bello

December 27, 2021 2:58 PM

Cello strings on a bass. A very different cello strings on a bass experiment.
posted by not_the_water (13 comments total)

I don't know why I expected an upright bass at first, since that's obviously impossible. But this is really cool, I never would have thought of it and I had no idea it would sound so distinctive.

I did, admittedly, kind of expect the second video to involve a fish.
posted by egregious theorem at 3:55 PM on December 27, 2021 [4 favorites]

This is real neat! The bass player in the first video sounds fantastic (the second guy, not so ,ugh).

But like the guy in the second video says, cello strings are very similar to flat wound bass strings (which a lot of players use). So if he put a set of lightweight flat wound bass strings on and tunes them the same (he's got the cello strings tuned Bb, Eb, Ab, Db (cello would be C, G, D, A)), it would probably sound very similar.
posted by jonathanhughes at 4:21 PM on December 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

Are cello strings metal? I would have thought they were more like (thick) classical guitar strings, which would make a real nice sound, but you would need a piezo or acoustic pickup.
posted by MtDewd at 5:40 PM on December 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

According to this site, two are often metal are two are synthetic, but looking at the product pages for some of the strings on that site, a lot of sets are fully metal. The ones in the video are definitely metal.
posted by jonathanhughes at 5:46 PM on December 27, 2021

This is very cool, but why go to the trouble restringing your bass when you can just pick up a cello and do like Lindsay Mac.
posted by bondcliff at 6:57 PM on December 27, 2021 [3 favorites]

So, is the difference that they're unwound? Neither shows the strings close-up that I saw (and to the degree I could watch the second video).
posted by rhizome at 6:59 PM on December 27, 2021

So, is the difference that they're unwound?

Cello strings (like other "classical" bowed instrument strings) are wound. They can have a gut, synthetic, solid steel or "steel rope" core, be wound in different metals (chrome steel, tungsten, silver, various alloys), and come in wildly different gauges/tensions.
posted by Foosnark at 7:50 PM on December 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

No, they're still wound (I'm assuming that all thicknesses are), but the outside layer is ribbon rather than wire, so they feel smooth. This picture shows the construction. I didn't know that the inner part was braided. On flatwound electric bass strings, the inner core is round or hexagonal wire with a few earrings around it, with the outside one being the ribbon.
posted by jonathanhughes at 7:51 PM on December 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

Ah, so a twisted core with flat-wound (REALLY flat). I bet the core makes the bigger difference, but from what I could pick out from the video I want to say it's pretty close to the Entwistle flat-wound growl but would like to hear it in something like a good wide-ranging bass cover.
posted by rhizome at 8:54 PM on December 27, 2021

Entwistle flat-wound growl
He was an early Rotosound round-wound endorser, right? But the story about My Generation is that they kept having to buy Danelectro basses when he broke the strings on takes - they had some kind of flat, I think, that had the sound they wanted, and that they could not buy un-attached to a Danelectro bass..........curious to know what Who tracks have the bass sound that you have in mind!

The bass player in the first video sounds fantastic
He's a PRO BASS PLAYER, discovered by Davie504 on Youtube!
posted by thelonius at 1:37 AM on December 28, 2021

I play bass, bass guitar, and cello, and vastly prefer tapewound/flatwound strings on anything without frets. Decent ones basically feel like cello strings. The guage differences on the cello's C and G are close enough to the A and D on a bass guitar that I'd try them in a pinch. Although I'd definitely not mess around trying to put bass guitar strings on a cello, that sounds like an expensive mistake.
posted by aspersioncast at 1:00 PM on December 28, 2021

He was an early Rotosound round-wound endorser, right?

Flat in the beginning. I guess I follow bass gear only enough to stop after the first thing I learn, so I assumed that was his Thing. After that he was apparently the Rotosound Guy for the rest of his life except for the 90s when he used handmade(!) strings. Anyway, my mistake.

To add even more options, there also appear to be round-wound cello strings.
posted by rhizome at 10:39 AM on December 29, 2021

Anyway, my mistake.

Well I'm pretty sure My Generation was some sort of weird twangy flats, no foul. Thanks!
posted by thelonius at 10:54 AM on December 29, 2021 [1 favorite]