I would simply call it "non-tapered" as opposed to "tapered", which can be either "taperwound" (at least one layer of winding) or "exposed core" (down to the core wire).
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Tapered vs Solid Core B Strings
- Thread starter Bassdudeman
- Start date
The overall answer, already stated, is that it depends on the bass. I have a bass where a tapered B (exposed wire) makes all the difference. On my other 5, the same string makes no difference at all.
I do not like Tapered B strings at all, like was mentioned, you have to raise the bridge saddle quite a bit higher, & intonation above the 12th fret can get “warbly” sounding sometimes. Keith Roscoe does not recommend tapered strings on his basses. (Tho Ken smith does) on his. I had a couple high Ken smiths a few yrs ago, that came with the tapered strings, wasn’t liking the low B response, and when I swapped them for a set of DR Pure blues (non tapered) , the low B sounded so much better. Of course I had to lower the bridge saddle quite a bit on the B string. But my experiences have been terrible with tapered B strings, I will not use them.
That is my exact experience with Tapered strings, on the 2 Ken smiths I had, so I ended up using DR pure blues (non tapered) & they sounded so much better, no “warbly” sounds up high either, after going to the non tapered strings. Edit: also, I may be a bit ocd, (lol) but I thought it looked awful, with the tapered low B bridge saddle, raised considerably higher than the other strings. (Which is necessary if you have a tapered B string)
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