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  #1  
Old 04-09-2019, 11:23 PM
guitar344 guitar344 is offline
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Default Breaking upright bass strings

Scary to think about. What does it feel like to break one. I hear they fly across the room. Do they unwind or does the core snap?
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Old 04-10-2019, 04:52 AM
bkepler bkepler is offline
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I’ve found that most orchestral strings are rather anti-climactic in breaking. I think the one bass string that I’ve had break was at the nut and was held together by the wound portion of it. Now, as for flying across the room, I caught my banjo player’s 5th string a few weeks back. It cleared the mandolinist between us and landed right on me!
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Old 04-10-2019, 08:33 AM
J Patrick J Patrick is offline
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...our upright player broke a string once...the G as I recall...he was really good and played the rest of the gig with 3 strings with no problems....when it broke it just fell limp and was held by together by the outer windings...and yes it was the core that broke....made a heck of a noise when it snapped..
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Old 04-11-2019, 06:51 AM
Pnewsom Pnewsom is offline
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I haven't broken many, and the only ones that did were either gut or fiber cored strings, and the outer winding were still holding it together. Not very dramatic, much like a classical guitar string breaking.

The only scary part is buying a replacement string, they're not cheap like guitar strings.
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Old 04-13-2019, 09:22 AM
pianowillbebach pianowillbebach is offline
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I've never had one fly across the room - just a little "twang" and then a loose, floppy string.
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Old 04-18-2019, 01:51 PM
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Rumblefish Rumblefish is offline
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My buddy broke the G string on his upright during a gig and it cut my arm pretty good. Bled like stuck pig.
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