Playing from the 'Gut'

[Phil Maneri]

Nothing much to say here Ken. Any of those would have been fine, I think the Pol is perfect. I deserves to be played more and the changes are small and totally reversible for not that much bread.

You putting on a set of Carlos Chordas?

You can send them to me after you're bored with them.

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Phil Maneri

Nothing much to say here Ken. Any of those would have been fine, I think the Pol is perfect. I deserves to be played more and the changes are small and totally reversible for not that much bread.

You putting on a set of Carlos Chordas?

You can send them to me after you're bored with them.

Yup, some CCs on the way. Bored with them? I wonder, how long will they last? Do you know? The Pollmann has that loud 'boooom' type sound. I am also looking forward to playing them in Orchestra as well. I kind of like the sound the Guts have. I am off till after the holidays in the Orchestra but have a duo and trio gig next week, all acoustic. Should be fun..

[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.

[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.