Double Bass Trimming Gut Strings

[SamuelHarris]

Not the little hairs that pop up, the string itself.

Just got a lyon medium G/pistoy light D set of varnished guts from Gamut (Me: Merry Christmas Kevin. My bank account: Damn you Black Friday Sale!)

In my experience gut strings seem to be longer than needed and winding that much length (in conjunction with how wide the string is which means each wind takes up more horizontal space on the tuning post than a steel or synthetic string) ends up with having to use the entire post for the string. So often I'm almost running out of room, or having to wind the string back on top of itself. This means the string typically having to be at an awkward angle from where it leaves the nut, the risk of the string being trapped between its previous winding and the side wall of the scroll or multiple windings rubbing on top of each other.

And with plain gut strings that are inherently less durable than steel or synthetic, I'd say the risk of breaking or unnecessary separating of strands that lead to string breaking/failure is high.

All this preamble to say: is there way to safely trim plain gut strings? That way less winding and that would be nice! My thought was a sharp knife or wire cutters followed by flame to cauterize the end (like when cutting nylon rope).

I emailed Dan Larson asking the same question but wanted to see if anyone here had any thoughts.

 

[Jeff Kissell]

I typically don't cut them, I just pull 6-8 inches through and let it stick out of the pegbox like crazy hair. I can still get my 4-5 wraps around the peg.
The reason being, if you have damage somewhere on the string length, especially if you're vigorous with the bow, you might be able to swap ends and have enough length to salvage the string.
Otherwise there is no structural reason not to cut plain gut, it's the same the entire length.

 

[sean_on_bass]

I typically don't cut them, I just pull 6-8 inches through and let it stick out of the pegbox like crazy hair. I can still get my 4-5 wraps around the peg.

Same.

 

[Earl]

I typically don't cut them, I just pull 6-8 inches through and let it stick out of the pegbox like crazy hair. I can still get my 4-5 wraps around the peg.
The reason being, if you have damage somewhere on the string length, especially if you're vigorous with the bow, you might be able to swap ends and have enough length to salvage the string.
Otherwise there is no structural reason non to cut plain gut, it's the same the entire length.

This

 

[DoubleMIDI]

You can loop them around the tailpiece hole and tailpiece front once more.
Otherwise (or additionally) let them stick a bit out of the pegbox if they are too long.

Well, the best alternative not to have too many windings on the peg is:
Get a bigger instrument with a longer string scale!

 

[SamuelHarris]

Thanks for the insights everyone. In case anyone is wondering here is the response I got:

"Samuel,

It is no problem to trim the string. Singing the end isn't necessary but certainly won't hurt. There's no real rule for how much to have wrapped on the peg so just trimming enough to make it wrap comfortably on the peg is fine. Enough for a few wraps around at least. It depends on how you want it to ascetically look and how much angle you want from the wrapping on the peg to the nut. Let me know if there's any further questions.

-Jake Larson"

 

[SamuelHarris]

Trimmed them with wire cutters and....nothing bad happened! Could probably have taken off 2-4" more at least but wanted to play it safe being my first time trimming.

Anyways if anyone needs guts for a 10" scale bass hit me up!