Question About Through-body Stringing

[Memphetic]

Quick question for those experienced with both: does using through-body string ferrules enhance/hinder the sound quality or sustain at all when compared to a stop tailpiece for tune-o-matic bridges?

[Rick500]

Just by intuition, I'd have to say yes, I believe string-through increases sustain, but not having two guitars that are identical except for string-through vs. stop bar, I can't say that for sure.

I'm almost done with one and just started another though, and they're both string-through...I suppose I'll probably always build them that way.

[GregP]

I don't imagine that it will make much difference in the grand scheme of things. I have two rosewood on mahogany LP-ish guitars with TOM bridges-- one with string-through (Godin LG-90) and one with stop tailpiece (Cort Pagelli). The amount of sustain is nearly identical. To the unaided ear, I can't tell which sustains longer. Anything beyond that falls into the realm of trivial differences. In terms of "tone", it's a non-starter as a point of discussion because almost every other factor (including pickups) will affect tone more than whether it's string-through or stop-tailpiece.

[Mike Sulzer]

I have built a guitar with a bar between the bridge and tailpiece. This bar pulls down on the strings, and so you can adjust the break angle of the strings over the bridge. A very shallow angle sounds bad, but once the angle gets to some reasonable size, there is no further improvement. To me, this indicates that although string through is a really good way to get sustain, there is no reason why a tail piece cannot be just as good as long as it achieves a good angle over the bridge. I do have my doubts about some combination bridge/tailpiece designs. Such a thing needs to be very strong and stiff.

[ray]

stringthrough gives a little more snap and bite specially with 25.5" fret scale

overall it makes a small differnce in a little more attack but really i dont know whether it makes a differnce you can really hear....i dont know whether any one has done A-B test with identcal body neck & pickups but that would prove it

both TOM and stringthrough are a pain- a schaller 3d roller bridge works great and is 3 wood screws to mount and this bridge sounds killer. easy to fit adjusts up/down/forward/back and it can be easily shifted if you get it wrong

[j. pierce]

I've known guys who've notched their Tele bridges, and swear by top-loading. Same guitar, just strung different, and they love it.

Me, I can't hear the difference.