Tapered vs untapered B Strings - what difference (if any!) should I expect?

[fergs40]

I expect this is one of those done to death topics and that someone will be along shortly with some variation on the ‘don’t you know how to search?’ theme, accompanied by whatever degree of snippiness they feel is appropriate for a complete stranger asking an innocent question in a public place.

 

But for the rest of us I figure a) you guys love sharing your knowledge and insights and I am keen to receive them, and b) surely one of the functions of an internet forum with a dedicated theme such as ‘bass guitars’ is to examine a finite number of questions from an infinite number of very slightly different angles. No?

 

I am not a five-string bass player, but I was five-curious enough to pick up a Sandberg Bullet JM5 to explore the extra low end and, as it turns out, the pleasure of playing many previously energetic bass lines while barely moving your hand.
 

Here it is (seller’s picture of my bass):

 

 

It arrived with a fresh set of unidentified though I’m sure perfectly decent strings which included a tapered B, something I had never come across before.

 

I couldn’t get my head around the physics of this at all - how does a string with such a skinny bit on the saddle and slightly beyond produce a decent low note? - but the sonic evidence was that it did. I just didn’t like it - it seemed to work, but it also seemed…wrong.

 

So, activating tinker mode I went and bought some Ernie Ball Slinkies (the pink ones), put them

on and thought no more about it (beyond aha! THAT’S how you do the run in Rhythm Stick without a ridiculous delay while you look at the fret you’re aiming for or don’t look and overshoot 70% of the time. I know - practice trumps technical workarounds, but it pleased me).

 

Anyway, I now return to the question suggested at the top of this topic - regardless of my personal prejudices about how things should be, should I notice any difference between tapered and untapered strings, beyond what I would notice between any two manufacturers’ strings? 

 

Thank you, collective.

 

[Kev]

I don't know the physics behind it, but for me a tapered string is much richer in harmonic content, which I suspect is because it has a much cleaner break over the witness point on the bridge.  It'll otherwise have exactly the same, more or less, low end as any other string of the same gauge.  At the end of the day, all strings are a thin core with wire wrapped around it, with tapered ends.

 

I like both, depending on the bass.  My stingray loves a tapered B, my Alpher doesn't.  No idea why!

[BigRedX]

IME it depends on both the bass and your playing technique.

 

Tapered B-strings suit my 5-string basses and how I play (quite hard), to the point where I have been considering getting Newtone to make me a custom set with a tapered E string as well.

 

You get more choices with non-tapered strings, but if you can find a set with a tapered B that works for you and gives an improvement in the feel and sound of the string then go for it. Remember also that just because a particular type of string works on one bass, it does not immediately follow that it will as good on a different one.