String trees.

[Danzy22]

I have nearly finished putting a guitar build together now and I have a guitar neck that doesnt have any string trees on the headstock. Its fender based and i have standard vintage style tuners so im guessing i will need them.

Should i use one for the B & E strings or have two ? (including D & G )

My first thought was to put two on now and save the hassel of adding an extra one on at a later date.

Oh and the position of them , should i just find a picture and make a good eye judgement or is there any specific measurement for them ?

[MojoMonster]

Re: String trees.

I have nearly finished putting a guitar build together now and I have a guitar neck that doesnt have any string trees on the headstock. Its fender based and i have standard vintage style tuners so im guessing i will need them.

Yea.
If you ever do this again, look at the staggered locking tuners.
Awesome and it gets rid of the string trees.

Should i use one for the B & E strings or have two ? (including D & G )
My first thought was to put two on now and save the hassel of adding an extra one on at a later date.
Oh and the position of them , should i just find a picture and make a good eye judgement or is there any specific measurement for them ?

Two.
Yes, do it now.
And I'd just go measure a strat at a guitar store.

You just don't want them too close to the tuners.
The idea is that they produce enough downward pressure on the string to be useful.

MM

[idsnowdog]

Re: String trees.

I usually use them for DGBE strings. With a bayonet neck they are useful for increasing the string angle over the nut and guiding the strings to the tuners. They aren't necessary for most tilt-back necks.

Without string trees often the strings don't have sufficient downward pressure on the strings over the nut and you get ringing behind the nut. Also you sometimes have problems with going out of tune or binding at the nut. Try stuffing a handkerchief between the nut and the tuners. If you notice that you are not getting ringing, then you should install string trees or a retainer bar.

[IanBallard]

Re: String trees.

I've got Sperzel lockers and I don't use a string tree. The break angle on the B and E strings is very slight and I thought about getting a roller tree, but I'm not really having any "ringing" or noise behind the nut.

Some claim that the break angle decreases string tension, but that doesn't make sense to me.

[octavedoctor]

Re: String trees.

Some claim that the break angle decreases string tension, but that doesn't make sense to me.

You are quite right. The only thing that affects string tension is gauge and pitch.

Oh, and scale length...

[Jeff_H]

Re: String trees.

I built my strat to vintage specs and it only has one of the old style round button type string tree's. Vintage non-staggered split top tuners. I have no issues with only having the one string tree....and that's all Callaham said I needed.

If you like the look of two better that's fine, It won't hurt anything. Do you really need it? Don't know. I just know that mine works and sounds fine as is.