Larson's offer of a tour of his Duluth-based shop of horrors. :D

Playing something else sure does make me appreciate them.
 
#49
Funny, I'm pretty much a jazz guy, and I miss them on jazz gigs... but where these current strings really fell short for me was on a Hawaiian gig I did a couple of nights ago... two voices, uke,and me. The bass just seemed spindly and unsupportive to me, although nobody else complained about it. I think my ears have just heard this bass for what it can be, and now I know the shortcomings a little more intimately. That presence just isn't there, amplified or not.

I suppose I'll start the process of replacing the guts soon... just been busier than a one-armed paperhanger lately., and lots of bills coming in. It's cool, the bass sounds fine most of the time. If I'd never played the Gamuts, I wouldn't even know what I was missing.

One thing that's rolling around in my head is the G string; Lyon or Pistoy. I'm pretty sure the D will be a Pistoy, and maybe the G too. But man... that Lyon G is a thing of beauty. Just so FAT all the way up the board, and yet it still sings beautifully on my bass. I'm sure either way will be okay
 
#50
Hi all,

I've just just changed over to all plain gut; hah, what a hoot! (You can read about it here: http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f17/plain-gut-e-802448/) I added an E & A to a D & G that I've been running for about 6-8 months now.

I had to add lifters to my bridge feet to get the extra height needed to accommodate the E & A. However, when I pulled the bridge off, the G was quite unwound at the bridge point. Then I noticed that both the D & G seemed loose in their winding; almost unwound. I think this is because they twist as they're being wound up onto the tuning peg and, based on the side of the peg-string-hole that they're wound on, they unwind in the opposite direction to the string's twist and therefore effectively unwind in the process. I think that the E & A shouldn't have this problem because they wind on the other side of the hole than the D & G.

To address this, I twisted the strings tight again, then hand wound them amount the tuning pegs before threading the string into the peg hole; hopefully any tuning up that occurs from here won't introduce an excess of unwinding, compared to winding them on using the tuning peg alone.

In keeping with the topic of the thread, I suspect that this may lead to string failure.

Has anyone else had or noticed this problem?
 
#52
I haven't posted anything for a while so I thought I'd pop in and say, "Hi guys!" Hi guys!

I've noticed that when people are happy with their strings, they tend not to be on Talkbass as much :). I've had my set of Gamuts on for maybe 9 months now, they still sound great, no signs of deterioration, no temptations to change. I'm saving money and not driving myself crazy (about strings anyway.) After I got "Irmgard", my current blonde German mistress, I had a bridge made with no adjusters so I cant mess with the action. I think this also helps with longevity -- the less you f#*k with strings, the longer they last.

Once in a while I'll play a bass with Spiros and I'll enjoy it, but unless I get a second bass, the guts will remain on Irmgard.

Also, I've been happy with my amplified sound. I'm currently using a humble Bass Max pickup, a Mark Bass 1-12 combo amp and a Sansamp Bass Driver DI. Everything's copacetic.
 
#53
Good to see you Bobby.

The main thing that I can say about my current non-gut setup is... it's more like "work". The bass sounds good, but that effortless great sound that came with the guts is not there any more. With the guts on, it was really easy to get to that sweet spot that I've talked about here before... where the instrument just disappears, and you're playing music.

YMMV as always, just the way it is for me.
 
#54
Marcus Johnson said:
I didn't notice any of that when I removed the Gamuts a couple of weeks ago.
Click to expand...

Thanks; I guess a fewf extra things that spring to mind are:

1) I've a fair few windings around the peg, so the more of those, the greater the untwisting effect as they're wound up.
2) If the strings were twisted in the opposite direction when they were made, the effect would be opposite; they'd get tighter.
3) The Emersons I use may have a looser twist to begin with compared to the Gamuts; I remember being struck by how tight the Gamut-twist is when I was looking at their site recently.

Are the Gamut's all twisted in the same direction?

Cheers! : )
 
#58
Actually, the only thing I've changed in months is: a while back I switched out my Pistoy G with a Lyon G that I already had for a comparison. I wound up leaving on the Lyon. I'd say it has a little more body, while the Pistoy has a little more focus. I like the body on the G, but the focus on the D. The Pistoy D is, IMO, the best plain gut D you can buy. (and it better be for the $$ dollars it cost) But, I can see these strings lasting for several years, so maybe the cost averages out?
 
#60
I've had my Pistoy D on for almost 2 years. It shows absolutely no sign of wear and has not lost any power or sound quality. It actually sounds better now than it did last year.

My experiences with the Lyon and Pistoy G are the same. Pistoy has more focus and it starts and recovers faster. The Lyon has more body. I love the Lyon but for soloing the Pistoy is much easier to get around on. They both sound great though. I'm not even remotely tempted to try anything else.

mark
 

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