i can live with most gm patches but maybe its because i'm a guitarist i find the guitar and bass patches unconvincing. anyone know nice ones i can load straight into sforzando? preferably free?

You can google free SFZ
There are lots in the UserTrack forum just look back through it
RealTrack Bass Samples for Sforzando
Free Archtop Guitar for RealTrack Jazz Electric Guitar (27)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6krkobu3yb65wsr/RealTrack-ShinyGuitar.mp4?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3tp03y524o7i1yv/RealTrackBass-Sample.mp4?dl=0

I use 'Timbres of Heaven' with Sforzando and been satisfied with the overall results. The version I downloaded years ago has 24 banks of sounds. In Bank 016, there's a SF2 of a Gibson ES-335 that I use quite a bit.