Double Bass There Are Only Two Bass String Types

[Johnny L]

Type 1 is a string or something representing a string.

Type 2 is not a string.

 

[CryingBass]

Psychedelic String Theory?

 

[Don Kasper]

There's an app for that...

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

So, Spiros and…?

 

[Johnny L]

I originally wrote something more serious and expansive -- including obligatory references to hot dogs, casual shoes, psychadelia and of course red hots -- but deleted it all for a more basic and intuitive argument which needs no additional support.

 

[Eli Brockway]

So, Spiros and…?

Nah, Chris, clearly they mean "gut" and "wrong" are the two types.

 

[Johnny L]

To confess, I do pretty much divide all bass into Paul Chambers or Ray Brown camps no matter the music genre, what kind of bass it actually is, or what gets to make the string vibrate.

So for example the Red Hot Chili Peppers get lumped with Ray Brown while Led Zeppelin gets lumped with Paul Chambers.

 

[BarfanyShart]

I like both kinds of strings, Spiro Mittels AND Spiro Weichs.

 

[Johnny L]

Man I LOVE the Red Mitchell spiro sets both weichs and mittels, but I fell off the 5ths bass wagon a while ago due to addiction problems to doublestops I could only reach in 4ths tuning. Sucks because 5ths is such an incredible, rich sound.

So I picked up a cello for my 5ths cravings instead...

 

[bassmanbrent]

I'm pretty sure I remember Ken Smith saying that all the string options available these days make everything too confusing. In the good old days there were 3 choices. Spiros (modern jazz sound), gut (old school jazz sound) and Flexocore (arco). Simple!

 

[Johnny L]

Well if you buy into the OP argument above, then those simple glory days have retu(r)ned.

Rejoice, rejoice!

 

[Don Hergert]

Don't forget, there are types 3 and 4:

 

[Johnny L]

Dude are those 3885 or S42 spiros? MASSIVE difference between those strings!

 

[Carl Hillman]

Type 2 is not a string.

Ceci n'est pas une bass string?

Nice post, Dada. Now where is Mama?

 

[Johnny L]

All strings matter now, brah.

Even Mama's.

 

[Johnny L]

Was thinking about speaker cone vibrations as woven extensions of the bass string -- nevermind sympathetic vibrations from my eardrums and what information they provide to the nerve endings and brain -- today, as I've been watching a number of bassists peforming on Youtube recently especially in this "new normal" environment we're all stuck in trying to be good neighbors as best we can.

Not enough talk gets done on all the other aspects in which bass strings exhibit themselves. Listing construction materials, tensions, thread colors, and outer winding details if any simply provides a woefully inadequate description of a string's performance. Recording microphone specs, bass stain color, fingerboard thickness and relief measurements, etc. need to be provided also including especially state-of-mind for the player demonstrating a string's sound!