Quote:
Originally Posted by Carlos Henriquez
Have you guys ever wonder why in the hell you can't get that sound that everyone dreams off? And why your fingers are always bleeding or have nasty caluses? Well, the answer is in those 20,000 pounds of torque metal strings that you have been pulling every night!! I had a long talk one day with my bass professor John Scheafer, who was teaching me Classical training at the time. He spoke of the days that metal strings came into effect in NYC and how he was very surprised as to how many bass player didn't like it at first.. The big complaint was the tension on the strings and the thin diameters it came with. He changed about 10 times before the orchestra convinced him into staying with metal. He had to get use to them quick and even though he bowed, it still was hard on the left hand and under the bow to get use too. I play Jazz ,Latin and Classical music, and I have no problems playing guts strings at all.. Many bass players have had the chance to try but give up the next day. It is a maintenance process that has to be learned in order to figure these suckers out. The diameters on the strings make a huge I MEAN HUGE difference in the sound and the way you play them. Diameter=G=2.15 D= 2.65 OR 2.70 A=2.55 E=3.15 If you ever get gut strings, try to get these diameters!!! These are the ones PC,Doug Watkins,John Scheafer,etc....had on their basses... Give it a try and let me know what the out come of this deal ends up to be!!
PS.
IF INTONATION BECOMES AN ISSUE USING GUTS ,PRATICE
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Can't help but agree - it always interested me that players used to the tone of gut strings didn't notice that something missing when they changed to metal in the early days of phasing out gut? Reminds me of the difference when vinyl gave way to CD - tone and sound quality went down the drain for the sake of convenience.
Just a quick question or 2 - did you try different sets of gut to arrive at your current setup? Any set up advice specific for gut? I am using Chorda set and its the strongest tone of all the gut line ups I have tried to date, sounds great arco or pizz IMHO (liked Dlugolecki too but only tried D and G). Do you know if the jazz players and classical players at time of PC etc used similar gut sets? Best and original hybrid strings were gut so I imagine....