Double Bass Velvet strings megathread part II

[bonaventura]

Got an email from Rufus today. He said they are Velvet-Animas gut wrapped with a metal that looks like copper.

Sorry, but what you've done for 30 years simply has nothing to with what Velvet puts in Anima strings. Your quote from Rufus' email does not correspond to the Anima product in the market for the last 5 years.

My information is Velvet used gut at one time but no longer. Nuno Alexandre at Velvet's customer service wrote to me that Animas do NOT contain gut, and if you don't believe me you can write him at [email protected]

Point of fact is Rufus told me in Vienna his strings were made of "silk". Gut was not mentioned I am just reporting that fact. Maybe he no longer has Animas on his bass or is not sure what Velvet now uses to make them.

 

[Uncletoad]

I would LOVE it if they found a way to put Gut back in their strings. I know they broke more with it and in part was why they moved away from it. If RR had some new prototype or special version for him it would be nice if we all could try them too.

I think they would be a better string with Gut on the insides.

 

[bonaventura]

I would LOVE it if they found a way to put Gut back in their strings. ... I think they would be a better string with Gut on the insides.

But as Martin observed (if that is in fact what he saw on Rufus' bass), the Animas have a much better sustain than he would have expected from gut...

Cheers, Bill

 

[jimclark68]

I just got a used set of Animas, and it's not clear to me which is the G and which is the D. They are very close in thickness, and of course the windings are a little different, but I'm still not sure. One is slightly longer, which I would assume is the D, but I want to be sure before I string them up. Would an Anima owner clue me in?

Thanks,
Jim

 

[Marcus Johnson]

Black, blue, green, red, from bottom to top.

 

[Nuno A.]

Sorry i took so long to answer, but i was out of town playing and didnt check Talkbass for a while. The Velvet Animas and all other Velvet Strings have a silk core, as far as i know Velvet hasn't been using gut at least for more than 6 years , i can confirm the exact date maybe tomorrow.
Funny all this talk , because last week i just found some old Velvet Garbos D and G with gut. The G sounded pretty good and strangely , didnt go out of tune after only 2 days of being on a bass, probably because the gut was already dried after 6 years on a open box? The D string sounded huge , but the winding was in a bad shape since the strings were in a humid place and have been there for years now, this week ill dig more and see what can be saved.
Rufus Reid wrote us just a couple of days ago asking for a Anima set with C extension, so i presume he is still using Animas.
The reason Velvet stopped using gut in their strings was because it was very hard to find a gut supplier who always offered consistent quality.
Usually the samples were of great quality, but when the big orders arrived, the quality was not always the best, so Stephan started working with silk and to be honest, i dont think we will go back using gut soon... so, i can pretty much say that if somebody saw Rufus Reid playing Animas , they were not gut at all, we didn't make any custom set for him.
Cheers, Nuno

 

[moles]

Hey - those are the colours of the ball-end windings on the strings on my loaner, in that sequence too...Does that make them definately Animas, or possibly something else? They're nice warm strings, I'd like to figure out what they are at some point.

 

[Marcus Johnson]

Nope, Animas got no balls. Plus, they're copper wound, and they're loud as hell, so you would know if you had them.

 

[moles]

Loud as hell- check.
Copper? The outer wrap is steel or nickel, but I can see a copper (or bronze) inner wrap.

Dang, any other ideas? Kinda pointless being able to try out a new string if I can't figure out what it is...

 

[Nuno A.]

If you could post some pictures, everything would be much easier.

Nuno

 

[Marcus Johnson]

Loud as hell- check.
Copper?

Yup, like a US penny, copper on the outer wrap. If you have them, your fingers will probably be black after playing for awhile, and you won't need an amp for most of your gigs.

 

[Bruce Lindfield]

I thought we'd already decided that they can't be Animas as the distinctive thing is they have no balls at the end and just a bright yellow loop at the tailpiece!

 

[moles]

Oh jeeez.....I thought you meant the other kind of "No Balls"

...and yep, we established they're not Animas.....

 

[Marcus Johnson]

Sorry for the misunderstanding. Animas don't have balls, but they definitely have "BALLS".

 

[basss]

bump

I'm seeing a lot of talk about the 180's but not so much about the 360's. Anyone?

 

[hgrind]

My luthier says that he has heard from the biggest bass shop in Norway's capital, Oslo, that the jazz bassists who use Velvet, mostly uses Compas 360.

 

[neal davis]

well that isn't that way over here. Most jazz bassist here use garbos or animas if they use velvet strings.

 

[hgrind]

I know, it surprised me to. Just thought I'd mention it.

 

[MrB]

Ok, there's not a huge difference but the Garbos sort of pop out louder. But the biggest difference is the sustain which Animas have plenty of. Of course this is me on my bass with my way of playing. But considered the the heavier thickness of the Garbos and the definite difficulty to bow the G which seems to slip out, I'll get back to the Animas... More opinions will help!!!!

 

[martinc]

Jay:

Checked out your three tracks. Started to listen for the difference in the strings but ended up enjoying the music and your playing so much I forgot why I was listening!