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

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#861
Bob Knebel said:
PIZZ-OFF Marcus :D ..... Enjoy Them Lame-Ass 4-Seasons in Maui .... Come to Montana in January if you ever-want to get Refreshed and have your snot freeze as it drools-down your upper-lip and hangs from your moustache .... The local-chicks will dig-it .... Especially if you also know how to play An UpRight :p !
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I've actually been in Montana in the winter. But that was before I lived here for half my life..... not sure I could handle it now! :eek:

Beautiful place nonetheless.
 
#862
Bob Knebel said:
.... The local-chicks will dig-it .... Especially if you also know how to play An UpRight :p !
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Yep! That upright. TOTAL chick magnet. The chicks are why I got into jazz in the first place. I can't tell you the number of times I've been hit on by totally hot chicks while playing the upright. Well, ok, if pressed, if I REALLY thought about it, I probably could. um...well...ok...I've never ACTUALLY been hit on by a hot chick while playing the upright. I had one kind of look past me once but I think she was looking for the rock club down the street and accidentally wandered into the wrong place. But her eyes glanced fleetingly at me before quickly glancing away in horror. That counts. Right?!?

mark
 
#863
Marcus Johnson said:
It's not really a "zing" with the Animas. They sustain very nicely, but not in the same way as a Spiro. There's more fundamental, and a lot of "grain", color, and character. They're pretty wonderful. They also seem to last a good long time, as Ed Fuqua can tell you.

I haven't put in enough time on Garbos to help you much.
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The only Zing I get on Animas is sometimes when I bow an open G but If I relax my bow grip I can tame it. All 4 of the Animas are great strings for pretty much everything.
 
#864
So.... as much as I hate to say "never"..... like Calivox, I have a hard time picturing myself going back to steels now. Yeah, I've played a lot of strings, but most of you know that I was edging towards guts for a long time. With these Gamut guts, a lot of my fears of limitations have been put to rest. The sound and the feel is just THERE, and I can really play anything I hear, at least as easily as on Weichs or Evahs, if not more so. Plain guts just feel gooood.

I know it's early to make the assessment... but I feel like I've drunk the Kool-Aid. It would be hard for me to go back now.
 
#865
I was having a small crisis of faith earlier today. I have a sax/bass duet gig tonight and I was a little afraid that the guts might not be out front enough since I have to be bass, drums AND piano. I had contemplated putting the Mittels back on for tonight. I pulled out my Kolstein Travel bass still strung with Mittels, blew the dust off of it (it hasn't been used since prior to the gut conversion in March) and played for a couple of minutes. That was enough. Crisis averted. While there is absolutely something to be said for Mittels, they are great strings, that metallic sound just isn't in my head anymore. The guts have a human vocal quality that I just can't get with metal strings.

mark
 
#866
Marcus Johnson said:
So.... as much as I hate to say "never"..... like Calivox, I have a hard time picturing myself going back to steels now. Yeah, I've played a lot of strings, but most of you know that I was edging towards guts for a long time. With these Gamut guts, a lot of my fears of limitations have been put to rest. The sound and the feel is just THERE, and I can really play anything I hear, at least as easily as on Weichs or Evahs, if not more so. Plain guts just feel gooood.

I know it's early to make the assessment... but I feel like I've drunk the Kool-Aid. It would be hard for me to go back now.
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marcus, don't get Chris Fitz come in to moderate this thread, we have to maintain the image that we are NOT a cult...:ninja:

i'm glad you love the gut. i just ordered a new pair of Garbo for my bass to pair with the gut. once the tops wear out, i'm going to go some dlugoleckis. will report back then.
 
#867
Yeah, I'll probably go Velvet Anima bottoms next time around, and maybe try the Lyon G/Pistoy D thang. But who knows how long that will be?.... the bass is speaking right now. Mark said there are some miles on the G string, but it feels and sounds great to me.

I should probably start saving my pennies for that Gamut/Anima hit....
 
#869
Gearhead43 said:
Fellers, how does the tension of the Garbos on bottom feel compared to the guts on top? Or how about compared to a wound gut E&A tension-wise?
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Garbos feel a lot different than either the tops or wound gut on the bottom. They are quite a bit stiffer and they don't have nearly as much play as the plain gut. I don't know if there is more tension or not. There probably is a little bit more. They feel and sound great though. At least on my bass (the '28). I haven't tried them on the '74 yet which still has wound gut. I'm going to get some Animas for the '74 and see how it responds to them. Based on what I'm reading here, I'm probably going to ditch the Garbos for Animas on the '28 sometime soon as well.



mark
 
#870
As calivox said, there is quite a difference between garbo's + plain guts. Garbo's have more tension than any wound gut i ever tried, but are still a nice combo with plain guts on top. At least, the difference in tension didn't really irritated me.
 
#873
Last night, sitting at the kitchen table, I was taking pics of some items (not bass related) that I plan on putting up on Ebay later. The phone rings and a guy who puts on local theatrical productions asks if I'd come play bass for a bluegrass/gospel oriented play, since his scheduled bassman had to bail for some reason. Money was agreed upon and I leave.

I get there, go over a few particulars, see a few songs charted out, run through them, eat a bite and play the show. I carried my gut strung AStandard, running it to my GK MB150 (via a K&K Bass max). It sounded extremely good.

Back home about 10:30. I take my bass out of the bag and store the bag and the amp in the basement, while placing this bass on my Ingles stand in the house. We've got 4 uprights here and 4 igles stands as well. The other basses are in the basement, where the recording stuff is located.

This AM, while sitting at the computer I hear a POP and my gut G string (Labella Goldentone) broke. Sadness. I don't have another of the same string. I have other gut strings, other G's, but not another Labella Goldentone G.

But, luckily, it broke where the string comes through the talipiece and turns upward toward the bridge. Here's a pic of the piece left over:

Link Removed

So, I take a bit of the colored winding off, keep the 2 metal washers and the felt washer, re-tie a new knot and string it back up to pitch. In about 45 minutes. I'm really glad it didn't happen during the middle of last night's gig. It's still holding pitch and hopefully will last a good while longer.

I've always carried extra strings, trying to be prepared. I've had gut strings to break while the bass was sitting here at home. The last one that happened on was a Labella E, and it broke at the nut, with no hope of repair.

These strings are finicky, but as along as I have 2 basses here at home, one will always be strung with gut strings. There ain't nothing else truly like them.

I feel like a big boy now!:smug:
 
#874
That's a common area for gut Gs to break, where it comes around and up over the tailpiece hole.

That area doesn't get oiled as much or at all and can get dried out. I try and dab a little oil down there every so often but it may or may not help.

At least you can re-tye a knot when they break in that spot.
 
#875
Gearhead43 said:
Fellers, how does the tension of the Garbos on bottom feel compared to the guts on top? Or how about compared to a wound gut E&A tension-wise?
Click to expand...

i agree with what everyone has said about this topic. what i would add is that the texture of the Garbo makes it very easy to play as a match to the Gamut. With the Gamut, i kind of dig in to get some of that snap, but the Garbo's really smooth wrap allows you to almost glide over the string to pull out that sound.

overall it's a great match. though chip jackson loved the floppiness of the guts and told me that he hated the garbos right after lol
 
#880
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3535672&postcount=21

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3552407&postcount=39

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3603387&postcount=56

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3905213&postcount=156

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3939566&postcount=167

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4010414&postcount=189

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4056850&postcount=218

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4066016&postcount=224

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4124630&postcount=268

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4127574&postcount=269

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4131554&postcount=271

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4173323&postcount=316

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4225080&postcount=352

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4653111&postcount=529

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4918946&postcount=589

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4954917&postcount=591


This was an interesting read for me. I felt like I should revisit my gut time. I'm glad I documented that in the Gamut thread here like this. It gave me some perspective about what my process was. It was just a year but so much changed including the parent thing. Vincent was born in the middle of that. He's now 2.5+.

A couple things I noticed was that when guts are new they are at their best, unlike spiros which are the opposite. When I played guts for me and my work I was always struggling with something. I changed strings a million times in that year looking for something that wasn't sitting right with me.

I know now it was my bass not the strings. The expensive old carved bass with spiros really made more of a difference for me than any string change I ever made. In fact I wasn't really compelled much to change out of spiros once I did the initial monkeying with stuff the first couple weeks. I just dug playing the bass.

At some point I should try guts on my old bass. I'll have to buy a fresh set to give it a proper trial. I suspect all my old stuff is toast. I'm quite sure for the way I play gut has a very short shelf life. Less than a year. Probably 6 months. If I go there again I'll have to build that into my expectations.

I have noticed however that it's been almost 2 years since I did that gut experiment and I haven't been complaining or struggling with spiros hardly at all.

I suspect that Marcus and his style need gut. He's been talking about that for at least 3 or 4 years I know of. It's all over the Gamut thread as I looked it over tonight. Pretty funny really. Many other people on here are the exact same way and I totally understand the attraction.

The entire point of this post was to remind myself that my instrument and my skill development on it should be my primary focus. My experience is not typical or unusual, it's just mine and I write it down here so I can read it again when I forget...as I'm sure I will.
 
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