Taper or No Taper on B String?

jasper383 · #1 05-30-2008, 08:38 PM

I am thinking of putting a set of Elixirs on my Stingray 5.

I see that they are available in a 45-130 regular set, and a 45-130 taper wound set.

Why would someone pick taper wound over regular wind, or vice versa? What would you pick for an SR5?

DavePlaysBass · #2 05-30-2008, 10:28 PM

Given a choice I would go taper. I seem to get more definition from the tapered Bs.

Hawkeye · #3 05-31-2008, 10:45 AM

I've installed both taper and non on a few different five strings and I think the benefit is subtle at best. The tapered end is designed to allow the B-string to resonate more freely as it has a theoretically more precise and smaller contact area with the bridge saddle. Tapered may or may not be the way to go on a 34" scale five string. The Elixirs seem to be a medium to medium-high tension, so it may be OK.

I've got the Elixirs on my new Ibanez BTB-1305. Can't wait to take them off. YMMV, but I find them indistinct, blurry, so full of overtones and harmonics that my Korg DT-10 pedal tuner is quite confused with the B & E strings. They really seem to lack a clear fundamental. I'm gonig to switch them out to either R. Cocco's (I have a set just sitting right now) or DR Lo Riders.

fretlessman71 · #4 05-31-2008, 11:27 AM

Elixirs are soft sounding strings, to be sure, but I think it's the string material and not so much the coating. I did like them for a fretless bass I used to have (STOLEN!); I had a set on for nearly two years before I noticed a tone change, and I'm picky. If you want any sort of definition in your tone, though, yeah, I'd stay away.

NOW.... to un-hijack the thread...

I prefer the IDEA of tapered strings for the B... but truthfully I don't seem to have much luck. There's a subtle difference between tapered and non-, and I think it's an improvement in clarity when it's tapered, but it's still not great.

Now it's POSSIBLE that it's a bad run of strings I've run into; B strings are notoriously hard to make balanced given the amount of material they have to use and the possibility of One Little Thing Not Being Right on that huge towing cable I put on my bass. I've had lousy luck with B strings ever since I got a 5-string bass (which is why I came to the forum today; look for a new thread soon).

I can tell you I've had good luck with LaBella Super Steps strings. The core is TOTALLY exposed over the saddles, eliminating the issue of trying to bend such a thick string over the top and creating a lot of overtones. I like the sound of them as well - bright and crisp. Now that's taking "taper" to the extreme! It does require an action setup after install, but you may find it's worth the effort.

73jbass · #5 05-31-2008, 12:22 PM

I use the Elixer non tapered 130 on all my 5 and 6 string basses.All of them 34" scale and no issues with the B string.I have heard of problems with folks getting intonation problems,and some other issues with the tapercore style strings.

aproud1 · #6 05-31-2008, 12:26 PM

Tapered seems to work best on a B. My last 5 string I tried about 7 different b strings and found that tapered worked well and if it wasn't tapered it needed to be a fairly big B string(no smaller than.128)

As far as Elixirs go I personally don't care for them. Sound, feel and price.

fretlessguy · #7 05-31-2008, 10:29 PM

I have used both, and really cannot tell a huge amount of difference. About 10 years ago Bass Player Magazine did a string test of 2 or 3 hundred sets of different kinds, and much to their own surprise picked the untapered sets as their favs even though they originally preferred tapered in the beginning.
I use tapered light B 5 string sets by Fender these days.

pickles · #8 06-01-2008, 09:52 AM

I think tapered vs non tapered is not the key design criteria that determines if a B string will work well on a bass or not. It looks really different, so its easy to focus on, but I've had great and poor Bs that were both tapered and not. The thing that really seems to make a difference is flexibility. You want a big, dense, heavy string that is flexible so it can vibrate more freely. That is a hard thing to achieve.

IME, LaBella does it best, Dean Markley does a good job too, and Fender seems to have figured it out as well. Everyone else is lagging.

JTE · #9 06-02-2008, 03:01 PM

I"ve not used Elixers, but I've used tapered and non-tapered B strings on my Lakland 55-01. I find the non-tapered B sounds a lot better. Not as twangy, more cohesive with the rest of the strings on the bass, and a much more focused fundemental than tapered strings have.

BTW, I remember when Bass Player magazine did one of their "shootouts" where they compared a bunch of different strings. One thing they reported was that they were suprised but they found they liked non-tapered B's too. Despsite their admited prejudice towards tapered Bs, when they did a comparison of a whole pile string all on the same bass, they consistenly liked non-tapered B strings better.

YMMV, but make sure you're listening with your ears instead of your eyes.

jte