Should I Do This To My Guitar?

[Gregwor]

I saw in a mag recently this Gibson Les Paul that was stringed wierd. Through the stop tail piece thingy, he put the strings in backwards, then they wrapped over top of it, then onto the bridge, etc. He said when he had the piece lowered right to the body, it increased the bass response performance. I am debating whether this is something to try or not....I mean, you'd be able to tell due to the gold on my hardware being marked that I tried this...any ideas/thoughts/past experience? Thanks guys.

[Slackmaster2K]

Well, do you need more bass response?

I wouldn't bother.

Slackmaster 2000

[foo]

In the Fifties, some Gibson guitars only had the 'wraparound' or stop bar part of the current two part bridge assembly. That was how it was done. The intonation was a bit funky, but the view at the time was 'There's no money above the fifth fret anyway' so who cares.

But that was how you did it - put the strings in 'backwards' and wrap them around and over th top of the tailpiece.

If you find it increases the bass response, and you like the sound - it's okay it won't damage your guitar. If you screw the tailpiece all the way down on a two piece bridge/tailpiece assembly strung normally (i.e. the strings run through the 'right way'), you run the risk (over time) of causing the bridge to be pushed forward and becoming loose (which happened to a Les Paul that I used to own).

foo

[Gregwor]

What is the difference between having your stop bar tail piece thing higher or lower? I mean, they leave it fully adjustable, so is there a place it 'should' be. I personally find if it is lower, the strings play looser. If anyone could fill me in, that would be great. Thanks for the replies so far guys.

Greg.

[TexRoadkill]

I usuallly have more problems controlling the amount of bass on my Les Paul not trying to figure how to get more out of it.

[matty_boy]

Yeah really Tex, especially with a Marshall.

[Wireneck]

Yeah if you were playing a fender Jag-stang or something i could understand the attempt at getting more bass response. Never been a problem with either of my les pauls.

[DJ'FINGAZ]

yup

[DJ'FINGAZ]

im on my lasy bucks

[64Firebird]

Originally posted by Gregwor
What is the difference between having your stop bar tail piece thing higher or lower? I mean, they leave it fully adjustable, so is there a place it 'should' be. I personally find if it is lower, the strings play looser. If anyone could fill me in, that would be great. Thanks for the replies so far guys.

Greg.

You really should have the stop as low as you can, but not so low that the strings touch the back of the bridge. The farther down you have it, the more pressure you have on the saddles and that allows them to do a better job of transferring the vibration of the strings to the guitar body. In other words, better sustain.

The wrap around idea only puts the strings higher up and you'll have to lower the stop even more to compensate. However, it won't do any harm, so give it a try if you want.

[BluesMeister]

Good point 64Firebird,

On my Lucille, the strings on the treble side were fouling the intonation screws where the string passed over the bridge. If I adjusted the high E-string and B-string intoantion, the string would pop into the slot of the screw whenever I turned it.

Best solution for me was to adjust the tailpiece upward on the treble side so that the strings just cleared the intonation screws.

That, I suppose is how low the tailpiece should be set, low enough to just clear those intonation screws and/or bridge.

--
BluesMeister