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Double Bass GUTS ARE SO MUCH FUN!!!

#761
KStewart said:
And, yes, to ME, Guts are the best sounding strings for upright bass. They are an organic material, like the instruments they are played on, and help open up that instrument. Unlike the nasally sound of steel strings, that to my ears, compress the bass too much. I like my bass to be felt more than heard.
Click to expand...

^^Perhaps this should have been my first post on this thread^^


Marcus, thanks. Hope you get guts back into your playing soon! Cheers.

Geoff, Vlasic are the classic. Get with it. :D

.....sooooo..... back on topic.......

I love my guts! They are FUN to play and sound how I like my (personal) tone to sound.
 
#768
I prefer pickles right out of the jar. :D
Guts have an organic feel and sound that is something special and I'm very glad I spent some time with them; they changed the way I play to some extent. However, when I swapped them for steel I don't see ever going back. The maintenance and worry were just too much. Was that a new hair??
Guys I play with regularly tell me the flatback sounds good whatever strings are on it so that's what matters.
@Marcus, I put the EP weich G and D back on and they work well with Spiro weichs on the bottom. Wish I had some guts to send you but they went bye bye already.
Also, steel sounds much better on my plywood than any gut or gutlike string so the idea that one is better is one I can't accept. Choose what works for you and your bass.
 
#770
Whoa. What happened to our thread?

How about we all just let it go? Guts are great. So are steels. They have different functions. Until now, his thread has successfully avoided the insecure ramblings that infest too many other threads. Maybe we can do that going forward.

mark
 
#772
I'm with the consensus :) I have wanted to do some experimenting for a while now.. This thread has convinced me to save up and do some mix and match to get the sound I am after. There might be a little maintenance with guts but I always try to wipe down my strings each time anyway to prolong life as much as possible so a little "whisker" pruning won't be a problem.
 
#773
The Gamuts were pretty maintenance free. These were heavily used strings when I inherited them. I trimmed/burned/filed some hairs every so often (very seldom), but it has not been a giant issue for me. I can't think of any string other than Spirocores that stood up to a nightly assault as well as these things.

I have learned a thing or two about tuning on the fly :smug: but, I do that with other strings too. It's entertaining for the audience, at the very least. The sonic trade-off is more than enough compensation.
 
#774
So far not bad here. I've been getting more and more into slapping - which aside from tuning issues, may be the real reason why I might switch back to steel. I get a clearer clack when strings are lower. I may have to pay a visit to el luthiero just so I can lower the strings a nudge and avoid some extra buzzing I've been getting at the nut.

But when things are gel'in for straight walking, the Olive/Gamut combo sounds sooo GOOD!

Maintenance!?!? We don't need no steeeking maintenance! :cool:
 
#775
Lately I've been doing jazz gigs w/ drummer, mic only, into my Clarus w/ either a little pa cab I have or a GK MBX112. When a drummer is involved really all I want is something to just beef up the thump and click ever so slightly. It is so intoxicating.

I did a gig the other night on my B bass that currently has Weichs on it. Wow. I didn't realize how much my approach had changed. I could have diggity boom, diggity diggity boom, all night and did my best Eddie VanHalen for solos. I was becoming that which I hate most.

I started longing for sheep intestines.
 
#777
I'm with you guys. My Travel bass is still strung with Mittels. I took it out one time this summer and, don't get me wrong, Mittels are fine strings and there is a definite sound to them that works, but it made me even more committed (if that's possible) to guts. I do pretty much no maintenance on the guts. I've cut a hair once or twice but that's about it. They sound huge, amplify well in all rooms and I've been playing on them long enough to have developed a gut-specific musical vocabulary. To top it off, they've lasted longer than Spiros. My D is closing in on a year and a half and sounding better than ever. I did switch the G out recently after about a year but I'm going to put the old one on the Travel bass. I rarely got more than 6-8 months out of Spiros. They used to go false on me and lose their power. That long usable life mitigates some of the initial cost of guts. And Marcus's recently deceased G string was MY original G string from 2 and half years ago. I put a pile of miles on it before I sent it to him and he pounded it completely into the ground. You can't beat that cost/benefit ratio.

Mark
 
#778
Mark Perna said:
Marcus's recently deceased G string was MY original G string from 2 and half years ago. I put a pile of miles on it before I sent it to him and he pounded it completely into the ground.
Click to expand...

Boy did I ever. Some of you guys know that I gig a lot, and I solo a lot, and I did not baby that string at all. At the end, It had some big knobs on it from the fibers separating (right around the Bb), and it STILL sounded great. Couldn't have asked for more out of any string.
 

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