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Double Bass GUTS ARE SO MUCH FUN!!!

#143
Put the Gamut Lyon Mediums back on my Ply New Standard Cleveland on top of Evah weich E/A. I get why Marcus loved that mix. It's very good.

I have two basses, might as well have some fun.

My G is kinda funky. If I keep this bass set up this way I'm replacing it. Kinda wish I had the full set now just to put some controlled miles on it.

All the wound gut E/A strings I have aren't all that.

Maybe I should go back to my old thread....
 
#144
Nice. The Animas are a better match than my Evah regulars were. Not just in feel but also in tone. The Evahs are such loud strings that I felt like I was having to tickle them in comparison to the gut to keep the volume even. Maybe the Weichs are better. I recommend the Animas though. A nice mix of old school thump with a little more modern growl.

I have two basses too so I threw my Evahs on the ply workhorse which is reserved for the rock circuit. Got a nice rock show Friday so we'll see how that works. I usually have Spiros on that bass but I'm sure Evahs will be great too.
 
#145
I like the Evah Weich way better than the regular gage for all kinds of reasons.

Those Animas always pissed me off. turned my hands green and black in 20 seconds and smell like crap...the copper. i have a set around here somewhere, should try them again I guess....
 
#148
I've got wound Gamuts on my E&A again now. I like them a lot, but there's a trade off. Animas, Evahs, Sensicores or whatever will give you better pitch definition, sustain, growl, etc., but the roundwound guts match the plain gut uppers best in terms of timbre, tension, and overall feel. You can not really expect to play high up the neck on a roundwound gut E string, once you get to A, you go to the A string :D. Gut lends itself to missionary position, Simandl-type playing, but that's ok with me (as least as far as bass playing is concerned ;) )
 
#149
Bobby King said:
I've got wound Gamuts on my E&A again now. I like them a lot, but there's a trade off. Animas, Evahs, Sensicores or whatever will give you better pitch definition, sustain, growl, etc., but the roundwound guts match the plain gut uppers best in terms of timbre, tension, and overall feel. You can not really expect to play high up the neck on a roundwound gut E string, once you get to A, you go to the A string :D. Gut lends itself to missionary position, Simandl-type playing, but that's ok with me (as least as far as bass playing is concerned ;) )
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Yea. I'm prepping for a gig that is exactly that.
 
#150
+1 on Animas. Wound gut is better but I just can't use them in my climate (or rather I'm not willing to put up with what I have to to use them in the winter--I like C on the A string to be in the same place every time I go to it rather than it never being in the same place twice). I've never had any kind of problems with Animas as far as skin discoloration goes. They're low tension (reasonably close to the gut) have a bit more focus and growl but lack a bit of the thump that gut has. They match very nicely with the Gamuts on my bass.

Unca: I'd give them another try maybe with a newer set.

mark
 
#151
Sorry about the irrelevant post, but I have just discovered the whole thread...

How about guts on blues-ragtime? I am asking cause you know most of the time you need that sharp,short,dry sound (if I'm not wrong) or in several occassions you might need to slap...

Also, in my search of gut strings I found this difference from brand to brand "plain guts in all the strings" and "G and D plain gut, A and E gut silver wound"...What's the practical difference between those two types of strings?
 
#152
Years ago, when I used gut stings, I used Kaplan Golden Spirals, which were wrapped with plastic (?), like mono-filament fishing line.
I thought they sounded great, they felt smooth to the fingers, and they didn't get all of those little whiskers that I used to have to burn off (very quickly!) with a match. These were only the G and D strings. I forget what I used for the A and D, but they were wire-wrapped.
I wonder if they still make them?
What brought this to mind was the above mention of "wrapped Gamuts."
 
#153
gerry grable said:
Years ago, when I used gut stings, I used Kaplan Golden Spirals, which were wrapped with plastic (?), like mono-filament fishing line.
I thought they sounded great, they felt smooth to the fingers, and they didn't get all of those little whiskers that I used to have to burn off (very quickly!) with a match. These were only the G and D strings. I forget what I used for the A and D, but they were wire-wrapped.
I wonder if they still make them?
What brought this to mind was the above mention of "wrapped Gamuts."
Click to expand...

I do not believe that the Golden Spirals are still available. Many folks have been using the Labella Goldentone D and G stings, which are a gut core with a tynex (nylon) wrapped string, very similar to the Spirals. I think Lemur music still carries the Goldentone strings.

I hope this helps,
 
#154
OK, here's my gut G/D+? saga, from worst match to best (so far). Innovation Honey, Pirastro Obligato (good tension, great in the living room but no balls on the gig) Spiro solo (good in every way except size jump from D to A), Pirastro Permanent (real close, but a little tight-solo gauge might be worth a try), Velvet Animas. The Animas are compatible tensionwise, the size jump is about what it would be w/ wound gut, and the tone, both pizz and arco (nice woof) is a good match. Amplified sound is also very even between the two pairs. We'll see after orchestra rehearsal next week and a few gigs, but I'm optimistic. I love the Gamut wound strings, but NYC weather makes them too difficult. Thus the saga, which hopefully is over.

Yeah, right.
 
#155
salcott said:
OK, here's my gut G/D+? saga, from worst match to best (so far). Innovation Honey, Pirastro Obligato (good tension, great in the living room but no balls on the gig) Spiro solo (good in every way except size jump from D to A), Pirastro Permanent (real close, but a little tight-solo gauge might be worth a try), Velvet Animas. The Animas are compatible tensionwise, the size jump is about what it would be w/ wound gut, and the tone, both pizz and arco (nice woof) is a good match. Amplified sound is also very even between the two pairs. We'll see after orchestra rehearsal next week and a few gigs, but I'm optimistic. I love the Gamut wound strings, but NYC weather makes them too difficult. Thus the saga, which hopefully is over.

Yeah, right.
Click to expand...

I'm kinda there with you. I have the same setup and am liking the Animas pretty well. They feel great tension-wise. They still have a little too much zing to match perfectly with the guts tone-wise but hopefully that'll continue to die down.
 
#157
Jason Sypher said:
I can't possibly read this whole thread but I always mixed a Chorda G in with a Gamut light D and whatever I could mess with on the E and A. I always thought the Chorda G was the bomb because it was kind of tight for a thin gut string and it could be played a little lower because of it's quickness....
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Oh great...now another string to try......
 

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