Doug with that walk off SOLO! Subscribe to my dude right HERE - kzread.info

@jitsroller

4 жыл бұрын

One of the best hard rock guitarist out there. Rythm playing is top notch and the solos are; the tone and techniques, are just b plain ol bad ass. Best way i can describe him. Thanks again Rob Man.

@rnemchev

4 жыл бұрын

Done!

@leonthompson8988

4 жыл бұрын

So basically all you had to do was to elevate the tailpiece to make it play normal. For 30 years I've always changed out the TOM bridges for heavy roller bridges. It will solve nearly all the tuning issues because you have eliminated the sharp saddles on the TOM bridge. Sharp saddles create resistance when tuning as well as providing a sharp surface to saw your strings into while your bending the snot out of them. GFS has one for 40 bucks or so and the weight is good. Great playing

@ghostmacgee1654

3 жыл бұрын

Dude, serious! Doug is a beast! Your riffs on this had me hooked before he played a note, tho! Tasty👻

@ghostmacgee1654

3 жыл бұрын

Really, your riff is tuff! More like lead than rhythm. Great mini-track you guys. Top notch.

When top wrapping you will need to get ball-ends from old strings and feed the new string through there so the string doesnt pinch on the tailpiece.

@coryfeldman-hz2yj

4 ай бұрын

Good idea!

@hawkdriver68

Ай бұрын

And so you don't cut up your hand from the sharp ends of the string winding that wraps up and around the tailpiece.

3 Les Paul owner, all top wrapped. Love the feel and string tension.

It's totally a neck angle thing. I have to top wrap my SG, otherwise the stoptail piece is WAY high off of the body so that the strings don't hit the back of the tune-o-matic bridge coming off of the saddles. If I top wrap it creates a shallower angle from the saddles to the top of the stoptail and allows me to adjust the stoptail bar closer to the body where it seems to be much more solid.

Guitar mythology is entertaining! I like the one that dictates that your Strat sounds better with the back plate off. Never did that and never needed to replace the original plate on my 67. Be nerdy about your stuff, it's ours for only a while and those after us will appreciate our gentle custodianship.

@oskarileikos

4 жыл бұрын

@@GCKelloch this applies to tonewoods as well, but whilst you probably can hear the difference in a situation that is designed to bring out the difference, in a band situation you are not going to hear the difference.

@bakters

4 жыл бұрын

The acoustic sound changes with the backplate off. If we accept that the acoustic sound influences the amplified tone, even to a small and possibly imperceptible level, then taking the backplate off can't hurt anything.

@bluzzjazz

3 жыл бұрын

Hey Carol, I have a 67 as well. Fantastic guitar and I don’t care that it’s an early CBS. It’s Ike my favorite old t shirt, just feels right!

@LewisShieldsUS

3 жыл бұрын

@@bluzzjazz On the wall at the store last century missing a knob, $250. Now a 61!

@bluzzjazz

3 жыл бұрын

@@LewisShieldsUS Aweet!

Top wrapping started to cut through my tailpiece like a cheese slicer..

The lesson learned here should be applied to most things guitar related. String gauges, pickups and tunings can all have different results on different guitars. There is not necessarily “better”, just different, so never be afraid to experiment to find what might work best with that particular guitar.

I would not do that to my guitars you were right to switch it back Rock On Brotha Rob😎🤟👏👏

I have a 1997 Les paul Classic I bought it 23 years ago I used to use 9's and they used to brake at the saddle so I over wrapped it lessened the sharp angle so less broken strings and I was able to use 10's because for me it felt much looser I can bend to the moon and back it's a nice slinky action.I never knew why it worked it was just a feel and I went with it.After watching this I understand a bit more

Very helpful, glad you found out the issue, and thanks for the info, I might just try top wrapping my LPJ now, and if my strings feel like iron bars I'll know why.

I never top wrap my Les Paul or SG style guitars. It doesn't seem necessary for most modern Epiphone/Gibson style guitars as the neck joint angle is more standardized. It seems that this applies mostly to some vintage Gibson guitars, which anyone would be lucky to own.

@adzbox

4 жыл бұрын

Justin Davis I agree it’s all snake oil.

@allstopblue5717

4 жыл бұрын

Same. I don’t any problem bending on the guitars so I just don’t mess with it.

@spudvader

4 жыл бұрын

The neck on Gibson guitars are still installed by hand, each neck pocket is fit for the given neck. Not exactly standardized

Why are there no Robert Baker originals out there?

@setheinsteiner2980

4 жыл бұрын

Yes!!!

@JC-11111

4 жыл бұрын

There are 🤷‍♂️

@harrisdouglas7229

4 жыл бұрын

JC probably should’ve investigated before commenting lol, got any links?

@willmartinez3842

4 жыл бұрын

@@harrisdouglas7229 open.spotify.com/artist/6LiGFKQ3pmtB7nGEzF156c?si=KIei6dgmQMGRjjoJM01NAg here ya go!

@jeradrhone8773

4 жыл бұрын

I know he posted an ep awhile ago, cant remember what its called but i bet if you dig through his videos enough youll find it.

Great videos Rob, keep up the good work. I have a PRS guitar that is top wrapped and has a special bridge. It has grooves for the strings to sit in and not move around.

Yeah I tried it on the frankenstein "Les Paul, epiphone, who knows(it's badass though, hahaha)" guitar I built. It worked & at 1st it felt good because it was something new. See mine was the opposite, they felt extra loose & twanky. I just couldn't get use to it & went back to the regular way. Hope all is well, take it easy.

Interesting video, my SG is top wrapped because when it wasn’t it was uncomfortable to play my picking hand position didn’t feel right. But once I top wrapped it felt really comfortable and the strings because super slinky and easy to bend. I had heard that Neck angle had something to do with but I’ll only do it if I think it needs it or if I want to try something different it’s the easiest mod to do and if you don’t like it it’s easily reversible. Also Gibson has tail pieces that are designed to allow top wrapping. It actually came standard on My SG the top is slightly more oval then a standard tail piece.

Your intros man!!!!! Cud listen to your riffage everyday on the road and back!

@RobertBakerGuitar

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks homie

I had a similar thing with my Yamaha Revstar when I adjusted the neck relief. It suddenly became alive and I just couldn't put it down. It improved the intonation, tuning stability, sustain and action all at once.

I top wrap all my Les Pauls. Love it. Makes it easier to hit those Kossoff double bends/vibrato - I use 10s across the board and have never encountered a tightness. I started doing it because I'm quite heavy on my fret hand and hoped the reduction in tension would make me a bit lighter.

You should take a look at "Gibson Tailpiece Wrap-around or not?" by StringTech Workstations. As he explains you’re only supposed to wrap the strings around the tailpiece if the height of the bridge (or something else) causes the strings to touch the edge of the bridge before it connects with the tailpiece.

@RobertBakerGuitar

4 жыл бұрын

Oh cool I'll check it out!

@allgrainbrewer10

4 жыл бұрын

Oren Albert Meisel Dillon Talks Tone also has a great video on this

@davidburke2132

4 жыл бұрын

But it’s not the reason that most famous guitarist who do it do it for. They do it because they believe it changes the feel of the guitar when it comes to string bends and makes it feel a bit slinkier. Why could this be? Firstly top wrapping clearly doesn’t change the string tension in the active length of the string as this (for the same string gauge) would change the tuning. What it does do is the following though: - by reducing the break angle over the bridge it reduces the downward pressure on the bridge and as friction is related to this downward force it reduces the friction between the string and the saddles and therefore allows the string to slide over the saddles more easily during bending (which it needs to do); - the lower break angle also reduces the string tension in the non-active portion of the string between the bridge and the tailpiece (this is just relatively simple physics of forces and angles - for there to be the necessary tension in the active string when the angle over the bridge to the anchor point is greater less of the force in that string section is acting in the direction of the active string length and therefore there must be more tension in that section of string overall and it will be harder to stretch, as it needs to do when bending - it’s not only the active length of string that stretches); and - it changes (increases) the length of the string between bridge and tailpiece anchor point. It’s less clear to me whether this should contribute to easier string bending or not (whereas the other two effects as above clearly would contribute to easier string bending from top wrapping). If you wanted to you could replicate the first two effects of top-wrapping just by raising the tailpiece up as this would also reduce the string break angle. The reduced string break angle is also likely to improve tuning stability due to the reduced friction giving improved return to pitch performance after string bending. However, as with most things you don’t get something for nothing: most people like having the tailpiece anchored down to the body because they believe it enhances vibration transfer into the body (I’m not convinced because it’s mainly through the bridge rather than the tailpiece that you want and will have good vibration transfer) but a greater break angle over the bridge and therefore greater downward pressure should also enhance the vibration transfer through the bridge itself, which I’d argue is something you want. Personally I’d always go for traditional stringing with the tailpiece as low as it can go without strings fouling the back edge of the bridge for exactly this reason. Edit: I can’t adequately explain logically why Robert’s top wrapping in this case made the strings feel less slinky and harder to bend... it’s a bit strange. The “less string to bed” idea from the post that Robert read doesn’t make total sense scientifically. It’s implying that with normal stringing with a bigger break angle over the bridge the length of the string behind the bridge doesn’t stretch at all... which isn’t true. Maybe there is a balance point regarding break angle at which the downward pressure created generates enough friction over the saddles to better “isolate” the active length of the string and the short inactive length between bridge and tailpiece so that the vast majority of the string stretching caused by the bend happens in the active length and only a very small amount occurs in the section behind the bridge and it has little effect on the feel of the bend? Conversely below this break angle balance point there is so little friction over the bridge saddles that the tension in the string behind the bridge is almost the same as in the active length, the two lengths of string are not isolated at all from each other, and the same force acts in the entire string when bending, forcing you to have to effectively bend not only the active length of string but also that section between bridge and saddle. 🤔

I came to same conclusion i.e. it's all about how the tailpiece sits with the bridge. I was having to raise the tailpiece really high and was breaking lots of strings. So I wound the tailpiece down to the body and top wrapped. Much better outcome. Still plays same but not breaking strings like before. Tx for excellent explanation Robert, as always.

The “length of strings in play” rationale is interesting. I have a Bigsby Guild with a lot of string length behind the bridge, shallow break angle, and it always felt ultra slinky compared with my stop-tail Carvin, also almost never broke strings. Since then installed a Bigsby on the Carvin (more string length under tension now), and it feels slinkier than before. How to make sense of this from a physics standpoint? IDK.

Great video, I experienced some of guitars gaining that slinky feeling on bends with more neck angle and other guitars gaining more slinkiness with less angle and I always wondered what was going on there.

I have both my Les Paul Traditionals top-wrapped. I find for those particular guitars it works. Makes sense that it depends on the neck angle. Hard to say if it specifically improved the tone of those guitars, as I changed out quite a lot of stuff in one go (pickups, bridge, wiring harness) but they're killer guitars now. I found I had to have the tailpiece awkwardly high to prevent the string catching the back of the bridge when under-wrapped. But I don't think I've tried the new bridge that way. I just know this works for me :)

I have my Wine Red standard top wrapped, my Gold Top and KM are not. My 335 is wrapped, my 125 and Howard Roberts are not. I use some .09s, some 10s and jazz rock 12s on the 125 { it is set up to play slide on}. Depending on the neck and headstock angle, wrapping over the tailpeice breaks the tension on the string angle and makes the guitar easier to play.

I always top wrap my Gibson R7 and R8. I’ve done it for years. You have to make sure your tailpiece is all the way to the body or the break angle isn’t enough. It makes my strings very slinky too.

i love Doug's playing, i'm glad he is making some collabs.

I top wrapped my Epi LP Ultra, and I feel like it added some sustain, which could be coming from any number of parts that got replaced at the same time, but I'm digging it.

Top wrapping only works on certain guitars, it really depends on the neck angle, and how high the bridge sits...with a shallow neck angle and low bridge height, you won't have enough down pressure on the saddles.

Great video. To each their own. I been playing since the early 80's and never liked to wrap my strings on my Gibson guitars. But whatever works, go for it

I've never felt the need to top wrap strings. excellent explanation from Mr. Suhr.

I've never personally top wrapped my strings on my LP but i don't feel the need to as i use 9-46's. This is very interesting though, thanks for sharing Robert.

Great info! Thanks so much!

First off that is a great sounding guitar, loved the intro piece with you and Doug! Top wrapping never did anything for me and I broke strings at the point where they wrap around so - never again!!

Never had a problem top wrapping, but decided to just raise the stop tailpiece. I wrap the stud threads with Teflon tape if stud is not a good tight fit. I use Teflon tape on bridge studs too, can make a noticeable difference.

I top wrapped my epiphone, now I have spikey grooves on the back on my tailpeice; although I was using heavier than 10's when doing that.

for me it depends on if the strings are resting on the bridge behind the saddle or not and yes raising the tail piece should help too :) I bet if i looked at it it probably does have more to do with the neck angle

Love your playing style. THANKS for the lessons.

Hi Robert, just came across this video. I use Tusq saddles in my bridges, and coupled with top wrapping, the butter on leads on ALL my stop bar guitars jumped up to stellar. No exceptions for me. I would try a Graph Tech Tusq bridge bottom wrapped then top wrapped, I think you may like it then.

I had a little of the same problem of tighter string feeling. (I did not wrap the tailpiece) I just raised my bridge tail piece and drop my string gauge to .009 - .042. It came with .010 on it and was fine for Eb tuning or lower. E Standard was pretty much to that point where it felt like the high E string was going to snap.

I have a 60's type Les paul i tried top wrapping on and it made it worse. I also have a 50's style that I tried it on and it turned it into an absolute beast. The only reason I tried it was to get the stop bar seated on the body. Other wise the nashville bridge is to wide and I have to raise it back up so the strings clear the back of the bridge.

On my LPC I switched to topwrapping, and lowered the tailpiece right down to the minimum height. I use 9-46 strings. As far as bending, I'm pretty weak/sensitive to tension. But I didn't feel any difference in that respect after switching. Strange!

I go between D# and C# a lot on my Les Paul and came up with wrapping under (not over or normal) the tailpiece to keep the low string tight on drop tunes while the others are strung normally.

It highly depends on the guitar, for my guitar strings to clear the base of the bridge i have to set the tailpiece really high, top wraping sorted it and the strings don't have too much tension. (1980 les paul deluxe)

Big fan of your videos... I don't top wrap on mine... I raised the tailpiece and put a roller bridge on it.super slinky now..

I top wrap on my R7 Goldtop and I find it works well and makes a slinkier feel. I use 9-46 D'Addario strings. I slam the tail piece to the body and then I also have to lower the bridge a little and then do a set up. But youre right, maybe not all guitars feel the same on top wrap.

That bit about break-angle affecting bendability got me thinking about the bending issues my '07 AVRI J-master and '64 Strat were having.Went to work on both and got the same good results that you got on your LP.Thanks for the good ideas! You Da Man,Robert!

I have a 2001 Les Paul Elegant Custom Shop. I have to top wrap it, if I don’t, I have to raise the tailpiece way up in order to have a good angle on the bridge. I used to use 10-46 Ernie Ball Slinky’s and with the under wrap they felt like cables. Now I use a top wrap with Elixir 10-46 and they’re like butter.

I top wrapped my les paul some time ago and found that my low e kept popping out of the saddle, and then the low e broke so. not doing that again

I love top wrapping my LP. I played in Open D a lot and I just felt like it sounded more open. Could be placebo but I’ve been doing it for so long that I can’t tell. I also use 11s

Robert great explanation.What type of recording software are you using?

I tried it once when I was about 15. I was a huge fan of Duane Allman, and I heard that it was one of his tricks, so I tried it. The cartoon thought balloon above my head said "?????????" (This was way before WTF?) It made no difference at all.

Sounds like my strat. It had its tremolo blocked when I got it and the string were so damn tight. It couldn't ever go out of tune but still, felt much better once I unblocked it.

I did it years ago when I was running 11-70's. It seemed to help with string tension. I saw that Zakk Wylde had done it for years so I gave it a try. I don't do it anymore due to switching to a hybrid set for whole step down and lower. .11-.60 is my current gauge preference.

Thanks for telling me that I could have the strings in the tailstop wrap under, or over, and not just go in the tail side and straight out the bridge side.

I had a similar issue with strings seeming dampened and plasticy, cleaned up the nut and the nutslot and glued it back, almost no effect altho some of the plasticity was removed. neckrelief. and it changed how I play that guitar. Suddenly even with its pretty beaten fretwork it plays like a japanese made.

That's exactly why I top-wrap - I learned guitar on a Strat, so when I play my SG, I like the extra tension; it's more similar to a guitar with extra scale length.

It didn't do much for my 2010 Standard, but it works on my '81 The Paul Firebrand Deluxe. I found that the tail piece needed to be really high so that the string angle didn't hit the back of the bridge. I did a top wrap, and dropped the tail piece right down. Feels and plays great. Some say you get better sustain, but I can't say notice....but it does play and feel better. FYI I play 9s. Also...I took the old ball-ends from my old strings and put my new strings through them before I run them through the tail piece. That way I don't have the sharp bit of the wound strings at the top of the tail piece and poking the palm of my hand as I play.

I agree with the tension on my Gibson LP it loves 11’s and too wrapped G string I tried 10’s top and bottom and 11’s top and bottom it took me about a 2 weeks to figure that she being my guitar love being with 11’s and top wrapped G super weird

Man I love how you always do a short Jam in the beginning . You deserve millions of viewers

I have a 72 Goldtop Deluxe and a 79 KM LP. Have never felt the need to wrap, as they sound great as is. Same for my semi hollows.

I had the exact opposite results. I had no clue bout top wrapping. My setups last way way longer and my tuning is spot on I also had the nut replaced to bone that might had something to do with. My guitar has never played better and I haven’t touched it set up wise in almost year. I was floored. Love your channel!

Never done that... and now, I won't. Thanks, Robert, for sharing your experience!

@benher973

Жыл бұрын

Why not he didn't say it's bad on all guitars he said it might work really good on some, might as well try it when it works it works good

The guitar makes all the difference, and not just the scale length. I have two 24.75” scaled guitars, a Harley Benton SC-550 and a ‘92 Gibson Explorer, and I have a multi scale 7 string Ibanez (25.5 - 27”). My usual preferred gauge is 9 - 46 and that’s what I have on my HB but I just can’t use them for my Gibson, anything thicker than 8’s makes it impossible to play, and for my multi scale I use the mammoth slinky for the bottom strings (62 and 48 for the low B and E) and it feels almost too light, even though the longer scale length should make them feel tighter. I’m guessing it has to do with the fret size since my explorer has really worn down frets while the others have larger ones, but I don’t really know for sure

@bgilley8199

4 жыл бұрын

Fret height makes a big difference when it comes to bends, so that's probably why you're fighting with your Gibson a little. Might be time for a refret, or a crowning if the frets are flat and there's enough fret height left to do it.

@eliasaltman4439

4 жыл бұрын

@@bgilley8199 Oh yeah it's definitely time for a refret I just don't have the money for it right now

I like a lot of string tension. When I don't top wrap with 11s on my 90s Les Paul I find I get more fret buzz from the thicker strings. I usually remedy that with heavy bottom/medium lows but when I top wrap with 11s I don't have that issue. For me this means top wrap on 11 which come in packs of 3 so are cheaper. Interesting that it's down to the break angle. So in essence less break angle means more tension? That's extremely useful.

I don't top wrap but one of the best pieces of advice I've ever heard, and tried, and loved was raising the tail piece up nearly level with the saddles. Takes a LOT of tension away and makes for some easier bends, almost like going down a string gauge.

I have a LTD EC401-VF and I tried the top wrap. Didn't work for me at all. There was some noticeable buzzing at the bridge. So back to Under they went.

I top wrapped so i would stop breaking strings. Worked for that, but does make the tension higher, this suggests that a reverse headstock makes it easier to bend high e strings.

Robert, this video was spot on and fortuitous with its timing....as recently I’ve been on the fence about this very topic ! Nice Les Paul by the way....👍🏻 thanks for another helpful vid, I think it shows that our guitars are like our children....each one unique....even among like models ! It’s also why the guitar buying journey must never end ...😌...amen 🙏🏻 ....now please excuse me while I go shop for another new guitar 🎸

I started top wraping my strings because of the angle of my sg's neck too. It feels great, but it sounds a bit bassy but I like it.

Question: I have a Gibson Flying V with a stop tail bridge and the bridge digs into my palm. Any kind of fix other than different guitar or bridge? I normally play a Charvel with Floyd but love my flying v’s. Any ideas?

interesting. what if you bottom wrapped them.or, try top and bottom wrap your string as per preference. i have a paul. i might try some hybrid wrap job.

I own a 1998 Gibson Explorer (owned by a guitar tech, got a limited edition stamp on it (apparently it was the first year they started doing the “76 reissue” or something. When I bought it; it was top wrapped and I kept it, no issues. I have it setup for standard but it’s in half step atm, with Ernie Ball 10-48s I believe.

My Gibson Zakk Wylde bullseye LOVES top wrapping with 10-46 strings. When underwrapped with 10-46, feels extremely tight. Note that I put extra jumbo stainless steel frets and now plays like butter. Try ss frets robert!

I don't top wrap all my strings. Just the ones i break consistently. Like the A and D. Also the tailpiece has to be raised up a bit, regardless of whether you top wrap or dont. That will help with the slinky feel of your Les Paul. Lowering it all the way down will increase that tension and increase breakage. I use 11-48 on all my guitars(fender, gibson, prs).

Got a suggestion for you, Robert. As I wrote earlier, I've top-wrapped my stop tailpiece-equipped guitars for years. I did wind up with an issue with my Hamer, however: Like with you, I wound up with more string tension than I wanted. It wasn't as bad as what you had, but I had been stringing that Hamer with 9s at first (I was putting 9s on EVERYTHING!) and moved to 10s after hearing that they would feel like 9s on a longer scale guitar. (In case you don't know, Hamer Sunburst Archtops use the 24.75 "Gibson" scale length.) I tried that and the tension, while tolerable, was NOT feeling like 9s on a Strat! Know what I did? I learned that Ernie Ball had fleshed out their line of electric guitar strings with "in-between" gauged sets! I got a couple of sets of their new Turbo Slinky strings (which equate to a 9.5 gauge) and finally got around to trying them out yesterday. They're great! I still wrap over, which I believe enhances both sustain and tone the way I do it, and the string tension MIGHT be a little light, but it's much improved. At this point, I'm letting the neck "settle in" and stop moving. A day or two from now, I'll adjust the truss rod for a bit more relief, and that should do it. I know you've found your solution for your Les Paul, but keep the suggestion in mind for future issues -- or even try top-wrapping again with a set of strings a half-gauge lighter than your old ones.😎❤️️🎸‼️

The only guitar I have that is top wrapped. It is a Schellinger Custom guitar prototype. The bridge is also the tailpiece. No tension problems whatsoever.

What are your thoughts on rolling TuneOmatics? I'm thinking about getting one for my Epiphone SG.

Ultimately it's the string length that determines how tight the strings will be. The longer the string length, the tighter it will feel, and be. The shorter the string length, the looser they will feel, and be. In theory, top wrapping should reduce the break angle which generally helps with how the strings feel, but that isn't always the whole story, because technically the string is then longer. The question becomes how much longer is the string length vs the break angle? When the stop bar is clamped down to the body, the string length is longer and the break angle is steeper. This should make the string feel stiffer. Now if the stop bar is raised up a little the string length and the break angle also reduces, which should help make the strings feel looser. I think in your case, the reduced break angle on the string didn't outweigh the added length of the string needed to top wrap. As mentioned, some guitars work with it and others don't. I don't like it myself and find little value in it.

I have always had good success with top-wrapping, personally. Has that LP Custom ever had a re-fret? I have an opportunity to buy a similar guitar locally, but the frets were crowned at some point, they are looking fairly flat. Wondering if I should just pass, or get it knowing that I'll probably have to re-fret at some point.

some people like to ’fight’ the guitar, or feel like the more tight the strings feel the more ’deliberate’ they are palying, or have more muscular hands. Also Billy Gibbons uses very thin guage strings (take a look at his signature dunlop set .007-.032 or .038) so maybe the over wrapping tightens them up so there not as slinky/less ’wobble’ in the notes. and some people pick harder etc

Amazing intro collab!!!! I LOVED IT! GOOD JOB!!!!!!

I did it too. a. My 79 les Paul custom won’t do it either, I bought a separate back stop and up and downeverything. It felt felt horrid. I moved the piece up and down, nothing made it feel right! Not all les Paul’s take the shift.

It really depends: When joining the neck to the body, the angle is not always as desired. That’s why some of the bridges are lower, some are higher, for the same action. If the bridge is low enough, closer to the body (best case scenario) wrap around brings nothing, it maybe makes it worse. If the bridge is high, the wrap around might release some of the unwanted tension by changing the angle of the strings before the bridge.

Man that’s some of the best playing I’ve herd out of ya. Keep that up.....

I top wrap... stops the strings from binding/pinging at the bridge when tuning. I could get the same effect by raising the tailpiece.

Most problems that 'over-wrapping' seems to solve is actually the stop bar being so low that the strings contact the bridge frame on the bar side of the bridge saddle. Raising the stop bar so the strings contact only the saddles will do wonders.

@handreycunha1168

4 ай бұрын

Yep, raising the stop bar solves the angle thing but it affects the sustain. At least for me it is noticeable. There are some alternatives to tackle the sustain issue like the Babicz stop bar with nuts underneath to make it tighter. Anyway, topwrapping is a costless alternative to solve this angle issue and get more sustain. It worth trying, if it does not affect the playability and you get that tone you're seeking you're safe.

I'm glad you got that guitar to play better. It's my favorite axe of yours, even more than the gold top (to my surprise).

What do you use on our fret board. It has a really cool sheen

Hey there. I play with my epiphone ‘61 style SG top wrapped with zero issues. Same with my Les Paul, although it is not top wrapped at the moment. I also have my tailpiece cranked down to the body on both guitars. Here’s the kicker... I use the Ernie ball Hendrix set which is 10-36! They are “based on” Hendrix, but I’ve learned that that gauge of strings is much like the sets they would use in the 60’s and 70’s. Believe it or not, you get a better low end response. Also for me, it makes those strings even slinkier, not tighter. If top wrapping your guitar makes the strings tighter, your bridge/tailpiece needs adjusted.

Some 70s SGs have a 0° neck join (Gibson called it a 90° neck!) these were mostly top wrapped from the factory and is really where the practice started. I’ve seen some guys top wrap the wound strings but not the unwound strings.

The way I've always understood it is that the ideal setup would have the break angle behind and forward of the bridge saddles equal. So depending on your neck angle and bridge height, whatever top-wraps or normal wrap/elevated will achieve that is what you're shooting for.

I top wrapped my esp,low e and a strings seem a little tighter but no noteable diff in sound,stays in tune,after top wrapping had to adjust intonation ,left it top wrapped just cause it looks cool .👍

It really is down to how good Gibson set the neck angle when bonding it at the factory ... some Les Pauls I've seen are so off the mark that top wrapping and even low end saddle reversal is the only way they will play nice and intonate properly. But when they get it right like on your Custom, it needs nothing doing to play great. Just like my 79 LP Std which I've played unmolested with 9-42's on since new.

Good video. I often wondered why some LP players did this. I could never understand it.

My Les Pauls “love” top wrapping. It makes a set of 9s feel like 8s or 8.5s

@MartiniPinball

4 жыл бұрын

James Buchanan .009s are so terrible. Sound so weak on any of my LP’s.

@RebelWithACoz

4 жыл бұрын

That's really interesting because I feel i get more tension from my Les Paul top wrapping, like Rob. Thing is I'm TRYING to get more tension. I want my 11s to feel like 12s. It must be down to the guitar.

I tried top wrapping on one of my Les Pauls about a year ago and went straight back to under wrapping, didn't like it at all (I use 10-46s). By the way, that Custom sounds fantastic!

I top wrap my Les Paul and my Firebird. I think it works out well because I use 11-52 strings with the tail piece bottomed out to the body on both. It works for me

Robert, In my experience top wrapping has to be determined by that neck angle/bridge height geometry. The body carve can influence that too...so not just one or two factors...the whole geometry. On 70s -80s LPs I like to string-through and bring the tailpiece up just high enough so that it's above the edge of the bridge (so no contact with anything but the saddles and tailpiece). From what I hear from your guitar you are very close or there right now... Dave

I did this to my les paul I use 10s I thought it helped but mines not a gibson it's a epiphone headstock angle would be different I did it to stop string breakage

I’ve top wrapped all my Paul’s. (5 in total, nothing older than 07). The Nashville bridges are wider so slamming the tailpiece and top wrapping keeps the strings off the back of the bridge before the strings hits the saddle. To everyone saying that they top wrapped and strings were popping out of the saddles, slam the tail piece down if top wrapping otherwise there won’t be enough pressure down on the string to keep it in the saddle.