I had the exact same issue. When i finally took the guts off my Juzek i left them on my plywood bass, and for the short time that combo lasted i really struggled in the same way you mentioned. And in terms of the versatility issue, i'm also in agreement. A friend of mine, a great bass player named Peter Brendler, said "its easier to make steel strings sound like gut than to make gut strings sound like steel". Obviously a very general statement but one that i agree with, and in the end i've been able to project a sound with Zyex lights that's really not that far from what my gut sound was.
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Double Bass GUTS ARE SO MUCH FUN!!!
- Thread starter Marc Piane
- Start date
You get a better understanding of how the music is suppose to feel in the Swing-jazz mainstream idiom, when you spend a considerable amount of time playing on a gut set up. Even though I left the gut thing, it taught me some valuable lessons in approaching a walking bass line. There I nothing like walking a bass line with some gut strings! Try it !!!
Does anyone have any experience with the LaBella nylon wrapped strings? Can someone give me a review?
The Goldentones? I've used them on two occasions, first on a '51 Kay and another pair years later on my old carved Saxon.
My initial impression was that they made the D string much, much too light even though you generally don't want an overly heavy dead D string.
The second set, which I got maybe two years ago, seemed to have a more substantial and less noodle-like D string. Maybe they changed the spec.
Goldentones over Spiro Weichs were more comfortable to play than my trusty old dead Mittels at the cost of volume, so the Mittels went back on.
They're decent enough strings, and might be better than plain gut in your climate, especially at this time of year.
My initial impression was that they made the D string much, much too light even though you generally don't want an overly heavy dead D string.
The second set, which I got maybe two years ago, seemed to have a more substantial and less noodle-like D string. Maybe they changed the spec.
Goldentones over Spiro Weichs were more comfortable to play than my trusty old dead Mittels at the cost of volume, so the Mittels went back on.
They're decent enough strings, and might be better than plain gut in your climate, especially at this time of year.
Hey Ive had La Bella plain guts for a while. Not sure if that answers your question but I found them to be great sounding strings but very light gauge. I actually think they were matching each other very well, the G and D, both being very airy and resonant and super light gauge. hope this helps.
I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum. I keep trying synthetics and going back to gut. The Evahs were close though....boy were they close. They stayed on for months and I played them in a bunch of different environments. In the end I still went back to gut.
This has been the worst summer regarding instability for me with gut and my bass. We are in the middle of the worst drought in our area since WW2, hot as a mother all the time, and yet humid. I could see a summer like this driving a gut player back to steel or synthetics.
Question for other gut players. I play a 3 and 1 setup (G-D-A PLAIN, E WRAPPED). The wrapped E does the opposite of the other three when it's out of tune. If my bass sits for a day, the E will for flat when the rest go sharp and vice versa. Seems crazy to me, but it's always been that way. Anyone else experience this?
Yep, most of the time mine goes flat while the others go sharp but every once in awhile they swap. I hear you about the humidity around here. I'm going through the same humid drought and my strings are going all over the place.
I live in Florida, so all of my summers are "like this". My gut strings just moved from my bass to the classifieds.
- Steve
I just threw a G on. Have had it for about 5 days now. The hairs alone are making me think to go back to steel.
for me, once the stretch out, that's pretty much it... are your tuning gears slipping?
No, it's just happening when my bass goes from my air conditioned house and car into the Florida summer heat and humidity. I have the gut strings on my hybrid bass, which is the one I use for outdoor gigs. When I am playing indoors, I don't have much of a problem. My decision to give up on the gut strings is also based on other factors such as:
1) The arco sound
2) My ability and willingness to adjust to the tension and response (my other bass is strung with Zyex lights)
3) Whether or not the gut string sound makes sense for the type of gigs that I play.
- Steve
I'll also add that one of the things I was looking forward to was using the gut strings on my trad jazz gigs, but the fact is that no one notices or cares what kind of strings I am using. To strive for that level of authenticity seems silly when everyone including me is using some form of amplification. It's been fun trying my hand at some slap-style solos, but I don't need gut strings in order to do that.
- Steve
- Steve
kind of sounds like a wood thing to me... im pretty sure all basses, regardless of the strings will expand and contract going in and out of heat and AC. mine does that too, but for me, once the plain guts stretch, they're super stable. im not trying to convince you to use gut strings, im just going on the record here for others who may be reading trying to get info in guts...
often, when i come to my bass for the first time in the morning after not playing it all night, the 2 gut strings will still be in tune but the steel strings will be slightly sharp. im no scientist, but im attributing this to the steel reacting to the cold from the AC more than the plain gut.
I have not found that the plain gut D & G hold their tuning as well as the synthetic core strings I use on my E & A or on my other bass. I also find that they are more impacted by temperature changes. This factor alone was not the deal breaker.
- Steve
- Steve
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Funny you say that, because I just put an old set of Innovations on mine last night. I just couldn't take the hassles with the amount of gigging I have coming up. The last month or so have driven me absofrickenlutely bonkers with respect to gut. I was spending more time tuning and maintaining than I was playing.
When i used a gut G and D they were all over the place, going flat throughout the set as they warmed up then being sharp coming out of the break. Not the reason i stopped playing them but i definitely don't miss that
