SG/Les Paul, Strings through the tailpiece or wrapped over?

[felixvaughn]

Just curious as how other people have their stopbar tailpiece set up. At the moment I've got the strings going straight through but I have had them wrapped over in the past.

[Larry Mal]

Nice and tight, almost down to the guitar, with the strings going through it in the normal way that makes sense. That's how I have my tailpieces.

[shoule79]

I've always been afraid of the break angle not being sufficient wrapped over when I hear people talk about doing this, but can't say i've ever tried it.

[eigentone]

Nice and tight, almost down to the guitar, with the strings going through it in the normal way that makes sense. That's how I have my tailpieces.

That's how I set mine up. I stop lowering the tailpiece just before the string touches the bridge between the saddle and tailpiece.

[Larry Mal]

Good point, I should have mentioned that.

[eigentone]

Good point, I should have mentioned that.

Not that I have scientific proof that this is an improvement

[MechaBulletBill]

I have wrapped over in the past. Slightly different feel but not game changing for me.

[itstooloudMike]

I tend to top-wrap my Gibsons, because I like the feel. I prefer to have less break angle, but don't like to raise the tailpiece. So I have found that on most Gibsons I can screw the tailpiece all the way down and top-wrap the strings, which yields a minimal but effective break angle. The strings feel slinkier this way, as opposed to the steep break angle that some people like. This works especially well on a 335, where break angle is really key to playability. But I also top-wrap SGs. On Les Pauls, I've found that it doesn't make as much difference, and try both ways before deciding.

[druunkonego]

I used to top wrap, but only because I had a problem breaking strings. I'd be hammering out rhythm parts, palm mute and pop a string right at the saddle.
Combination of break angle and sharp bridge saddles made for a lot of broken strings... But after making a few small adjustments to the stop bar, I haven't had an issue since. It was all the way down so I just raised it a little.

[eigentone]

I used to top wrap, but only because I had a problem breaking strings. I'd be hammering out rhythm parts, palm mute and pop a string right at the saddle…<snip>…I just raised it a little.

I had the same problem with broken strings with my Select Jazzmaster, which has an Adjust-O-Matic. Originally, I had dropped the tailpiece (as above) and strung it with 11s. Raising the tailpiece has reduced string breakage -- unless it was purely coincidence and my playing lightened up around the same time

[nikkij]

I top-wrap the top 3 and string the bottom 3 straight through.