Tailpiece woes

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Paladin2019

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Never try to do setup work on your guitar after a few drinks. :roll:

I've adjusted my LR's tailpiece height but I stupidly forgot to measure the original post heights and now I can't remember how high one post was relative to the other. I can't remember if the screws were level or if one was higher and if so by how much.

Can anyone give me some advice or measurements on their LR tailpieces?

Ta
 
Well, maybe this won't help but all my tailpieces are different. Some are staggered, some screwed all the way down, and some with both studs about 1/4" screwed out. Now may be a good time to play around with different tailpiece heights. I used to have all mine screwed down until I started playing around with different settings and realized how much I liked staggering, raising them, etc.

It has a lot to do with personal preference.

Dana
 
Cheers Dana, I'll start tinkering.

I wanted to get the thing properly set up before I stuck a tonepros one on there which would have been harder to adjust.

I was just worried that having one side incorrectly set may pull something out of shape or similar.
 
It really does come down to personal preference. Some guys like to crank it right down to the surface of the guitar, but most will tell you to bring it up enough so that the strings will not touch the back of the bridge after they pass over the saddles. Then there is the school that says a raised tailpiece will result in easier string bending (less of a sharp angle from the bridge), and some say you must raise it till you find that "sweet spot" that increases sustain. I personally have never had the patience for that one, but mine is raised and not perfectly level.

Has this sage advice left you as confused as I am? Actually, just experiment yourself - you can't hurt your guitar (even though we all know it truly is a living being and not an inanimate object) :wink:
 
I'd just like to confirm, after the best part of 2 days' tweakage, that such a sweet spot exists. 8)

Maybe I'm just neurotic but it seems I had to get it within a quarter of a turn accuracy to find it. Tone seems smoother and string bending does seem easier (it was screwed almost fully before but it's a good deal higher now) and there's a definate effect on sustain. I'm sure it's reduced the slight tendency for fret buzz too. Or maybe that's just because I'm too self-satisfied that the tweaks paid off :roll:

Anyway, its about 1/4" up with with the treble side a couple of mm higher.

Now all I have to do is make sure I get those exact measurements when I put the tone pro studs on :oops:

EDIT: Oh, and you *can* hurt your guitar doing this - once the screwdriver jumped out of the slot and scooped off a small strip of the stud's nickel plating (thankfully the mark is invisble) that embedded itself in my finger. Metal splinters aren't fun but it'd have been less fun if that screwdriver had jumped onto the top :eek: :eek: :eek:
 
Just to further muddy the waters, I "top wrap" my strings over the tailpiece.

This is where you thread the strings backwards through the tailpiece (i.e. with the ball ends nearest the bridge) and bring the strings back up over the top of the tailpiece before they continue over the bridge as normal. (If it's good enough for the Rev. Billy G....)

I can't say I notice any tonal difference but string tension seems a bit lower (probably due to the reduced break angle). I just use it because the strings clear the back of the bridge easily and the tailpiece can stay screwed fully down.

Like Paladin, I had problems adjusting a stop tailpiece's height using a screwdriver. Then I read that the safest way is to slacken off the strings and use a coin - brilliantly simple and safe! (FWIW, I find a belgian 5f piece is perfect for my Tokai.)
 

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