Double Bass Superior Bassworks Dirty Gut strings

[GKon]

Bought a set of Superior Bassworks Dirty Gut strings after a recommendation from a fellow EUB)
player, and I couldn't be happier. I bought their Deluxe package which comes with six string gauges to choose from.

I had Slap Happy synthetic gut Weedwackers on it for a long time (light gauge, Kevlar core), but the E and A string had very little tension, so were way too floppy. Overall, they sounded quite muddy. The strings were also very smooth causing the bridge to regularly slip and fall (I rectified this by putting some bow rosin on the strings where the met the bridge).

I tried using their steel core synthetic guts for the E and A, but I had issues with the intonation of those two strings being different than the D and G. I even tried replacing all of the strings with the steel core strings, but same result (that's a whole other story that I won't get into here).

The Dirty Gut strings also have a Kevlar core. They have considerably more tension, making them easier, and more enjoyable to play. They also have a somewhat rough profile, which makes them feel more like actual gut strings. Most of all, they sound really good! Clear and loud, like a good string should. ❤

 

[Don Hergert]

Important to keep in mind, the Deluxe strings are the SBW strings with the spiral cut for the length of the strings. The non-Deluxe strings dont have that.

The spiral cut gives a more airy tone with pizz and slap, and is a great advantage if you do any arco.

@GKon, what gauges of these Dirty Guts are you preferring?

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

IME gut-like strings on an EUB without a resonating chamber are a waste of time unless you just have to have that feel.

 

[GKon]

IME gut-like strings on an EUB without a resonating chamber are a waste of time unless you just have to have that feel.

Ιt is the feel I'm after. Regardless, I also like the way they sound.

 

[GKon]

Important to keep in mind, the Deluxe strings are the SBW strings with the spiral cut for the length of the strings. The non-Deluxe strings dont have that.

The spiral cut gives a more airy tone with pizz and slap, and is a great advantage if you do any arco.

@GKon, what gauges of these Dirty Guts are you preferring?

Thanks for the information. I'll make sure and keep it in mind.

The kit comes with .170, .155, .130, .105, .095, .080
I currently went with .155, .130, .105, .095 because those are the same sizes I had installed with the Weedwackers. I may, at some point, try the other sizes.

 

[Don Hergert]

Very good.

On my Alcoa I found that none of the E and A Deluxe Dirty Guts gauge alternatives were acoustically very clear or loud. While I amp every once in a while, I primarily play acoustically...

So anyway, i swapped in Innovation SilverSlaps E and A, along with the SBW Deluxe Dirty Guts .105 D and .095 G. As it works out, the SilverSlaps A is also .105 gauge, so the tension and touch with this mix is excellent, and the E and A are loud and clear, as are the Dirty Guts D and G..

A big surprise about the Deluxe Dirty Guts is how well they do with arco. As mentioned earlier, the spiral cut texture really has an affinity for the bow.

Best of luck with your use of the Deluxe Dirty Guts!

(Corrected for spelling.)

 

[GKon]

Very good.

On my Alcoa I found that none of the E and A Deluxe Dirty Guts gauge alternatives were acoustically very clear or loud. While I amp every once in a while, I primarily play acouatically...

So anyway, i swapped in Innovation SiliverSlaps E and A, along with the SBW Deluxe Dirty Guts .105 D and .095 G. As it works out, the SiverlSlaps A is also .105 gauge, so the tension and touch with this mix is excellent, and the E and A are loud and clear, as are the Dirty Guts D and G..

A big surprise about the Deluxe Dirty Guts is how well they do with arco. As mentioined earlier, the spiral cut texture really has an affinity for the bow.

Best of luck with your use of the Deluxe Dirty Guts!

Thanks for sharing that info, and for the well wishes!!!
I'm not very good at bowing, but I do have a bow, so bow I shall!! I'm now very curious to see how they sound.

 

[Don Hergert]

So anyway, i swapped in Innovation SilverSlaps E and A, along with the SBW Deluxe Dirty Guts .105 D and .095 G. As it works out, the SilverSlaps A is also .105 gauge, so the tension and touch with this mix is excellent, and the E and A are loud and clear, as are the Dirty Guts D and G...

Well, and I'm not doing that now...

I did some soundpost work on my DB some years ago, and have thought on and off since then about going back to a full set of SBW Deluxe Dirty Guts. Today I did that, basically removing the SilverSlaps E and A and replacing them with some new/old-stock Deluxe Dirty Guts E and A strings, so the full set is now all SBW Deluxe Dirty Guts in their .155" and .130", .105" and .95" gauges. These are roughly the same tension as before with the SilverSlaps, but both of the new E and A strings are a little thicker gauge than the equivalent SilverSlaps. The older D and G Dirty Guts strings are only about a year old, so once the new E and A are stretched in, the tone and feel match should be excellent.

FWIW, SBW Deluxe Dirty Guts come with a lifetime warranty against breaking or a number of other kinds of manufacturing failure, so unless there's an accident, I suspect I won't have to change them again.

I immediately noticed a change in tone and a change in feel...

The whole set now sounds much more earthy, organic and natural now -- out of respect for real guts users, I'll avoid saying the whole set sounds just like real guts now -- but they really do sound more gut-like. A different sound than the SilverSlaps or any other synthetic wrapped / synthetic core that I've heard and played, and also a different sound and a different feel than other wackers that I've heard and played. At least for now, these are the sound I was hoping for.

I really did like the SilverSlaps E and A for their almost in-your-face clarity and volume. But their tone is noticeably different, more complex, modern and sophisticated than I'm wanting now.

Regarding feel, the new Deluxe Dirty Guts E and A are much easier on the hands than the SilverSlaps, so noticeably easier that I'm convinced this was the right move for me at this time in my life.

For me, going back to a full set of Deluxe Dirty Guts may be similar to people always going back to Spiros... I almost immediately felt right at home again with these strings and I'm glad to be back.

 

[Don Hergert]

Interestingly, I just moved to the thickest gauge SBW Deluxe Dirty Guts... I've always gone with the thinner, lighter tension Dirty Guts, but I'm loving these. Having played a lot of synthetics now, they're probably as close to a full unwound gut set as one can get, but in their highest tension they are thick -- .170", .155", .130" and .105". Fat!

Happily they are extremely consistent from string to string in tone and feel, and they have good acoustic volume at least on my DB. And they're decent under the bow, which I'm very pleased about.

 

[Bar Star]

I am glad that the combo of strings and sound post have yielded what you want and need!

A few years back, on your advice, I got a set of SBW Dirty Gut Deluxes and used the two smallest strings for my D and G when I was considering guts and paired them with Perpetual E and A. The combo encouraged me to go with the Perpetuals and some used Artone guts and eventually Perpetual E/A with NOS D/G Red-o-Ray Gut strings on my 1949 Kay (which I use for weekly bluegrass jams, festivals and un-amplified farmers markets. I still have a full set of Spiros on my gigging fully carved German shop bass). I still carry the SBW Dirty Guts as backups in case I break a gut string.

Have you done much jamming (indoors and out) with the new setup yet? How does the new sound sit with the other instruments and have any of the other players given feedback on your tone/sound from the front of the bass?

 

[Don Hergert]

I haven't jammed with this fattest set of Deluxe Dirty Guts yet, they are just now getting stable enough that I'm considering it. They are approaching more medium tension and I can feel a significant difference with that with tuning during this break-in period, especially with the D and G strings. The increase in tension raised my action slightly, so I've adjusted the bridge back down to ~1/4" (6.35mm) E to ~3/16" (4.7625mm) G, and there is no buzzing so relief must still be good for these thicker strings.

I'll report in as soon as I have jammed with them. We did a gig yesterday but I was on banjo for that, and we have a new DB player now who seriously likes playing his own DB, so mine will probably only be played by me now; FWIW, he's using Spiros on his wood DB and he sounds excellent, but his DB's sound is not quite as old-style as mine now.

The same fattest .170" E and .155" A gauges combined with the thinner .105" D and .095" G were used on my DB on all of our band's last (2019) album by our previous DB player, but this was at the studio and the DB was both mic'ed and plugged in using a piezo system so this is not a totally acoustic representation. If you care to, there are links in my signature line to that album.

I have observed with interest that at least on my DB the fat .170" E and .155" A strings take on a different feel and acoustic tone when combined with the normally next-in-line .130" D and .105" G strings. It is more like a set of not-wound gut strings (of unknown origin) that I played on a borrowed wooden DB a few months ago. To the touch these Deluxe Dirty Guts are all fat of course, but the graduation and tension is consistent and even. The E and A are loud and percussive, but they do have that same short sustain as their gut counterparts, and the fatter D and G are similarly subdued but still loud, clear and pretty vibrant. While neither were an absolute requirement for me, these strings sound better slapped too, plus they have that same SBW Deluxe affinity to the bow.

I find it somewhat ironic to be spending so much time considering the attributes of $70 wackers, but SBW Deluxe Dirty Guts are very unique among wackers and probably deserve some more serious attention. I've felt that way for a number of years about the .105" D and .095" G combined with SilverSlaps E and A, and already feel that way again about this fattest set.

 

[Don Hergert]

So, I just finished a jam-ish practice with half of my band (vocalist, guitar and DB), with me just on DB (not banjo or mando). We worked mostly on 6 or 7 old-jazz songs for some of the secular sets that we do.

First off, volume and clarity were great, everyone heard the DB just fine and seemed to like the difference in tone. They indicated they could tell the tone difference but that it was subtle, which probably means the audience won't even think about it (ironic, considering the energy we all put into string decisions).

I was a little concerned that with these super fat strings I might have trouble with quicker passages and walks. It did take a couple of minutes, but after half a song I was playing like nothing had ever changed. In fact now the DB seems easier for me to play, although I may just be excited about it.

A couple of new things... One is that technique sounds seem to be noticeably quieter with this fat string set -- meaning those left hand sounds that I really don't want people to hear -- so that's good. Another is that sound seems to be louder in front of the DB than next to it, in fact I opened my DB's access panel (a big door in the diver-side C) while playing and actually liked what I heard. So I may play more with the access panel open with these strings. (Previously sounds coming from inside were pretty echo-y and non-descript.)

2 years ago I tried some synthetic strings, "Sugar Slaps", that had just come out from Aquila. I really liked them a lot, but I ended up removing them because they weren't compatible with my custom tailpiece... I was sad not to be able to stay with them, but rolled back to what was then my "standard" mixed set and was ok with that. These fattest SBW Deluxe Dirty Gut strings remind me of those "Sugar Slaps" strings -- which were also very fat, higher tension, and they also had very gut-like tone. But one big difference is that these fat Dirty Guts are great with my custom tailpiece, and they are also very good with the bow.

Anyway I'm a happy camper with these so far! Looking forward to more jams!

 

[Don Hergert]

A week down the road after a flurry of string changes, I'm becoming more and more pleased with these fat strings. They are stable enough to play in public now, although every time I get the bow out they seem even more stable afterward. I played them yesterday about 12 hours ago and they're still right at pitch now so I think we're past the break-in period.

The SBW Deluxe Dirty Guts come in a bump-pack of 6 strings and I had never tried their thickest set, I had just figured that their thinner strings would sound better. What a surprise; I suspect these fattest strings as a set are why people associate them so closely to a full un-wound gut set. They are sort of the antithesis of steel core / steel wound strings... Their acoustic volume is strong, their tone very airy, dark, understated, without a hint of metallic tone (which is something I strive for with my Alcoa).; with pizz the D and G have long sustain, the A lesser so and the E is pretty blunt, and I prefer their slap tone over that of the SilverSlaps or Sugar Slaps that I've played. Acoustically under the bow they sound well balanced and they speak clearly and strong. In testing, with a pickup system for pizz they are equally well balanced, loud and clear although somewhat electric sounding, and with a mic they sound just like they sound acoustically, only louder.

Regarding the bow and these fat Dirty Guts, they continue to exhibit an affinity to the bow that neither the SilverSlaps or the Sugar Slaps had. Their spiral-cut / texture allows the bow to grab them without a huge amount of rosin -- I've not applied rosin for about 5 days and still the strings sing. The tension and thickness keep the strings from twisting under the bow and I like that too. While arco isn't at all my mainstay on double bass, I like being able to use the bow as a pitch-challenge for practice and for occasional effects in playing, so that ability with these strings is something I really do appreciate.

I haven't had a chance to jam again since Tuesday but look forward to getting out with my DB.

 

[Don Hergert]

Dredging this up one last time, unless a string snaps or something...

I have a 7"x7" access panel on my Alcoa's driver-side C that was installed before I got the instrument as repairs inside were required. In the past with other strings I tested and then dismissed the idea of leaving that access panel door open while playing, functioning as a player-side sound hole. I dismissed this idea because the sound that came out was echo-ey and negatively affected the clarity of tone.

With these fattest SBW Deluxe Dirty Guts, I really like the access panel door open, and I'm strongly considering always leaving it open while playing. I don't know why it is so different, but with these strings, the sound that comes out from inside contributes positively to the whole sound of the instrument in both volume and clarity. The strings all, but especially the E and A strings, present with more of an explosion of tone that I like a lot. It is still the old-school gut-like tone, but the fundamental is clearer and louder.

The subject of player-side sound holes on DBs has come up in other TB/DB threads before, and it is actually a possible thing with custom builds. But I had never found value with this on my DB before, so it has been interesting for me to observe the differences.

 

[tweetycontrabaj]

Hi, i am watching for a cheap set of strings for my NS NXT 5.
Is this set a good option for a 5 strings electric?
The other combinations i have in mind is Helicore Low B Hybrid, with a set of d'Addario Prelude.
Or the NS d'Addario.

 

[DoubleMIDI]

Try the NS Traditionals which are shorter D‘Addario Orchestrals.
If you want a bowable upright bass guitar sound, try the NS Contemporary.

 

[Don Hergert]

Hi, i am watching for a cheap set of strings for my NS NXT 5.
Is this set a good option for a 5 strings electric?
The other combinations i have in mind is Helicore Low B Hybrid, with a set of d'Addario Prelude.
Or the NS d'Addario.

The SBW Deluxe Dirty Guts would probably work, but I wouldn't go that direction with your NXT5 unless you want an old-school gut-like tone and feel. There may be tuner/tailpiece and nut/bridge adjustments required to make them work. There may also be issues related to fingerboard relief with using such fat low tension strings. Deluxe Dirty Guts do sound good under piezo/amp setup situations, but they have no ferrous content so they will not work with magnetic pickups.

As much as I like Deluxe Dirty Guts on regular double basses, if it were me, I'd look for strings specifically designed for NS EUBs.

 

[tweetycontrabaj]

I was also looking at the weed wackers. They also seem interesting. So, how about a combination? The cheapest low B string i found was the Helicore Hybrid (cheapest and probably worthy). Is a combination of metal strings for the lower strings (E-B) and synthetic/nylon strings for the higher strings desirable? Or is it preferable to go with all metal, or all synthetic/nylon?

 

[Don Hergert]

Before I went to the fattest SBW Deluxe Dirty Guts set, I was using their medium gauge D and E with Innovation SilverSlaps E and A. Those are all low-tension relatively fat synthetic strings. It was a good mix, they sounded good, but over time I started wanting something that sounded less modern, more old-school gut-like. And my double bass is setup for fat low tension strings, so I really didn't need to change anything.

Personally I wouldn't mix low tension synthetic strings with high tension metal strings. The touch would be unbalanced and the setup mix would be asking for confusion when the strings are changed again, which inevitably happens. Some people do that kind of mix, but they have specific reasons, like using gut D and G over Spiro E and A to get a mix of old-school and modern sounds.

If you're going to use Deluxe Dirty Guts or real guts or some other fat low tension strings, or even some mix involving those strings, don't forget about setup. You'll need to visit the luthier for some or all of that. You'll probably spend as much money on the strings and the setup as you would on strings specifically made for your NXT5, which probably would need no setup.

 

[tweetycontrabaj]

Thanks for the advices.
I currently have 10 years old spirocores for G, D, A, and E, and the original NS Low B.
Really old strings, and when i save some money, i will get a new set.
So, for now my best candidates are NS d'Addario, and Prelude 4 set, with Helicore Low B, for the price.