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Double Bass GUTS ARE SO MUCH FUN!!!

#781
clink said:
The maintenance and worry were just too much. Was that a new hair??
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This is usually the biggest concern for many players I know that won't play gut strings. It's a shame, because it's really not that much work.


Clink said:
Guys I play with regularly tell me the flatback sounds good whatever strings are on it so that's what matters.

Choose what works for you and your bass.
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Fair enough. My King Moretone does indeed sound better with steel strings than with gut stings. But, like many others, my fingers have taken too many thrashings from long gigs on steel strings (and that's even pizzicato gigs). I used to think my skin was allergic to them.
 
#782
KStewart said:
This is usually the biggest concern for many players I know that won't play gut strings. It's a shame, because it's really not that much work.
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I think it is partially aesthetic too. Some guys want their strings to look like new forever. I am a greasy Italian with HCl coming out of my pores. My guts look like hell. At first this bothered me a bit but once I got over that and accepted the fact that I was going to have hairs and bumps and stuff I was fine. Now I barely wipe down the bass after a gig. I just take a lighter, sandpaper, and oil to them when I start to get strange buzzes or the texture gets too annoying.
 
#783
fingers said:
Now I barely wipe down the bass after a gig. I just take a lighter, sandpaper, and oil to them when I start to get strange buzzes or the texture gets too annoying.
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Ditto. 600 grit sandpaper and some extra virgin olive oil is all they need. I usually clean mine every other week when on a normal working schedule of 3-5 gigs a week.

I'm not Italian, but I do sweat when I play. Not good for gut strings (or pickles). Touring through the Mid-West in summer time isn't too fun with them either, I must say. I really feel for you players that live in that humidity!
 
#784
fingers said:
I might try the lighter thing. I sanded once and had hairs again within hours. Plus it seems quicker and easier.

I use almond oil to clean them.
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Try the meat of a Brazil nut from the day you put them on. At least monthly. Just rub that puppy up and down the string. No more deterioration of the gut.
For your info, Marc Perna, when you were talking about Gary Peacock's sound on "Trio '64" those were the fabulous Lycon steels that Red Mitchell turned us all on to in about 1960, in the olden days.
EDIT: Sorry, i'm searching for a certain dust up I heard about in this Thread from another site. May check back in if I get pissed.
 
#785
Francois Blais said:
Ok.
Now everyone takes a big breath and relax, please.
Please keep in mind the thread's title.
If guts are no more fun, this thread will be closed.

TIA,
François
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Gee, that's always alotta fun.

Hey, Phil, you ever heard Gary Karr on guts? His first solo record produced by Stuart Sankey on vinyl. He sings on guts as much as he does on steels. He was 18 when he did this.

EDIT: I'm still trying find the dust up in here. Forgive me.
 
#787
Paul Warburton said:
For your info, Marc Perna, when you were talking about Gary Peacock's sound on "Trio '64" those were the fabulous Lycon steels that Red Mitchell turned us all on to in about 1960, in the olden days.
EDIT: Sorry, i'm searching for a certain dust up I heard about in this Thread from another site. May check back in if I get pissed.
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Seriously? They sound like AMAZINGLY like guts. Whoa.
 
#788
Crazy thing tonight.. I lowered the strings half a turn on the adjusters and the bass turned into an absolute cannon. Sounded like I was amplified. I was practicing in the back of my house and the SO reported that closing all the doors between the back room and the living room didn't help - still very loud. :eek:

So when you guys say that it took you a while to figure out how to pull on Gut, how do you know that you "got it"?
 
#790
hdiddy said:
So when you guys say that it took you a while to figure out how to pull on Gut, how do you know that you "got it"?
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I think the got it moment came when I was comfortable playing very up tempo songs without a drummer and not stumbling. Although, I have noticed it is something that requires maintenance for me. I run through the Rufus Reid open string exercises at a few tempos once or twice a week to keep my pluckin' finger honest. It seems to work well, as the open strings are the toughest to play repeatedly, since they is the most rubber-flabby-bandy.
 
#791
Ah... then I think I know what IT is then. I ran through a bunch of Charlie Parker heads and wasn't flubbing it too bad with Ornithology at a moderate tempo (190?). I think it has to do with thinking ahead of the music and hearing what you're going to play before doing it. Gut takes a tad longer to sound/bloom so you have to sorta pre-plan what you're going on play and you can't just play anything on a whim. I notice I play better when I know the tunes very well and start flubbing it if I'm not so familiar with the tune - mainly cuz I don't know the melody well enough to see the future arc of my solos.

Maybe?
 
#793
I got to a functional level pretty quickly, and then continued to progress as time passed. Maybe because, in my case, I was so horny to play on gut. :p I'd had the idea in my head for so long before I finally switched, it was almost as if I had "pre-practiced" for a few months before the Gamuts ever went on the bass.

I also think that the Gamuts are a lot closer to other strings than some other choices might have been. The response is really fast, and while they're supple, I'd never characterize them as "flabby". And they growl and sing enough to not make me feel like I'm slapping on a washtub. I was able to play them at the same height as any other string.... I never raised the string height. There is a certain amount of thinking ahead, although it's minimal in my experience. The main difference for me is in the arco playing, although I found them way easier to bow than the Animas were.

Now, with the Spiros/Oblis set, I'm actually having trouble executing some things from time to time when soloing. Nothing major, but it's there, and I've found myself thinking "I coulda pulled that off on the Gamuts". One thing that is consistently harder for me is extreme uptempo walking on this current set. The Gamuts.. I can go all day as long as you like, and get a big fat bouncy sound with almost no effort. The notes just seem to sit in the right place. With the steels, I have to commit a little more, and when I'm done, I know I've done some work. I bet if you took a picture of me playing the Gamuts, and one of me playing this set, you could tell which I was playing just from the degree of "jazz face" I'm making. :D
 
#794
It took me about 3 months to get reasonably comfortable with guts. Probably about 6 months to where I didn't have to think about it anymore. I kept my string height the same as with the Spiros that were on before too.

I ran scales vertically up the G string quite a bit at fairly brisk tempos to get my right hand fingers moving smoothly through them and get used to the slightly tackier feel of the string. And I'd set a metronome at 120 or 140 (on 2 and 4) and practice walking tunes until my hands wanted to fall off. The biggest thing I had to do was learn how to really relax with them. Because they felt unfamiliar, I had a tendency to tighten up that I had to consciously unlearn.

Now I fly all over the place on them. I can play technical things on gut that I couldn't never play on steel.

mark
 
#798
Marcus Johnson said:
Yup... I've done a buncha stuff with him. The last time I recorded with him, I had a weird set on too... Oblis on the bottom, and Olivs on the top. Sounded fine, actually.
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You are the man! I used Oblis on bottom and Olivs on top for a while. That's what Patitucci recommended when I studied with him. Reading all this love for guts makes me want to get a set of Gamuts. I had Lemur plain gut D and an old Kaplan Plain gut G with spiros on the bottom. They never stabilized tuning wise, plus the D was really floppy. Maybe I can sell a kidney and buy some Gamuts. Are they really that much better then cheaper gut strings?
 

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