Nickels with Taper Ends for F Bass?

[Wasabi1264]

Hey, folks. I just received my new F Bass a couple weeks ago, and have gone through a long saga of finding strings that work with the bass and my ears. Bottom line is that steel strings just seem to bring out tons of overtones on this bass that I'm not used to. George F told me to try nickel strings, but of course, I didn't listen, as I wanted to just be able to use what he ships his basses with (as I've done with all my previous basses). But the SuperSteps sounded awful to me. MTDs fixed much of the problem, but I wanted taper core strings to keep from having to lower the bridge saddles too much. I tried Dean Markley SR2000s which were okay, and DR Longnecks, which were as bad as the LaBellas (but less "sticky."

Finally, in desperation, I put on the Slinky 5 set that I planned to use to restring my StingRay, and the overtones were pretty much gone. So, I know I need to generally go with nickel strings now. What I want is something pretty flexible, but also with taper cores, if there is such a thing. I imagine the taper will help overall with intonation.

Any suggestions? If I don't go with tapered strings, any opinions from F Bass users who have used nickels?

[rsautrey]

I don't have any experience with F-Basses, but out of curiousity, did these overtones that you were hearing with the stainless steel tapered/exposed core sets sound as if there were two pitches at once (warbly or chorus sounding)? Or were they just extremely bright sounding?

[Wasabi1264]

It was definitely the warbly chorus type stuff, and in some of the upper register notes, the overtones actually almost overwhelmed the fundamental. Someone also did tell me that tapers can contribute to this, as well, but I still would likely at least need a taper B, as the low saddle height exposes the bridge screws pretty high.

Originally Posted by rsautrey

I don't have any experience with F-Basses, but out of curiousity, did these overtones that you were hearing with the stainless steel tapered/exposed core sets sound as if there were two pitches at once (warbly or chorus sounding)? Or were they just extremely bright sounding?

[rsautrey]

This has been my experience as well with taperwound/exposed core strings. I can't get them to intonate correctly, especially in the upper registers it sounds as if two pitches are playing at once. Maybe you and I just have unique hearing because thare are a lot of people that swear by this type of string. As far as your original question goes, I believe that Ken Smith and SIT strings both make a taperwound nickel plated steel set. Back to the taperwound thing, it must be our hearing because I find it hard to believe that F Bass would use a string (Super Steps) that was inherently flawed....and that the great session man Will Lee wound use and endorse a string (SR2000) that could not intonate properly. I really like the sound of the SR2000 down low though. But from about the 8th fret up on the E and A strings I get the chorusy stuff...and pickup height is not the cause contrary to what a lot of people have told me.