Tune-o-matic Bridges

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ibanezrocks

ibanezrocks

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My Gibson SG is my first guitar to have the Tune-o-matic and stopbar bridge system, and I have a question about the setup on these. How much does the height of the tailpiece matter? since it changes the angle that the strings are pulled over the bridge I'm assuming it'll make a pretty big difference. So approximately where should it be set, or what should the angle of the strings going over the bridge be?
 
The angle of the strings over the bridge changes the tension on the strings. I normally just leave it all the way down. The difference isn't that drastic.
 
Thanks, I was actually thinking I'd put it all the way down because I like more tension, and I'm used to using 25.5' scale guitars.
 
ibanezrocks said:
Thanks, I was actually thinking I'd put it all the way down because I like more tension, and I'm used to using 25.5' scale guitars.
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The height of the tailpiece doesn't affect the amount of tension on the strings; string thickness and tuning determine this. I have read that screwing the tailpiece down as far as it will go improves sustain, though.
 
I've always heard that keeping the tailpiece all the way down improves sustain(which makes sense,having the added mass in the wood) ,but I never liked the way the strings actually hit the edge of the bridge before it slopes down. Try this trick- Put the strings through the tailpiece backwards and bring them over the top to the bridge. I've seen a few famous players do this. It makes the angle to the tailpiece less steep and looks kinda cool too.
 
I really dont think that last suggestion will accomplish anything, but I agree that I didn't like it when the strings hit the back of the bridge and then sloped down again to the tailpiece, so I set it as low as possible before that happens.
 
I always run my strings in from the front then over it. It greatly improves the sustain. You gotta drop the tail a bit though or it will string skip on the tune-o-matic. My "Paul" will take a 7th fret harmonic and a tap on the 14th and last forever. The only draw back is when you snap a "G" string back there and it lasso's yer hand, makes a pretty cool stage effect if you draw blodd.......(hehehe)
 
Screwing the bar down will make it more stable so the guitar stays in tune better. Sustain depends more on the bridge than the stopbar, the more secure the bridge the better the sustain. (I'm sure there is some physics principle to explain this but I don't know what it is, maybe it has something to do with vibration transfer or something.) Also I read someplace that the string angle across the bridge should be about 15 degrees, I guess thats the minimum needed to avoid vibration or slipage. One last thing to consider is the saddles, are they round or wedge shaped? Wedge shaped saddles create a sharper angle and may increase your tendacy to break strings if the angle of the strings across the bridge is too great, (any time you put a bend in a string it creates a weak point.) If you want to raise the bar and keep it stable, a few washers under each side will do the trick, this works under the bridge too, you just have to be more exact in the thickness of the washers.
 
I don't even see where a washer would even be put under a Tune-O-Matic.....Mine all have been adjusted buy either the set-plug (threads into body) or the threaded height adjuster (thumb nut) .......Also..........I think sustain primarily depends on density of the wood body, like, reasons to tap 6 holes through the body and run your strings up through.
 
when I had a string breaking problem i was told to raise the tailpiece to reduce tension.

and about the saddle thing, you can get great sustain and NO string breakage fromm graphtech saddles
 
Is there a way to adjust the height of individual saddles? Because I'm not seeing anything to adjust that, and I know I can change the height of the whole bridge but it would be nice to be able to lower certain strings.
 
ibanezrocks said:
Is there a way to adjust the height of individual saddles? Because I'm not seeing anything to adjust that, and I know I can change the height of the whole bridge but it would be nice to be able to lower certain strings.
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Too bad you didn't ask that yesterday when I had my Les Paul sitting in my office... I know you can on a hardtail strat! :D
 
ibanezrocks said:
Is there a way to adjust the height of individual saddles? Because I'm not seeing anything to adjust that, and I know I can change the height of the whole bridge but it would be nice to be able to lower certain strings.
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Yes yes it would be nice but you can't :D , you know, you have a Gibson, ;) and they have different hardwere compared to Fenders and Ibanezes and Gretshes and...........whatever model you would like to compare it with.

So the nature of the beast is sustain, and yes, it has humbucks and no single coils, but heh, you could put a single coil in there and :D

No do not get me wrong here Ibanez, I am just kidding, but really, it is a Gibson, and it comes with certain charteristics of that type of Guitar. Off course I know that you know this already, so no individual string adjustment. You will not really need it as it all will work perfectly [ I hope] :)

Eddie :)
 
haha I made such a stupid mistake, the reason I was asking was because when I did bends, mainly on the G string I'd make the D string ring, so I wanted to lower the G and raise the D, but then I realized that I needed to cut my finger nails as it was causing me to hit the D in a wierd way whenever I bent the G, and then after I cut them it was perfectly fine.
That has to be one of the wierdest mistakes I've made, or even heard about, but I guess it makes sense.
 
I am happy that you can still laught about it, as I feel my posting was almost like "having a go at Ibanezrocks" and I almost wanted to send an email to appologize, but anyway..............much better now eh as we can still smile :)

May sound kind of weird, but sometimes this posting thing is strange, it is like" You do not have to respond to anything out there" but sometimes you just feel like having fun, or................and before you know it it could turn sour, but let me not carry on here................

Heh I think we all should have a jam at some stage, all of us here, just make a happy [or whatever mood you happen to be in] kind of noise.

Cheers,

Eddie :)
 
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