Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
Welcome to TalkBass! Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Double Bass GUTS ARE SO MUCH FUN!!!
- Thread starter Marc Piane
- Start date
In case anyone is interested, Damian Dlugolecki is still making strings but in reduced quantities. I just put on a new D and G paired with Evah Gold/Slap E and A.
I spent the better part of the summer gigging with high tension Spiro Med S42s and then Perpetuals with Stark D and G and I'm looking forward to the lower tension and deeper palette of these gut strings.
I spent the better part of the summer gigging with high tension Spiro Med S42s and then Perpetuals with Stark D and G and I'm looking forward to the lower tension and deeper palette of these gut strings.
Last edited:
Jeff, I’m curious how the Dlugolecki D compares to the Gamut Pistoy Med+ strang you sold me last week.
I put it on my five string (5ths) under Spirocore RM weich C G with high tension Dlugolecki A and E on top. It’s a great string, but I need to wait until it settles to know how much I like it in this context. Initial impression is that it’s just a little bit too low tension to match the rest of the set. Hard to beat that Spirocore RM weich D, but I, too, like the deeper palette, for sure
Last edited:
Eli, my wound Gamuts are very touchy here in St. Louis. I think it must be more a matter of temperature than humidity, because I've had them go way out of tune in 30 minutes after I arrive and start playing. When I play an orchestral concert, I've taken to leaving the bass in the concert venue after dress rehearsal overnight to let the strings settle.
I used a medium tension varnished plain A from autumn of 2022 to spring of 2023, great string! Holds pitch well, bow and plucking, and very loud. I haven't played chordas. I would go with unvarnished if I wanted to get another cause my G and D are, although with unvarnished they eat up the fingerboard so I took them all off.
The Dlugolecki strings are varnished and highly polished so they feel really glassy. The D I got is .086 so would be equivalent to an ultra light Pistoy (I think) but the tension feels similar to the light gauge. The finish is definitely closer to the flat wound Pirastros I have for the E and A.
My take is the Pistoy is a better match to wound gut or the synthetic core strings that simulate wound gut (Aquila, Innovation, Eurosonic, etc.)
I'd say it's a matter of both, along with some amount of how much the bass itself is going to be shifting.
Brave of you to be willing to leave the bass to acclimate that long. I give it 30 minutes to an hour before go time and I never let it out of my sight.
I had the Gamut wound E and A on my bass for about a year and couldn’t deal with the tuning issues. The plain gut D and G would drift a little with temperature and humidity changes, but the E and A would change a lot and be difficult to maintain stable tuning. I finally gave up on them and currently use Aquila Gold Springs synthetic 22’s, which are a great match for the plain gut in both tension and tone.
My experience is that plain gut is much easier to keep in tune than metal wound gut…
Eric Hochberg came to LA for a brief visit and what to check out my Tyrolean bass. He wasn't comfortable with guts, so I threw on a set of Kolstein Heritage (new model G; old stock DA; left the ext. Jargar forte E). All of a sudden, at the end of the day, we can't find G & D Gotz gut strings; nobody knows where they are. Eric leaves. I go to take a nap. A little while later I hear a crash and get up to check it. I don't see anything. Maybe the dogs ran into the Xmas tree?
And then I turn to see that the A string, that had been sitting in a large ash tray on the coffee table was also MISSING! What the...???
And then a turn again to see my two dogs happily munching on a bass string like Lady and the Tramp sharing spaghetti. Three strings; three dog chews... Guts are SO MUCH FUN... and tasty too (I want to kill them, I really do!!).
PS: The Heritage strings are nice but no substitute for gut. Mrs. Dog Mom has her shopping list now
And then I turn to see that the A string, that had been sitting in a large ash tray on the coffee table was also MISSING! What the...???
And then a turn again to see my two dogs happily munching on a bass string like Lady and the Tramp sharing spaghetti. Three strings; three dog chews... Guts are SO MUCH FUN... and tasty too (I want to kill them, I really do!!).
PS: The Heritage strings are nice but no substitute for gut. Mrs. Dog Mom has her shopping list now
Attachments
Just a fun observation; i have been using Götz Gut D & G over Spirocores for the past 3-4 months. I always heard how the tuning instability of gut strings is annoying and how it is one of the main reasons people keep to steel.
However, everytime i tune the bass the Götz are already perfectly in tune, whereas the Spirocores keep dropping by 20-25ish Hz.
Maybe it has to do with tension differences, etc., however it was still a curious thing, especially after all the warnings
However, everytime i tune the bass the Götz are already perfectly in tune, whereas the Spirocores keep dropping by 20-25ish Hz.
Maybe it has to do with tension differences, etc., however it was still a curious thing, especially after all the warnings
My experience has been mostly that the wire wound guts are very unstable but the plain guts are very stable
I use Gotz GDA and they are very good gut strings, and are generally under-appreciated here (and reasonably priced).
Jargar Forte E/C extension - I play all arco/orchestra; I did have a Spiro Weich E/C for a while, but the Jargar just has more cajones with the bow
I think they are made by the same company but there are (minor) differences between the 2: the Lenzner raw A seems more focused than the Gotz; the Gotz G&D seem more robust than the Lenzners
I've replaced the Gotz/Lenzner guts with a custom set of plain guts fro Toro Strings in Italy Toro Strings - c.da Conicelle 65020 Salle (PE) - Ram or ox gut musical strings
A 75th b-day present from Mrs F. These guts are fat, dark and warm (they are Italian, after all!) and are terrific classical strings.
A side note: I came across the company on a trip to Italy last year and was curious about them because my maternal grandfather was named Saverio Toro. After an exchange of very nice emails, the Toros there may indeed be (distantly) related my grandfather's family.
In any case, these are terrific strings.
A 75th b-day present from Mrs F. These guts are fat, dark and warm (they are Italian, after all!) and are terrific classical strings.
A side note: I came across the company on a trip to Italy last year and was curious about them because my maternal grandfather was named Saverio Toro. After an exchange of very nice emails, the Toros there may indeed be (distantly) related my grandfather's family.
In any case, these are terrific strings.