Bridge Question On First Guitar

[bscur]

I made my first guitar, it sounds great, but the strings seem to fight me a bit. They feel like they are .11's but they are .09's. My question is about the bridge. I put the strings through the body and then up over a tune o matic. If the angle is steep going up from the body to the bridge, will this cause the problem? Would I be best adding the stop bar?

Thanks

[Robert_the_damned]

run whilst you still can! sorry this is a highly controversal topic arround here.

if the strings are in tune and the scale length is the same on this guitar as it is on the guitar(s) you're comparing the feel to then the tension in the strings on the playable length will be the same. HOWEVER if there is less 'unplayable' string (ie behind the bridge and on the headstock after the nut) then the strings will be 'tighter' as far as it goes for bends. anyone wanting to despute this then we can run through the maths! the angle at the bridge will affect the downwards preasure of the strings onto the bridge but wont affect the tension in the playable string.

hope that answered your question to some degree!

Robert

[Xanthus]

Aaaah, learning something new every day. Thanks for adding to my collection of info, Robert! I personally like the feeling of "tight" strings, and used to attribute it to the s***ty Wilkinson tremolo on my Carvin, or just tremolos in general. This is why I went with a TOM stringthrough on my Explorer project. Unfortunately, it's not quite done, so I can't play it and see how it feels. I was thinking also that a locking nut might do it, and contemplated adding a nut and a Floyd fixed bridge.

But your information has made me go hmm... because there's gotta be at least 2.5 to 3 inches of unplayable string behind the TOM alone. How will it play? I'll just have to get painting and find out

Good info, though, Robert.

[biliousfrog]

my first project guitar has through body stringing which goes through a hardtail strat bridge along a 25.5" scale length & ends at a 3-a-side headstock....the strings are really springy so I fit 10's rather than 9's.

In my case, the strings feel looser because of the 3 treble strings....I'm used to playing a strat which has those 3 strings pulled further over the nut. Similar bridge, same scale length but different string length. I tend to find that the tension is more noticable on the 3 unwound strings.