"From a fiddle players point of view, the taper gives the player a chance to play only one string at a time instead of having to play chords."

Actually, someone upthread said that the arch of a fiddle bridge was to allow playing chords. In fact, it's to make playing single notes possible. You have to work to play two strings at once. Bowing a guitar and getting single strings is a hell of a lot harder (and the rosin plays hell with your picking fingers, too).

Bob