Double Bass Guts to Silver Slaps

[ERIC A]

What in the world happened to this form!

I decided to try the Innovation rockabilly strings. They are a little lighter than the Super Silver's and i have heard they have decent sustain. I think I'll like them. I asked if I could get them a more neutral color just to play it safe.

 

[Don Hergert]

I think if you want slightly higher tension, you'll like the Rockabillys... From what I've read here and elsewhere, it sounds like their tension is closer to most guts.

I've actually played a friend's bass with Rockabillys and they sounded and felt quite good. I personally prefer the slightly lower SilverSlaps tension, but the difference isn't that tremendous. I've also played another friend's bass with Polychromes and liked them a lot on his bass, but do I prefer non-metal (and thicker D and G) on my Alcoa.

If it's any help, I'd rate SilverSlaps E and A as slightly higher tension than the SBW Deluxe Dirty Gut mediums that I'm using for my D and G; I can just feel it in the action of tuning as the SilverSlaps come up to pitch slightly more quickly. (I could use the SBW bump-pack's higher tension Deluxe D and G but the mediums' string thickness, and their tone and volume, mixes with the SliverSlaps really well).

 

[Jay Corwin]

Well this went south for a bit but anywhoooo...

I'm a gut, synthetic, or mixed set player depending on the mood or season. A couple guys had mentioned Silver Slaps having lower tension than gut. I do not find this to be the case on my bass. I've been running Silver Slaps E/A with plain gut, or Red Diamond nylon wound gut on D/G for quite a while. The Slaps have always been a good match on my bass with that split. I keep trying wound gut on the E/A, and always end up disappointed in the end, leading me back to synthetics on those strings.

It's my opinion that Slaps sound best once they are dead broke-in when paired with gut. The stable E and A can be nice if you play more pizz, and want to be able to climb the neck with those two as oppose to gut. They've served my well in that capacity.

The G in a slap set is not my cup of tea compared to even a low grade, plain gut G. Gut just sings all the way up on G. Once you've experienced that, there's no going back.

 

[Don Hergert]

I appreciate your thoughts there @sevenyearsdown , makes me wonder what would have happened if...

I remember being very frustrated with low acoustic volume with my SBW Deluxe full set before I installed the SilverSlaps EA. The Deluxe EA were so quiet that I was almost ready to dump the whole set; I didn't realize the DG were really cutting through pretty well.

When I installed the SilverSlaps EA it was like the whole bass came alive; over a period of a few weeks they actually changed how I played pizz, and that has had some very positive results.

This mix was really one of those pivotal lucky accidents, too... I had just played some mis-labeled SilverSlaps EA -- which were actually PolyChromes EA -- on a friend's bass and liked them, so I ordered SilverSlaps expecting to get synthetic core metal-wound.

But when the real SilverSlaps EA arrived and I looked them over I was actually disappointed until I actually heard them on my Alcoa, then I was extremely happy with their cutting growl; I think on my Alcoa they sound better than the PolyChromes did on my friend's bass. That was over a year ago and I'm still very happily playing those same strings.