So... Kalium strings are pretty cool. But their taper is WAY. TOO. LONG.

This likely isn't an issue for people playing in A440 (which is most of the bass population). It wasn't for me either. However when I changed from A440 to something outside that realm, that's when things got crazy. Playing in-key was impossible.

For the life of me, I could not figure out what the problem was with my low B. No matter what I did, the attack on the string would cause it to run sharp every single time. Didn't matter if I picked soft or not. I figured it was a string gauge/tension/setup issue... so I spent a bunch of money on different singles and hours on setup to no avail. The other strings were perfectly fine, it was just the low B.

So what gives?

Turns out... it was the over-tones produced by an elongated gap between the saddle and the start of the taper.

[img:3fuswd92]http://i.imgur.com/s5nVkO8.jpg[/img:3fuswd92]

I didn't measure it... but if I had to guess, it is at least a quarter of an inch.... maybe a little bit longer.

Enter the hack job.

[img:3fuswd92]http://i.imgur.com/Z71Pr7b.jpg[/img:3fuswd92]

Once I made that alteration, I noticed an IMMEDIATE resolution to my problem. The crazy over-tones were gone. And as an added bonus, the string sounded better than it did when it worked properly at A440. The rumble and "character" completely changed... for the better.

Why the difference in A440 vs others? I'm guessing the core was engineered to resonate at a frequency "polite" to A440 and not the others... I don't know... but that would be my highly uneducated guess. I'll leave that one to somebody smarter than I (which is most).

So what's the point of this post... Well... if you happen to run into this issue causing your notes to wobble or run sharp... take a look at your taper. It might be jacking up your sound. Also - if anybody else has run into this and has a better "fix" than the above... I'd love to see it. Of course, the ultimate answer is the proper taper length, right... but I'm not too keen on moving away from Kalium's awesome sound. I might give this a try - [url:3fuswd92]http://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-1-4-in-x-3-8-in-Aluminum-Spacer-815178/204276562[/url:3fuswd92] - but of course a non "hack" would be of ultimate desire.