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Double Bass I like Weichs!

#22
clink said:
I've been listening to a lot of Eddie Gomez and Miroslav Vitous lately. Not sure what strings they were using back in the late '60's and '70's but they have that sound and facility you just can't get on heavier strings.
Eddie's work with Bill Evans on "You Must Believe In Spring" really has me thinking about going back to an easier setup.
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Eddie Gomez used gut until 1966 or early 1967 and then switched to Spiro Mittels. He used Mittels with a HIGH action for a couple of decades. I don't know what he's using now. It might still be Mittels. I know he's using a much lower action than he used to. Try Mittels with high action. Use a strong attack and slide the note a bit and you'll hear the classic Eddie sound. It is extremely hard to play for more than a few minutes though. I have no idea how he played night after night with that set up. He must have had hands of steel.

Miroslav used guts in the 60's and early 70's. He switched to steel but I don't know when or to what. I'm pretty sure he uses a light gauge string based on the sound of it. Maybe a Weich or a Solo gauge Spiro tuned down.

mark
 
#23
fingers said:
The wrapped gut are starting to die though. I have a set of Dominants and a set of Velvet Animas waiting in the wings. And so it continues.
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I've never tried Animas but I've tried Doms. I love the G, liked the D quite a bit but it unravelled on me twice and I luckily switched it both times before it broke (I've heard others have had this problem with the Dom D too). I'm a little leery about trying it again. The E and A I wasn't so knocked out by. I've gone to using Mittel E, A, D and a Dom G. I replace the Dom G about every 3 months or so. It still sounds good but it loses a some of it's punch at about 3 months. It only takes about an hour or two to break in when I switch it out. I switched the G yesterday afternoon and played on it for about an hour. By the second hour of my gig last night it was really popping.

mark
 
#24

Eddie does have Mittels on, but I wouldn't call the action too high; maybe average. Good solo about 3:15 in.

I don't know what Vitous uses now, but I seem to remember it being a light gauge solo set.
He was featured in BP recently, but I don't have it.
 
#25
Hey Bobby…glad I could help out that Pay Pal account…Toad and Jason have benefited as well! :p

If Gamuts are my favorite gut string then I would have to say Weich are my favorite steel string. We have found the weich to be the best all around string for our vintage basses…I like the Dom’s too but for the money weich are the bomb for pizz. On a vintage Kay the light, low tension allows the bass to bloom with tone. In our limited experience if you get a high tension or tight string on a Kay it kills some of the thump…that would be short for “bluegrass thump”. :cool:

We willingly let other bass players try out our basses to get feedback on our set up and sound, we have yet to have one person not like the feel of a Kay bass with weich’s…but then again it could be the really good set up that people like too…that would be a Bass Monkey set up. :smug:

Bobby just keep throwing those string lust opportunities my way. I’m always glad to help out your Pay Pal account…you got good stuff. :D
 
#26
MollyKay said:
... If Gamuts are my favorite gut string then I would have to say Weich are my favorite steel string. We have found the weich to be the best all around string for our vintage basses…I like the Dom’s too but for the money weich are the bomb for pizz. On a vintage Kay the light, low tension allows the bass to bloom with tone. In our limited experience if you get a high tension or tight string on a Kay it kills some of the thump…that would be short for “bluegrass thump” ...
Click to expand...

Hey Molly ... Good to hear from you .... I was thinking maybe you and Monkey got stuck in the basement buried under an avalanche of ply thumpers or something :D . I agree with your take on things. It's nice to have a Gamut gut bass and a steel / synthetic bass. I tried mittels first on the '64 Kay but it wasn't happy. The weichs made a big difference.

As you know, the low tension thing is a big deal on the old Kays for sound and structure ... not only can the thump be killed, the bass itself can be killed. I saw a '40 Kay a couple months ago that was real close in SN to my older gut one (Dottie) that had serious structural problems ... maxxed-out setting on one side of the adjustable bridge, sinking top, probably loose bass bar, top will have to be pulled, real sad and expensive. The owner naively has run Spiro Mittels for the past 5 or 6 years and I think that ended up being too much stress on a bass that was made for low tension gut strings (since it was built 24 years before Spiros were invented).

P.S. I got a spare lightly-used Gamut Pistoy Medium G since I scooted up to a Heavy. It's a beaut! Wanna talk turkey :p ?
 
#27
juuzek said:
Are you gigging with the steels now, or just using 'em at home?
Thats the real test of how much you like them...;)
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LOL Just at home so far. Maybe I'll get brave and try them on a gig. Most of my upright gigs are bluegrassy, rockabilly-ish, Elvis and Patsy Cline, Grand Old Opry. So gut is usually the sound. I'm a half-assed jazz player and a quarter-assed arco player, but I practice at home and occasionally get a Sunday jazz brunch gig where I'll use a steel-string bass.
 
#28
Hey Bob…we aren’t buried in plywood more like happily swimming in basses…the family of basses continues to grow. :D

Holy cow…if that G string was a D string it would be just what I needed! :hyper: I just bought Jason’s set of Gamuts minus a D string…E, A, and G in light plus. I was going to search through my vintage gut strings and match these Gamuts with a nice vintage Artone gut string…ah so close to a deal. :)
 
#30
calivox said:
Miroslav used guts in the 60's and early 70's. He switched to steel but I don't know when or to what. I'm pretty sure he uses a light gauge string based on the sound of it. Maybe a Weich or a Solo gauge Spiro tuned down.
Click to expand...
clink said:
I don't know what Vitous uses now, but I seem to remember it being a light gauge solo set. He was featured in BP recently, but I don't have it.
Click to expand...
You both must have really big ears. From the March '08 BP:

Basses Factory-made Czech acoustic for pizz, Homolka acoustic for arco, both 7/8-size, w/ Thomastik strings for pizz and Pirastros for arco. Both sets are intended for ADGC solo tuning but are tuned down to standard EADG.​

[ Edit - The next month BP published a correction. Solo tuning is up a whole step, F#BEA, not up a fourth. Tuning down a fourth would make for some seriously low tension. ]
 
#32
Bob Knebel said:
Hey Molly ... Good to hear from you .... I was thinking maybe you and Monkey got stuck in the basement buried under an avalanche of ply thumpers or something :D . I agree with your take on things. It's nice to have a Gamut gut bass and a steel / synthetic bass. I tried mittels first on the '64 Kay but it wasn't happy. The weichs made a big difference.

As you know, the low tension thing is a big deal on the old Kays for sound and structure ... not only can the thump be killed, the bass itself can be killed. I saw a '40 Kay a couple months ago that was real close in SN to my older gut one (Dottie) that had serious structural problems ... maxxed-out setting on one side of the adjustable bridge, sinking top, probably loose bass bar, top will have to be pulled, real sad and expensive. The owner naively has run Spiro Mittels for the past 5 or 6 years and I think that ended up being too much stress on a bass that was made for low tension gut strings (since it was built 24 years before Spiros were invented).

P.S. I got a spare lightly-used Gamut Pistoy Medium G since I scooted up to a Heavy. It's a beaut! Wanna talk turkey :p ?
Click to expand...

I've wondered if that is any factor with the Upton I owned also.
It responded and sounded best with Mittels and a Stark E, but developed a bulge in the back where the soundpost sits. Also, the top began to sink slightly. There has been at least one other mention of a an Upton developing the bulge. The bass bar in my bass was on the small side and the top seemed to be a bit thin.
I wonder if these design choices contribute to the opinion that the basses are 'low tension' basses. People put heavier strings on them to compensate and maybe they can't handle it long term. :confused:

Back to topic. Weich gauge didn't work on that bass ;).
 
#33
I've got Weichs on my NS Cleveland. I love them. I think it came w/the mittels on it [red on both ends], but at the suggestion of my teacher at string change time-i tried the Weichs. I haven't looked back yet.

I've thought about trying other kinds of strings, but then i think about how my bass sounds now...and my bank account. I really dig the sound of my bass whether it's in a bluegrass, jazz, folk, or theater context-so why mess with it?
 
#37
Bobby:

I have found that Spirocore Weichs have sounded pretty good on four basses that I have owned. No other string that I have used has done the job as well on ALL of my basses. There have been some better strings/string combo for each individual bass but none were as universally acceptable as the Weich. The only caveat in this is that the Weich G is a bit too thin sounding for my tastes....no matter how long its been on.
 
#38
CamMcIntyre said:
I've got Weichs on my NS Cleveland. I love them. I think it came w/the starks on it [red on both ends], but at the suggestion of my teacher at string change time-i tried the Weichs. I haven't looked back yet.

I've thought about trying other kinds of strings, but then i think about how my bass sounds now...and my bank account. I really dig the sound of my bass whether it's in a bluegrass, jazz, folk, or theater context-so why mess with it?
Click to expand...

The Spiros w/ red silks at both ends are the Mittels (mediums, sometimes reffered to as 'Orchestra'). Starks have the green silks on the peg ends.

BG
 

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