A and E Guts

[Honkabilly]

First time poster. Been been for 3 years now and still learning sound, play, tension, etc. Currently have D and G guts with A and E Thomastik Dominants. I want to move to all gut. What are the drawbacks large diameter of the A and E strings for slapping? I also want low tension strings. I assume gut would be considered a low tension correct? Seems like the guts never have the tension in the product descriptions like the others.

Other alternative I am looking at is either 3 gut and 1 innovation Golden/Silver slap, or 2 and 2. Any suggestions?

[kungfusheriff]

I like 2 and 2, Spiros and gut or Lamberts. Really tried to like plain gut E&A but I just couldn't live with the floppiness and almost total lack of articulation. If you play all slap, all the time they might be tolerable but that ain't me.

[Sputter]

It's funny how guts are great for some and not for others. I totally get that.

I LOVE my Goetz guts and have had them for around 9 years with no issues. Took them off for a while and they're back on now again. I like the fat E & A - no problem with me on that. Nice full natural slap from that. I agree that the tone of the E in particular is more thud-like. That just doesn't bother me much though and when amplified, the richness of the note comes out with conviction.

The tension of guts just is right to me. The Goetz guts aren't floppy to me and snap back with a natural resilience, but they feel glove-like to the hand.

I will say that I love Deluxe Lamberts almost as well, although I still give a slight edge to guts. I like my guts better than my GT47's also, in terms of having less of a brassy tone as well as having noticably less tension.

Right now I'm actually running E&A gut and a D&G Deluxe Lambert on my Kay. This combo balances PERFECTLY tension and tone-wise. I mean really, the DL D&G's might as well just all be guts. My reason for doing this is that I consider the Deluxe Lambert G string to be the best G string I have ever and will ever use. The DL 'D' string is almost as good.

I know some folks have issues with gut, but the Goetz brand guts have lasted me forever here in the Deep South with me physically pulling pretty hard on them. I hardly ever have to trim them. I've only oiled them one time and I hear that folks recommend NOT oiling them any more.

Guts DO change tune more quickly with the temperature. But once mine are out of the bag and acclimated to the ambient temp, not much more than many other strings.

I just can't imagine that my guts would ever break. I've heard folks say that, but I can't see how they could break the Goetz guts. Guts just have a natural stretch to them so I'm perplexed how that can happen to them. (I do carry back-up Deluxe Lamberts just in case though!)

Deluxe Lamberts are the perfect understudy to guts for me.

[Honkabilly]

Thanks for the advice. Just wondering, how do I get Lamberts? I see everyone talking about them, but i go online and there is no place to order anywhere that I know of.

[kungfusheriff]

Lamberts are made by hand by two guys in France, so demand is huge compared to the available supply. Email cordes.lambert@yahoo.fr.