Well, this took a while as you can see earlier in this thread. I`m using the synthetic slaps now with or without plain gut involved, after trying many strings and combos with some amount of plain gut. Toughest one for me was the E of the set, I had a E.P weich or downtuned solo there for some time. Finally I tried to cranck the strings up a bit for getting rid of the sloppiness, as I remembered the E working fine with plain gut ADG and higher action.
I spent last weekend doing some bridge shaping. I got rid of the bridge wings to make it as light as possible, my experience is that I get the most " complexity of tone " out from guts and the -like ( low tension strings ) with a wingless bridge, with more low end and ease of bowing as well. The bow quiver flew away a while back too, partially for this reason. I shaped the bridge curvature and string slots able to handle both slaps and anything from plain gut G to ADG, with optimal heights for smooth and bouncy gut pizz feel and bowability. I`ve been toying with this all summer as I had allready a adjustable wingless bridge in my drawer, which is shaped for lower string heights. String heights are now G 8mm, D 10mm, A and E 12mm. This way I can go plain guts without the need to do anything for the bridge. All combos from full synthetic slaps set to plain gut ADG feel similar, with the exeption that i don`t have the right plain gut A yet. The Lenzner is too floppy and dark sounding compared to my trusty favourite DG, a ripped ex-nylon wound Pizzicato and reqular Chorda G. Those are low twist rate plain guts, tense and stiff with enourmous power and all projection and clarity one could wish for. However, I ended up with slaps EAD and Chorda G as my default combo, the slap D has some sustain but blends well in higher positions, very gut-like. If I need more conventional bowed tone I`ll switch to slap G, and if I want it really old school I`ll go plain DG, or even ADG.
So, why Evah slaps? It`s the only gut-vibe string in the market I`ve tried that plays like dream, be that pizz, arco or slap. It isn`t the loudest string to the drivers seat, but I`ve had no problem playing unamplified with drummers, horns and electronics, gigging and playing outdoors. Listening to recordings of those events bring out a nice old school double bass tone, no problems in beeing heard when played the right way. The full slaps set sounds and feels like guts and can be raised to gut heights without the feel going too heavy. They aren`t guts, but blend really well with if the string heights are right. And when they are high enough I can really get some meat under the strings without killing myself. I`ve been loving the sound of Garbos, which are as close as it gets to guts, loud as all hell, but their bowability isn`t the greatest and they rip off the skin of my fingers. Roundwound guts and Animas does this pealing thing too. Slaps ( exept the aluminum wound G ) have extremely smooth surface just as my Pirastro plain guts do. They feel really good if one is after that kind of thing, and they`re loud ENOUGH when set and played right.
So, synthetic slaps are a extremely easy playing all-around string if one is after dark old school tone and feel, be that pizz, arco or slap. The caveats are the slightly dull character and low volume to the drivers seat, which I`m partly trying to overcome with bridge shaping. Another one is fragility and especially with the G. This is one of the reasons I`m leaving the Chorda G on as I play a lot of impro stuff with all kinds of extended technique crap that surely will kill a fragile string in no time.
It took me a while but I was desperately searching for extreme projection, partly because of my hearing loss. I was relatively happy with Spiro weichs / Pirastro guts combo, but arco was a pain, wolfy as all hell, and overall feel very unbalanced. I wanted to go thumpier too but my experiences with slaps weren`t that good at the time. Yet still wound guts were a no-no and Velvets I had tried in all possible configurations without success. All this had me trying the slaps over again and it was all nailed when we started playing a lot outdoors this spring and summer with the folk band I`m in. I`ve been learning a more economical pizz technique too, trying to not overdo anything and kill the tone and my hands while at it. With a physical but relaxed touch I get enough volume to hear myself and be heard by others involved.
It`s not like wow, this is the string of all strings, but I`m happy that I finally found something I can live with musically, practically and physically. It`s more like I don`t HATE THEM ENOUGH for not using them...
This setup fits everything I play, which is mostly acoustic folk and free impro stuff in different settings, pizz, arco and little slap. I`m also very happy that I can stop the setup wankery and start focusing in music making and practising wholeheartedly. And if I need to or feel like going more to gut direction, it`s only a string change away without the need to do anything more.
Sorry for the long post, R
