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

#81
The strings will take a few days to settle in. They'll go flat as you play them and the D, in particular, will sound a little thumpy. This is normal and it all goes away fairly rapidly depending on how much you play. The D will get more defined and they'll stay in tune pretty well. If you have to gig the day you put them on, keep a tuner connected to the effects out of your amp and touch up your tuning between tunes.

What A and E are you going to be using with them?

mark
 
#83
Hey Calivox,

I'm keeping the Garbo E & A.

So it went like this. I talked to Dan @ Gamut on Tuesday last week to order the strings and he said it might take a couple weeks to get them out This past Tuesday as I was walking home and just about to turn the corner to my place I see the Canada Post truck turn down my street, could it possibly be what I've been waiting for... unfortunately the truck passes my house hopes are dashed...alas they stop and turn around and park beside my place. Out comes the driver with what looks like a parcel the size of a set of strings. Confirms the address and in my hands are my Gamut Guts.

Put them on that day and gigged on them last night.
 
#84
dblbss said:
Hey Calivox,

I'm keeping the Garbo E & A.

So it went like this. I talked to Dan @ Gamut on Tuesday last week to order the strings and he said it might take a couple weeks to get them out This past Tuesday as I was walking home and just about to turn the corner to my place I see the Canada Post truck turn down my street, could it possibly be what I've been waiting for... unfortunately the truck passes my house hopes are dashed...alas they stop and turn around and park beside my place. Out comes the driver with what looks like a parcel the size of a set of strings. Confirms the address and in my hands are my Gamut Guts.

Put them on that day and gigged on them last night.
Click to expand...

How do they feel on your bass? I'm using a similar setup (had to get a replacement [read previous posts]) but I love the balance of sound and feel all across the board.

I was having my doubts about guts for a while a month ago or so, but now they've become such an integral part of my sound, I don't see any way I could play the way I want without them. We'll see, i'm going to be spending my winter break on fellow TBer Andy Allen's bass while in LA visiting my family. Last I checked that was strung with EPs. It'd probably be good idea to be playing steels at home, who knows what my little Shih Tzu would do to my strings...
 
#85
That's great! It takes a while to get used to the touch with guts. They respond slower to the initial pluck so you'll be tempted to pull really hard. You'll find that pulling really hard doesn't do much and is actually counter productive. Experiment and you'll find the right touch for maximizing volume and sound quality and it won't take that much effort. Most of it absolutely requires relaxing the right hand and arm as much as possible (this is true with steel strings too but you can get away with more with steel, gut is less forgiving in this respect).

Once you get used to the touch, you'll be flying on them. I can play more technical things now than I ever could on steel strings. I keep my string height fairly low so my sound stays fairly defined with a strong center to the pitch. I'm getting pretty close to a Scott LaFaro at the Vanguard type of sound. Now all I need are his ideas, imagination, work ethic and technical ability and I'll be set.

The Garbos are great but both you and Kevin should consider checking out the Gamut wrapped A sometime (perhaps when your Garbo A goes belly up). It was the final piece in my perfect string set: Garbo E, Gamut medium A, Gamut light Pistoy D, Gamut medium Lyon G. The Gamut A has as much definition, projection and volume as the Garbo A but it a bit warmer and will last a really long time as it can be rewound whenever the windings start to separate. Dan Larson can get a string back to in a day or two when you send it in to him for rewinding. I just put a rewound A on and it was pretty much already broken in. It took about a day to settle and by day 3 was stable and totally smokin'. Dan charges about $50 to rewind a string.

mark
 
#86
calivox said:
The Garbos are great but both you and Kevin should consider checking out the Gamut wrapped A sometime (perhaps when your Garbo A goes belly up). It was the final piece in my perfect string set: Garbo E, Gamut medium A, Gamut light Pistoy D, Gamut medium Lyon G. The Gamut A has as much definition, projection and volume as the Garbo A but it a bit warmer and will last a really long time as it can be rewound whenever the windings start to separate. Dan Larson can get a string back to in a day or two when you send it in to him for rewinding. I just put a rewound A on and it was pretty much already broken in. It took about a day to settle and by day 3 was stable and totally smokin'. Dan charges about $50 to rewind a string.

mark
Click to expand...

My friend Paul Sikivie got the full set with the wrapped Gamuts. On his bass, they seem a little muddy on the bottom end at the moment, we'll see after they settle in. Also, the feel is a bit rough in comparison to the garbo. How do you feel about transitioning between the D an dG and the A E?
 
#87
Kevin Hsieh said:
My friend Paul Sikivie got the full set with the wrapped Gamuts. On his bass, they seem a little muddy on the bottom end at the moment, we'll see after they settle in. Also, the feel is a bit rough in comparison to the garbo. How do you feel about transitioning between the D an dG and the A E?
Click to expand...

I think the muddiness depends on the bass. I have a full set of Gamuts on my back up bass (for those keeping score at home, that would be the original bass that I put gut on and wrote about extensively from March through about August) and it isn't muddy at all. I haven't tried a full set on the main bass which has had gut D/G and Garbo E/A since August and a Gamut A since last week. And far from being muddy, it is unbelievable now.

The wrapped Gamut A is a great string. It doesn't sound THAT much different than the Garbo A. It is a little warmer sounding and it is much more useable up the string. The Garbo was great in lower positions, ok at best in middle positions and stunk in thumb position. The Gamut is great all of the way up. I can play melodies in thumb position on it without compromise. The Gamut has the same power, projection and definition of the Garbo.

The Gamut is round wound string so it is a lot rougher than the Garbo but a Spiro is rougher than a Garbo. The only thing I can think of that is smoother than a Garbo is teflon. It took me about 11 seconds to get used to the feel of transitioning from the D to the A and since the A is a gut string, the transition is slightly more natural sounding than going to the Garbo which was a little clanky on my bass. I even slide on the A string.

I'm going to keep the Garbo E on the bass because it helps with tuning stability. I do have tuning issues with the backup bass with all gut on it. Nothing insurmountable but it can get annoying tuning between every tune. The bass with the Garbo E stays in tune without any fuss and the Garbo E sounds uncompromisingly as good as the Gamut and it costs a lot less. I think it's tension adds to the definition over all of the strings as well. I bet if your buddy Paul replaced his Gamut E with a Garbo E, he's lose most of that muddiness.

mark
 
#88
Kevin Hsieh said:
How do they feel on your bass? I'm using a similar setup (had to get a replacement [read previous posts]) but I love the balance of sound and feel all across the board.

I was having my doubts about guts for a while a month ago or so, but now they've become such an integral part of my sound, I don't see any way I could play the way I want without them. We'll see, i'm going to be spending my winter break on fellow TBer Andy Allen's bass while in LA visiting my family. Last I checked that was strung with EPs. It'd probably be good idea to be playing steels at home, who knows what my little Shih Tzu would do to my strings...
Click to expand...

These strings feel great, right off the bat ,was what I was hoping for, warm tone, nice bounce and very comfortable on the hands.

I did a gig on them two days after installing them , so I was doing alot of tuning between and sometimes during a tune.

My bass has a large lower bout 28 1/2 inches and depending on what kind of room and where I'm playing I can get away without using an amp, even with a drummer . But the gig last night was a corporate x-mas party with lots of chatter. Wierd thing about it was alot of the guests were standing near the band stand, usually I find people keep away from you.

Back to where I was going with this. I started digging in on the guts and I could here Calivox in the back of my head , talkin 'bout you cant treat them like that. I dont even have a pickup on my main bass, but I did bring the AMT & the Coda(the one that looks like a vacuum cleaner). Eased up and problem solved.




The gig
 
#89
I mean Contra ( can't even remember what amp I own.....).

Calivox I'd love to try the Gamut A. Kind of broke the bank on the G&D, but you only live once. I think this is it folks. I think I have finally found my string setup (hundreds of $ later).

I like Dave Holland and Ugonna Okegwo and Neil swainson and George Mraz and Marc Johnson and on and on, but to me personally I love the sound of Scott Lafaro , P.C. , Ray Brown (pre spiros, but love post spiros as well) The Judge, John Kirby that warm gut sound is what I'm after. I know, I know , it's not the strings that made these guys sound great and I'm not putting myself anywhere near them , it's the gut tone I want.
 
#90
Congratulations on getting your sound. I know the feeling.

There isn't a huge difference sound-wise between the Garbo A and the Gamut A. I think the Gamut is the same kind of string only a bit better. I'm just suggesting you look into it when it's time to replace the Garbo A. If $ is a big concern, you could do a lot worse than another Garbo.

mark
 
#91
JeffKissell said:
... I hope you try out Bob's string...
no... wait... I'll try it out..
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Any Old Time Kissell :D .... What's Yer Address ??? Merry Christmas :p .

No Doooo ... I will send it to Youooo :bassist: ... The Plain Gamut Pistoy A ..... For a Test-Run .... It's like driving a StarShip.

It really is A Monster (playing-wise / bass-wise / technique-wise / sound-wise).

Love Or Hate .... You decide ... And I'm here to assist you without you having to spend ... Whatever .... Maybe ... $200+ for one string to find out :rollno: ;) :p . I trust you will send HER fat-arse back to me someday :p .
 
#96
Bob Knebel said:
Any Old Time Kissell :D .... What's Yer Address ??? Merry Christmas :p .

No Doooo ... I will send it to Youooo :bassist: ... The Plain Gamut Pistoy A ..... For a Test-Run .... It's like driving a StarShip.

It really is A Monster (playing-wise / bass-wise / technique-wise / sound-wise).

Love Or Hate .... You decide ...
Click to expand...


OOPS ..... I got a private mail from Jeff in The Mean-Time :rollno: :hmm: ... OK I am an Idiot.

Good to hear from you Kissell :D .... The plain-nasty Gamut pistoy-A is heading your way. I cleaned her and applied a bit of olive oil. Heading out of town your way tomorrow (UPS) . Pass her on to Marcus .... and whoever wants her next :bassist: .

I ain't worried about getting pistoy A back ... It's only money. Right now ... I have no-A-need ... Anima A is Fine and I have a Garbo A in reserve. Damn Fine Strings. However :eek: ... That Pistoy A is a String to Handle ;) . I look forward to trying to get along with it again sometime when y'all send it back after Christmas :p .
 
#97
I'm back thinking about guts again. This time I'd like to try som cheaper models like Götz, Efrano or Lenzner. So far, I've only had these "Holy Grail" guts like Gamut, Artone and some Chorda... I've been really happy with the sound of my top strings (Artone) the past year, but then I tried Efrano's the other day (Wound E, Plain A, D and G) and the top strings were really nice! Great organic, old-school sound. That's the sound I want :) The wound E didn't sound that great to me, and the guy who played them told me he was having breaking issues with the wound strings and that's why he used a plain A. He uses all plain guts on his second bass. I believe that Efrano, Lenzner and Götz are about the same in price (and are all made in Germany). The Efrano diameters looks really nice too. Invalid Link Removed
 
#98
Hey Andreas,
I briefly tried an Enfrano wound E along with a unwound A with Dlugoleckis on top. The unwound A string couldn't really compete with the D & G but I thought the wound E wasn't bad. The windings were a bit noisier than Damian's wound strings. I ended up with all Dlugolecki's in the end (wound E & A).

If (should I say when) I can't afford the boutiques I'll be happy with the Enfranos. I think with a full set of whatever everything should balance pretty well. I've heard from others that the Gamuts, Chordas, Dlugoleckis, etc. have a more "modern" and "focused" sound even though they are marketed as baroque strings.

FYI- Evil Knebel is loaning me an unwound Gamut A to try... that guy is a gangster and a pimp! I'm sure I'll love it and then I'll need to justify 2+ Benjamins for one F***in' string! Thanks BOB!!!!
-J
 
#100
FWIW- I'm finding I'm becoming less picky about some things as time goes by. As I've played different basses and gotten to know my bass better some of the things I thought were super critical are less so. I can make a lot of things work now even with radically different set-ups, steel strings, low string heights, flat bridges, etc. I have my bass set to my liking and I have preferences for sure but I will probably explore less expensive strings when I need to replace this current set. That said these strings show no signs of wear yet. It could be years!
One thing is for sure though I'm definitely a lifer gut guy.:D
-J
 

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