What's the best strings, round or flat with a NON-Tapered B string? I recently got my first 5er, an Alembic Orion , and I put on a set of Elixers. Awsome strings, real smooth and they seem to hold they're tone, but the taper (narrowing of the strings guage) causes the B to lay lower in the saddle and rattles like crazy. Any suggestions?
can't raise the saddle. Alembic bridges have set saddle heights that match the radius of the fretboard. The bridge itself, however, can be raised on either side, and that throws the other strings out of wack.
Why not try these, http://www.juststrings.com/alm-cx-3-45lb.html since that is probably what it came with originally.
There are lots, but we'd need to know more about what you want out of your strings to help you. Nickel or Steel Bright or Warm Slinky and Burpy or Stiff and Snappy Ernie Balls, TI superalloys, D'addario XLs ... all good. etc.
Sorry bout that. I'm still on the fence about flats or rounds, I love them both. I stick to nickel coated 90% of the time. Are Ernie Balls tapered?? They tend to end up on most of my basses. I find stainless without the nickel a bit grabby and laggy, and they die after a hard jam. For flats, I hear Daddario Chromes are nice and bright, but what about the taper? Labella's? Tape-wound?? I hear great things about all these, but no info on whether they're tapered or not....
I love the Ernie Ball 130 B string. In fact, after being a Blue Steel fan for years, I am really loving the Regular Slinky 5 string set. especially on my SR5.
I'm a bit confused...Maybe I'm missing something, but you say the taper of the Elixirs cause the B-String to ride lower in the saddle. I guess I'm not following you. Lower in the Bridge saddle? I know Elixirs are tapered on the nut end of the strings, but not at the bridge end. And I play 35" scale 5-string Basses and have never had a problem with the taper falling on the fret side of the nut...so I don't understand what you mean... Sorry if I'm missing something here...
The taper on the B at the bridge end falls on the saddle, causing the string to sit a little lower in the saddle, and it rattles. The strings are medium gauge as well, 128-45, and the saddle for the B is fit for 128-130. The saddles on Alembics can't be individualy raised or lowered.
Yes, I bet the most of the others responding aren't understanding what you're trying to get at since they're likely not that familiar with Alembics and the bridges they use. First off, I do think the inability to adjust the saddle pieces is a big design flaw on the Alembic bridges and unfortunately make a lot of 5 string sets (tapered ones specifically) unusable. I'll also say that I HIGHLY recommend you try another 5 string set other than the Alembic branded string, as the B string in that set is awful, but the OTHER 4 strings (E-G) sound and feel great!!! Suggestions for non tapered: Ernie Ball 130 "B" Fodera B D'Addario 130 B DR low beams, but not Hi-Beams... probably a few others I haven't tried, as I vastly prefer tapered B's.
Thanks ibz! I recently got a set of DR Sunbeams, and I'm VERRY happy with them!! They're preasure wound/round wound. They feel great, sound killer, and they seem to be lasting!! One problem with round wounds on fretless I've encountered in the past, apart from wear on the fretboard, in strings tend to die quicker from "sliding" on the strings. More skin and oils get grinded off you're fingers from doing so and have an impact on the string's lifespan. The DR's seem to hold their life!!
hm..... does anybody use a 125 B with an 100 80 65 45 set ? cause i always hate the 130-135 b string cause of it "thickness"
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