Ray Brown

A quick look up yielded that in the 60's, he had a signature set of "Lycon" steel strings, which he had a business deal with them.
When Lycon went belly up, Thomastik was there to reap the business. Before the 60's, Can't help you though.
Steel strings were a bit more expensive in the 50's, than guts.

 

If memory serves, that has been asked on this forum before, and the answer is Artones, Red-O-Rays and other 50's-60's era gut strings.

 

Ray Brown's sound is in his hands. The changes in his recorded tone from his gut strings days to his steel string days were very small. Only late in his recordings did you notice a decrease in power slightly as he got physically old and not as strong.

Players today don't get the sound from yesteryear because they don't know how to get a strong loud acoustic sound. When Ray cut his teeth as a player they used no amps on the bass so they had to learn how to get a loud clear sound that cut.

Many modern players have not played much without amps. As such they don't develop the chops to get that sound.

The sound is in your hands.

 

How's this for some Ray Brown awesomeness?

 

Sweet. This is so very, very tasty. As much as I love the Evans/Scotty version, I respect someone who leaves the listener wanting more. Play a tasty solo over one chorus without trying to play everything you can, just because you can. Ray, no doubt, could have said a lot more, but didn't. What he played was perfect.

 

The sound sure was in Ray's hands! He did use the beloved Lycons for a time.