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Double Bass Lycons...Att. ThomastikMike

#21
labravajazz said:
Having just started checking out TB lately, Paul's note re Lycons got me interested in trying them. Back in the 80s the great English bass player Danny Thompson borrowed a bass from me on his Australian tour and he gave me a couple of NOS Lycons to try. I can't remember trying them maybe because there was only a D and A string but after this reminder about Lycons I found them in a box last week and I put them on an old bass which has always worked best with gut strings. Wow they feel looser and more flexible than any metal string and lovely arco sound too. By pure chance next day i saw a box of old strings on ebay here in Australia and bought them as i saw a Lycon packet on the pics. I recieved them and what luck amongst the dross was a Lycon E and G! Quite used but I put them on and bingo they sound great. best arco and pizz hybrid of all. Why can't someone discover their secret and reissue them? Also received the same day a set of Belcantos to try. Put them on my other bass and they are very nice but not as free and open as the Lycons - more like Flexocors with more life for pizz, but thats another thread i guess.....
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Oh, I am jealous! What I wouldn't give for a new set of those babies. I, too, wondered why someone doesn't rissue them. There really is no secret. The patent is available and so are the strings! I also suspect that someone from the company must still have the "recipe."
 
#27
Paul Warburton said:
Michael, I have a question that maybe only you can answer. Do you know what happened to Lycon strings?
For youse guys that don't know, Lycons were THE best jazz string to come along, ever! This is IMHO!, and these strings were great, but only for those of us who like a whole buch of sustain. Red Mitchell turned me on to them in about 1959. Suddenly, they disappeared from the market.
Do you know what happened? The last time I saw, and played on them was around 1969. They had light blue silks on each end. And souded and felt similar to your Thomastik Orchestra line.
Thanks and i've been wanting to thank you for your time and expertise!
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Paul,
When I started playing in the early 70s my teacher turned me on to Lycons for the E and A and Artone gut strings for the D and G. I used them until I wore them out. Around 1975 I could no longer find either. I've never used a gut string better than the Artone and in fact abandoned guts because I couldn't find any that I liked as well. The Lycons were fabulous, and if I remember correctly they were made in (edit thanks to drub) Denmark. Some years ago a bassist came into my shop in Chicago and claimed that he had recently purchased some Artones; this would have been in the late 90s. He promised to come back or call me with his source but I never heard from him. As a luthier I have purchased bass stuff from every major wholesale house around, but I've never come across either of these strings since I started bass work in the mid 70s.
 
#28
Hey, Martin...
Thanks for the in put. We came about giving Artone's up in a different way...mine because of my obsession with Red...the minute I saw him using all steel Lycon's, that did it. I went pretty far out on that. My first wife bore a striking resemblance to Red's beautiful second wife, Rosie, both partly Chicana.


To quote drurb.....patience.
 

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