wrap around or stop tail? what are the differences in tone and action?

[shreddy bender]

as some of you know i have another guitar build on the go and have put a neck angle in so i can use either a wrap around bridge or a tuneomatic style bridge (i'd like to get Tone Pros). i was just wondering what your opinions are on both types. pros and cons of each. does one style have more sustain than the other? does one affect the playability of the guitar over the other? i don't know and i'm not in the financial position to be purchasing a bridge right now but i thought it would be interesting to hear opinions and open up a discussion. all i know is i have built a guitar with no neck angle and like it but of course it had to have a top mount strat style bridge and it took some getting used to as i have been playing S.G.'s for 24 of my 27 years of guitar playing.

 

[Steve P]

While i don't have any first hand experience with wraparound bridges, i hear intonation can be a b*tch on them.

 

[shreddy bender]

i do have a '72 SG III with one and it worked fine until it got a dead spot on the "lightning bar" i then replaced it with a tone pros with adjustable saddles.
here's the thing... i own both styles but on 2 completely different style guitars.
one is the SG III with no neck angle and the skinny 60's style neck and the other is a 2003 SG Special Faded with neck angle, 50's style neck and the stop tail style. they both play great but behave completely different plus the SG III is mini humbuckers and the Faded is full size.

 

[Steve P]

well which one do you prefer?

 

[shreddy bender]

i like both but my main axe is the faded. not for ease of playing but for sound. i find the full size humbuckers are more versatile for me. i play through a bright sounding amp and the minis are already very bright sounding pickups.

 

[weemac]

The wraparound is better for tone and the stop tail and Tom is better for tuning.
I prefer the wraparound but I'm happy to use either.,,

Eden.

 

[Col Mustard]

I believe there is a tonal difference, but it's subtle. I prefer the TOM because the intonation controls are so precise. I top-wrap my tailpiece with this rig, trying to gain the best of both worlds, wrap-over tone plus accurate intonation.

There's no real consensus around here about whether this has any effect. You could root around among old threads on this site for a whole weekend and read a lot of opinion, some of which is backed up by technobabble of different kinds. Then you get to make up your own mind, same as when you began. *grins

Therefore, when you've got the money saved, I'd put on a TonePros intonatable wrap-over bridge, or a PigTail. No tailpiece necessary, high quality coupling and accurate intonation. hard to beat. Use TonePros locking studs too.

STEWMAC.COM : Pigtail Aluminum Wraparound Bridge

 

[Tobacco Worm]

In much of my years of building guitars, restoring them, and working my tail off in repairing them, I've come to believe "Less is more" when it comes to hardware. Case in point.

Fender traditional Tremolo and a Floyd Rose. The Rose is a wonderful system that renders the best for wammy bar antics, but it is a tone robber with the many parts involved in it. The Old Fender unit has far less parts and provides far better tone as a result.

The old Lightening bar tail piece and the TOM and stop bar. The TOM does have that advantage of adjustment true, but there is a bit of string behind it running to the stop that contributes to more string and more parts. The old Lightening bar being mounted directly into the bushings via large screws are quite solid and give the utmost in the term "fewer parts". The less parts means less issues in tone in my opinion. Intonation issues are highly over rated and often are really non-existent. There is no extra string and parts and the string vibration is far more direct placed where it should be, between the bridge and the nut or fingers on the board.

My two current SG's both have the wraparound bridge. The '61 Epi Spl with the lightening bar and the SG MM with a smooth round non-compensated stop bar in place as the bridge. Both strung with .010" to .046" are dead on perfect in their intonation.

The choice is, of course, yours to make. I've built many with both styles and such, but the customers that desired a wraparound were very skilled musicians and had definite, and strong ideas as to what they wanted on their custom built guitars. After all they were the ones paying for it and my guitars were 100% handmade and "one of a kind" in design. I made no "copies" of any production instrument. I refused to do so by the way. My thoughts on that were simple. You want a production guitar, them buy one. You want something unique and made just to your spec's, then I'll build it.

Well, that's my thoughts on the matter anyway. I have a LP and the DOT with the TOM and stop bar, and two SG's with wraparounds. And all play well....