Top Wrapping Les Paul...opinions and experiences?

[Spirit of 76]

I keep seeing conflicting info on Top Wrapping your strings on a LP vs Standard Wrapping.

Some claim better sustain and tone by Top Wrapping; others claim more string tension and friction by Top Wrapping (meaning more tension needed to bend strings).

Anyone experimented with both and have experience on if Top Wrapping is any better than Standard?

 

[ICTGoober]

I'm sure it's all personal preference... There is no hard and fast rule.

 

[jeremy]

ive tried it a bunch of times. when i did it, there was less down angle at the bridge so there was maybe a little slinkier feel to top wrapping. i dont see how top wrapping would give you more tension.

 

[Mincer]

If anything, it would seem like it would be less tension.

 

[Spirit of 76]

Sorry let me clarify....the video I saw said that it takes more tension from your finger to bend the string (so if you are bending a G up to an A, it's more effort that with standard wrapping). They used a tension gauge to test a bend on both wrap styles and it showed more effort needed in an over wrap.

The guy also brings up the idea that an over wrapped string would cause friction where the string sits on the tail piece.

Here is the one where they test the tension in a bend. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaJjjVKcXJM

Anyway, just wanted to see everyone's experiences.

 

[beaubrummels]

When I did it, the strings felt looser and I could bend and play more articulate. I seem to remember sustain might have been reduced slightly. The feel was like my hollowbody Casino with a trapeze tailpiece. There was flex to the strings and a fair amount of ring for sustain, but it wasn't a loud solid sustain; more like an attack with an after ring.

 

[ehdwuld]

Ok simply raising the tailpiece has the same effect

I raise my tailpiece to get the same effect as top wrapping

It does make the strings softer and easier to bend

I like it
If I lower the tailpiece, to the body
Which I don't think helps sustain or tone at all
That's my opinion
If I lower it to the body then the strings over the fretboard have more tension
Feels harder tighter
Harder to bend

 

[Lewguitar]

My feeling has always been that you have to bend the string further to raise it a whole step if the string is top wrapped. I've always assumed this was because you were having to pull additional slack out of the string between the bridge and tailpiece.

I also feel the overall tone is not as good if the string is top wrapped because the string is not seated as firmly or pressing down as firmly in the string groove cut into the saddle of the bridge.

Think about it. If you raise the tailpiece high enough you'll lift the string right out of the groove and it won't be seated in the saddle at all!

So I have never top wrapped and I screw the stop tailpiece down as far as it will go to get the steepest string angle behind the bridge as I can.

I've gotten into some real arguments with guys on guitar forums over this but I believe what I've actually experienced to be true.

 

[ehdwuld]

You can believe that
I believe the opposite
we can still be friends

 

[ICTGoober]

So I have never top wrapped and I screw the stop tailpiece down as far as it will go to get the steepest string angle behind the bridge as I can.

Not usually advised. You want enough angle to break over, but not too much. Definitely don't want the strings to hit anywhere else on the bridge besides the saddle. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't increase sustain to have the tailpiece screwed down tight.

 

[Lewguitar]

Not usually advised. You want enough angle to break over, but not too much. Definitely don't want the strings to hit anywhere else on the bridge besides the saddle. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't increase sustain to have the tailpiece screwed down tight.

Yes. You want to keep an eye on the back of the bridge and make sure the string doesn't touch the back edge of the bridge itself. So I don't screw it down quite all the way. You're right.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

I can't imagine anyone experiencing an increase in tension (when bending strings) while trying out top wrap - my experience has been the opposite.

 

[Mincer]

On my Eastman 335-alike, It came non-top wrapped, so I always kept it like that. It sounds and plays great, so no reason to change.

 

[Lewguitar]

I think top wrapped, the strings may press down a little easier against the frets. So the feel is "slinkier" and easier. But you do have to pull the string further to bend it up a whole step and as you get the note bent up to where it sounds in tune it becomes increasing more difficult to bend the string.

Remember that when the stop tailpiece was invented not many players bent strings the way we do today.

I think the adjustability of the stop tailpiece (up or down) was all about easier fretting. Not easier string bending.

 

[ICTGoober]

Oh, yeah? How did they bend them then?

 

[esandes]

ive tried it a bunch of times. when i did it, there was less down angle at the bridge so there was maybe a little slinkier feel to top wrapping. i dont see how top wrapping would give you more tension.

Exactly. Or more sustain by top wrapping. The greater the break angle on the bridge, the better sustain, accomplished by normal string feed.

Zakk Wylde claims easier bending with top wrapping.

 

[Lewguitar]

Oh, yeah? How did they bend them then?

A very few guys knew to throw away their low E string and move all the strings down so an A string became the low E and the high E became the B string. Then a banjo string was used as the high E string.

George Harrison used a wound G string on all of the Beatles earliest records. Almost everyone did.

Fender Rock N Roll strings with a .010 high E string and unwound G string didn't come on the scene until around 1966. Most players didn't do whole step bends.

It was Mike Bloomfield and then the British guys like Eric Clapton and the Stones who turned most of us white kids onto bending notes with our fingers like some of the black blues players were doing. They were copying Freddie King and BB King.

But most of us who learned to play in the 50's and 60's used a Bigsby or slid the note rather than bending it.

I'm 71 years old. Been playing for more years than most you guys have been alive.

 

[ICTGoober]

I'm 64.... you ain't so old.

 

[Lewguitar]

I'm 64.... you ain't so old.

Maybe. But you don't remember a time before .010 - .046 string sets were available?

 

[ICTGoober]

Oh, yes. The banjo string for the E is an old trick.