Comfort tapper

[dubalbal]

Hello Folks ,  
 
I choose a comfort tapper on my future bass ...so the space between the strings will be reduced from 1.65 to 1.55...Anyone who plays with a comfort tapper can give me his feeling about it , is the difference very notable and is it easy to get used to it ? i actually play a standard one .
 
Many thank's Alembifriends
 
ALAIN

[bob]

Probably just a small wording problem, but to clarify: the comfort taper has wider spacing at the bridge, and slightly smaller spacing at the nut, than the classic taper. Or to say it another way, with a comfort taper the strings start out closer together at the nut, and spread out more at the bridge.
 
I'm not sure there is anything that could really be called standard, though perhaps the classic is a more typical arrangement. Personally, I think the difference is more noticeable at the bridge (right hand, most of the time), and I happen to prefer the closer spacing there.
 
It depends a lot on your playing style. If you don't have the opportunity to try them on real instruments, I suggest you carefully measure the spacing on your current bass, and figure out what it would be like with the custom taper. Draw the two out on a piece of paper, or maybe try putting some little wood spacers or something between the strings to spread them out to the comfort dimension (not to play, but just to get a feel for it).
 
It is certainly noticeable enough to be a fairly important decision, but only you can decide what you like.
-Bob

[adriaan]

As far as I know comfort taper means that the strings are closer together at the nut than at the bridge. The string spacing on my 94 Epic 4 is 17 mm at the nut, and 19 mm at the bridge (measuring from the center of one string to the center of the next one).
 
My 88 Spoiler 4 has the same string spacing at both the nut and the bridge, 17 mm, so the strings run in parallel. For Alembics, this is referred to as standard taper - but I couldn't tell you if this is still the standard option ...
 
Knowing Alembic, you can order any custom string spacing, in narrow or standard or custom taper.
 
I find the difference is very noticeable, and to be honest I couldn't tell you which one I prefer. For some, 17 mm would feel too narrow for slapping - for instance there is a lot of discussion on TalkBass about 17 mm or 19 mm on five string basses, and most of the people there seem to prefer 19 mm.

[flaxattack]

well i did my own custom. 5 string
1.75 nut w/180 edge w/.500 spacing - tight but i have small fingers and play with a pick.
 
also many people might not know this but you can request a shaved neck so it is about an 1/8 in thinner than normal neck

[bigredbass]

I own three basses.  My SPOILER 5 is the classic taper (2 at the nut, 2.5 at the bridge).  My BB5000 is 1.75 at the nut, 2.5 at the bridge.  My BB5000A is 2 at the nut and 3.25 at the bridge.
 
It's weird, but I like all of them, because the neck shape works for me with all three.  The Alembic is 'C' shaped.  The 5000 feels like a Jazz shape.  The 5000A is a flat oval, so it doesn't feel as much wider than the other two as it really is.
 
The six strings I've tried that I like had very flat necks so they did not feel as wide as my eyes were telling me.  So I guess for me, the width/taper PLUS the neck shape is the real deciding factor.  A clunky neck is a clunk neck is a clunky neck.
 
I must admit that the SPOILER's strings running basically parallel with just a LITTLE spread as I go up is my preference.
 
J o e y