Howard Roberts

[Crusader]

Hi, does anyone know about the "Frequensator tailpiece" and the Howard Roberts Jazz Fusion guitar?

They say having less/more string from the tailpiece to the bridge changes the tension on the string. How is that possible? If a certain gauge string is tuned to a certain pitch, it must have the same tension..?

[Prostheta]

"They talk a lot, don't they?" - Mia Wallace, Pulp Fiction

You're perfectly correct that the string length beyond the nut and the saddles do not affect the tension required between those two points to achieve a specific open pitch. The difference only becomes apparent when it comes to playing that string. A longer string length beyond the nut marginally alters how fretting and bending notes feels; especially in the 1st position. That additional string length "feeds into" the bend to compensate for the raised tension if the nut allows the string to slip. As soon as you break the friction through the nut slot you have a longer apparent string length, the upshot of this being that the string feels looser and more elastic.

The same applies beyond the saddles of course, but they biggest factor here is how the strings feel to play with the right hand. A totally locked string length - such as a Floyd-Rose - feels sharp and responsive when picked compared to say, a TOM with strings fed through to the rear ferrules of the instrument. That feels marginally softer and less "immediate" than the previous example.

How this applies to an archtop or an acoustic instrument is not really my field. In terms of electrics however, the closest analogue would for example be the difference in feel with reversed 6-in-line headstocks and bridge configurations as mentioned.

From your example of what "they" say, I would be careful to filter out the opinions from the facts. Your summation was on the money.

[Ripthorn]

Prostheta beat me to it. But yeah, ditto everything he said, totally spot on.

[Crusader]

Thanks guys

Yeah straight after I posted this question I found a more in-depth explanation but yours was easier to grasp

They said it improves intonation and tone - Interesting. Seems like a different way of achieving the same goals as fanned frets!

[Prostheta]

Not entirely as fanned/compound/multiscale frets change the string length also ;-)

[Workingman]

This is a big topic of discussion in the upright bass world. They call the string between the bridge and the tail piece the afterlength. The tension is the same but strings have some elasticity. The longer a string is, the more elastic it is. Some of the elasticity of the afternegth is available on the normal playing part of the string.

[Crusader]

Its good to hear comments from other fields, btw I like the Double Bass. Because it tunes the same way as a guitar I can play it without having to learn anything

So the way I see it, the 'after length' changes the perceived tension in the string, it behaves like the string is longer. Whereas with Fanned Frets the string is actually longer

The article on the HR tailpiece pointed out that its hard to get good intonation on the lower strings. I know this from experiments I did a while ago. It seems impossible to get a 54g string to intonate all the way up. Howard Roberts is a Jazz player and those guys use heavy gauge strings. I'm getting the picture that the Frequensator tailpiece was a "bolt-on" solution. These days there are alternatives to production-line made guitars

I'm not sure I'm using the most accurate words, but there's a heap of things I have to do, I gotta get going