Playing from the 'Gut'

[Phil Maneri]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

I wonder, how long will they last? Do you know?

Longer then you will with them I'd wager.

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Phil Maneri

Longer then you will with them I'd wager.

Ok, big guy.. Make the bet..

Who's taking the odds on this?

[Ken Smith]

Strings are here and on the Bass. maybe I need more FB Camber because I get a high freq. buzz playing an 'E' on the 'D' string, 1st. pos. No other E buzzes and the Eb almost buzzes. I think it is the String itself maybe. Almost annoying but will see when I take her our next weekend for a couple of Gigs.

They play and Bow much easier than the regular Chordas. The Plain Guts do as the others do sort of separate at the bends in the Tuners and changes color from yellowish to whitish as soon as they bend. I thought this was only a problem from the heavier Chordas I had before but does the same with these. I don't remember how the Labella's did in this regard. I just can't recall.

The Bass is a bit louder and wider sounding now but this is a loud Bass to begin with. I think I made the right choice using this Bass over the others for the Guts. I also put on the Pollmann Maple Tailpiece. Looks more uniform now. I think Hatpeg Gears might be better as well for Guts. Less sharp bending above in the pegbox. The Batchelder has some newer Rubner Hatpegs but sounds nicest with Flexocors so I left it alone.

The only downfall I can see at the moment besides the Buzz on the 'E' note G-string is the slight separation/color change when they bend around the Tuners. Is this normal? It's been several decades since I used Gut daily in High School and probably never even noticed it then. We had some of the Red colored Guts then I recall as well as the yellowish regular ones on some of the Basses.

Anyway, this is the start of something different for me. Phil? Where is that Bet you mentioned?

[Ken Smith]

What String Heights do you Gut players use at the end of the Fingerboard?

[Adrian Juras]

When I had Chordas on my 7/8 Czech, the strings were at about 8 mm on the G and 12 on the E. I guess you could go a bit higher, but it was comfortable right there. I'll never understand how Blanton played his bass the way it was set up. When you have that much space between the strings and the fingerboard it starts to feel very awkward.

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Adrian Juras

When I had Chordas on my 7/8 Czech, the strings were at about 8 mm on the G and 12 on the E. I guess you could go a bit higher, but it was comfortable right there. I'll never understand how Blanton played his bass the way it was set up. When you have that much space between the strings and the fingerboard it starts to feel very awkward.

I looked just now after lowering them a notch the other day and they are at 5.5mm/G and 10.5mm/E .. This has something to do with the curve of the fingerboard as well. The Bass is easily convertible back to Orchestra settings for steels.

[Phil Maneri]

Seems like that might be pretty low for guts. When I used mine I was up around 8 on the G and 12 or so on the E.

What's Carlos' setup like?

[Andreas Henningsson]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

What String Heights do you Gut players use at the end of the Fingerboard?

I use Velvet Garbos with a Gamut plain G. I think my G i somewhere around 10mm. That works fine for me, the strings vibrate freely, no buzz.
I've recently bought a set of N.O.S. Artone gut strings, but i can't put them on yet, need to widen the slots.

And about the string turning "whitish" when going onto the peg; I think it's normal, my Gamut looks that way too. I thought it might be the varnish but maybe it's just the way they behave when they bend around the peg.

[Ken Smith]

The Guts are now off the Pollmann and the test has been completed. I only have about 10-12 hours of playing that I can recall but with fiddling with the bass in the office from time to time I am sure it's a bit longer than that.

Conclusion:
Thank god they invented steel strings..lol

I mean, the Guts are nice and organic but I would have to be in the audience to appreciate them if at all. Under the ear it's a struggle, at least for me.

Of the 3 sets I tested in the last 2-3 years (Chordas, Carlos Chordas and La Bellas) I think I liked the La Bella strings as much as the Carlos set for the brief time I tried each of them. The regular Chorda set was just too thick for my fingers but sounded equally good if not better. Playability is equally important to me in this regard.

Since these are still in good condition and totally re-usable I think passing them along to a deserving player that either uses Guts or could make good use of them is the best option.

So, I can ship them within the 48 states in USA but for my time and trouble I ask two things. One, offer me a usable old set of something that might interest me in exchange (no money) and two, put up a review of how they worked for you after they settle in to be fair to the nice people at Pirastro that allowed me to test them out and share some opinions here. Ok?

Email me directly at support@kensmithbasses.com and leave it sorta private as far as who gets them. Thx..

[Adrian Levi]

I am not a gut player and have had no real experience with them, but have a question regarding gut strings .A friend of mine replaced his steel strings with gut strings and said that he immediately noticed a drastic drop in volume on his D and G strings.
Would this have to do with the diminished downward string pressure on the top from the guts thus perhaps affecting sound post position, and is it the norm to have to reposition a soundpost to regain string volume evenness ...... or perhaps even rethinking tailpiece mass etc ?