Double Bass Moving to guts: starter guts D&G set?

[hellsq]

Hello! Finally, I started to thinking about gut. I play mostly bluegrass/folk/folk-punk, 50%/40% pizz/slap and a little bowing sometimes. Strings that I used in a past on my DB:

- Superiour Bassworks standart & deluxe: cool slap sound, nice bass sound on D ang G, very low acoustic volume. Very poor sounded A, no sustain at all on E. Piezo volume is ok, but there is a enough difference in volume between superiours and innovations for me to decide to not mix them. Deluxe version is more expensive and more useless: same sound but with annoying hum on slides. And this stings hurts my fingers when I do a lots of slides.

- Innovation Super Silvers: awesome sound of E and A: lots of volume, great sustain (similar to spiros), cool slap sound. D & G - ok slap sund, but very uneven tension - G's tension is very high, much more than E and A, so I must slap very hard and have very little action.

- Innovation Silver Slaps: fixed tension problems of Super Silvers, still awesome E and A, but D sounds a bit worse and G's slap sound is poor and very different from other strings. Pizz sound of G is also different, even colour of G string is different (I bought new full set).

So, now I satisfied with sound of my E and A and not satisfied with D and G, especially G.

My friend bought for himself indian gut strings, few month ago. I have played on his bass and I have found them kinda awesome: extremely cool slap sound on A, D and G, extremely nice pizz sound of D and G, acceptable sustain on A and really poor E (similar to Superiours).

So, I started to think, which sets of not expencive guts worth trying? I have found quite inexpencive strings sets and single strings on thomann: Lenzner and Conrad Götz Pfitzner. Anybody have any experience with this strings? Or maby I missed something and there is more cool and not very expencive guts? And is there a reason to buy a full set or maby just try D+G or A+D+G set? Or poor E is not common guts issue and more expencive guts E can sound cool? Maby guts with metal wound can give more sustain (more than super-poor on superiourbassworks and indian guts E)?

 

[Brad_Pearson]

Cheapest way to get into a set of guts is probably the Evah Slap set. Im thinking about grabbing a set myself in the next few weeks.

 

[Jay Corwin]

I would say your easiest bet right now is to mix a gut D & G with your Silver Slaps. Those two present far less problems than do the E and A selections for gut. It will give you a good idea if they are for you. Keep your eye in the classifieds here and get them used. Guts can last practically forever if cared for, so a used set isn't likely too beat to tar.

Lenzners are good strings. Not the best, but certainly better than the cheaper options out there for gut. I used them for years. They come up often used.

So - go for a D and G plain gut used to mate with the Silver Slaps E and A.

 

[Povl Carstensen]

As a user of all plain gut, I must admit that the E objectively sort of stinks. I just choose to stick it out.

 

[bassfiddlesteve]

I would say your easiest bet right now is to mix a gut D & G with your Silver Slaps. Lenzners are good strings. Not the best, but certainly better than the cheaper options out there for gut.

Good advice here.

- Steve

 

[james condino]

A little bit of patience and you'll find a great set of guts for very fair prices right here in the classified ads.

 

[JC Pat]

I recommend trying Efrano G & D guts from Lemur. They are great bang for the buck. I've had them on a German ply (mixed with Evah Slap E & A) and they have held up very well. Just oil the strings and clip the hairs as they appear. The Efranos have more tension than the Superior bass works deluxe strings and therefore aren't as easy to slap but you'll love the volume and tone you get from them.

 

[hellsq]

I recommend trying Efrano G & D guts from Lemur. They are great bang for the buck. I've had them on a German ply (mixed with Evah Slap E & A) and they have held up very well. Just oil the strings and clip the hairs as they appear. The Efranos have more tension than the Superior bass works deluxe strings and therefore aren't as easy to slap but you'll love the volume and tone you get from them.

As I can see, they have different tension versions: low, middle and strong. Do you talking about strong version of these strings or middle?

In 1-2 songs that I play in band I use a lots of fast and hard slap, high tension of Super silvers G makes my right hand very tired. Id more like to have mixed set with kinda even tension on all 4 strings. I thinking about using E and A from Super silvers set (they have more volume and "gut tone" than Silver Slaps and just slightly greater tension) and guts D & G. The only question is what inexpencive guts brands worth trying.

 

[Reiska]

Hello, beginner gut player here. IME even tension between the higher and lower strings, with enough string height, is the way to go. Charlie Haden-ish setups with high tension low strings / guts on the top allways leads to a situation where you get either enough tension for the lower vs higher strings. These guys propably didn`t have this much choises as we do nowadays, but my trials with, say, Evah weich / plain gut tops has allways ended up with a impossible compromise. Now I`m playing Evah slap E / weich gauge plain guts, but the Garbo light E should be here tomorrow. The E.P slap E does the job, but is annoingly weak when bowed. That`s the general problem for me with synthetic E.P slaps, lifeless, powerless, even when set up high. My G is at 11 mm`s. Not sure if the light Garbo will be any better, but the reqular gauge Garbos are strong, pizz and arco.

 

[misterbadger]

Same experience with synthetic Evah slaps - love my regular Garbos!

 

[Jim Dombrowski]

Interesting. I'm playing Evan Weich E and A over Gaumt Red Diamond gut D and G. Tension and tone are quite compatible. However, I am not a slap player.

 

[misterbadger]

The Evah synthetic Slap E and A are very different than the usual Evahs. Lower tension and a really soft sound.

 

[Reiska]

Evah synthetic slaps EA are great strings, and demand a lot from the player side me thinks. Garbos just are stronger, a lot, but I haven`t tried the Light E yet. Whatever floats anyones boat, and I mean tension. Don`t know if Red Diamonds are like Pirastro nylon wrapped Pizzicatos, heavy tension guts, like the most of Pirastro gut strings. Pizzicato GD Evah weich AE would be a great match, talking about overall tension of strings. Anyway, talking here on my experience, the Evah weich E is too high when your plain gut starts to shine. Other way around, your Evah weich E sounds like voice of god while the G can`t be heard. When you find the balancing point your left hand will tell that Evah weichs are way too high. I quess theres allways room for calibrating the technique, but my experience is this.

Interesting. I'm playing Evan Weich E and A over Gaumt Red Diamond gut D and G. Tension and tone are quite compatible. However, I am not a slap player.[/QUOTE