Every upright bassist has a string drawer, a repository where the physical remains of experiments, seemingly good ideas, and broken dreams lie waiting for that fateful day they might get a second chance. Mine is filled with sets I hoped would be “gut-like” or “slap-friendly,” “good for bowing” or “pizz-specific” — whatever goal I was chasing at the time. These days, I have one specific goal: to provide a thick, traditional thump on my Azola/Ampeg Baby Bass. I need to support a nine-piece ensemble with a tone that works for Latin, traditional country, swing, or R&B. For one year, I’ve played a set of nylon-coated strings, with good results. They are gentle on the right hand, have a similar diameter as well as some of the warm and fuzzy attack of gut, and offer sustain if you work it. But, the Baby Bass is its own beast. No matter what string you put on it, that pickup turns the response into boom, boom, boom, and that’s a good thing in my opinion. But after a y