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Double Bass How did I do this? Broke my Spirocore mittel E string!!

'No problem using just my bare hands with no pliers or mechanical aid on a mittel E tying a double fisherman if you keep it on the windings part of the string.

Folks gotta' know those busted string gig survival skills!

You can also sometimes reverse the string & put the ball up in the tuning machine peg and then tie a big knot on the other end like an old gut string so it will stay in the tailpiece...

Spiros are incredibly tough. I always thought you could make a pretty solid rock climbing anchor for thin crack climbing out of the ball end of a Spiro....



spiro double fisherman.JPG
 
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'No problem using just my bare hands with no pliers or mechanical aid on a mittel E tying a double fisherman if you keep it on the windings part of the string.

Folks gotta' know those busted string gig survival skills!

You can also sometimes reverse the string & put the ball up in the tuning machine peg and then tie a big knot on the other end like an old gut string so it will stay in the tailpiece...

Spiros are incredibly tough. I always thought you could make a pretty solid rock climbing anchor for thin crack climbing out of the ball end of a Spiro....



View attachment 3875378
My problem string was a High C synthetic core which has a thinner core than the rest of the set. The core always broke at the knot, so I tried the friction on the silk wrapped part.
Strings where the core is close to breaking tension at pitch can be problematic (otherwise they wouldn’t have broken). Cannot remember if I tried it with a Super Sensitive Supreme high C (now discontinued).

In general I would not have problems knotting the string ends, but most of my broken ones are a bit problematic (and rather exotic for most bass players).
 
'No problem using just my bare hands with no pliers or mechanical aid on a mittel E tying a double fisherman if you keep it on the windings part of the string.

Folks gotta' know those busted string gig survival skills!

You can also sometimes reverse the string & put the ball up in the tuning machine peg and then tie a big knot on the other end like an old gut string so it will stay in the tailpiece...

Spiros are incredibly tough. I always thought you could make a pretty solid rock climbing anchor for thin crack climbing out of the ball end of a Spiro....



View attachment 3875378

Nice knot! However on my string it is broken on the steel part so this is not going to work. I think in most cases the string will break on the steel part not the windings part.
 

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