Question on tension - Jon?

[thindave]

Ok, so I have an AL and a Rosewood Axis strung with EB RPS 9's. I went to my local GC today and they had a 20th silo - nice.

So, in playing it, there seemed to be much less string tension than my rosewood axis which seems to have less that the albert lee. I'm guessing that GC has it setup with 9's, but I guess there's no way to tell what brand.

Now, they're all setup bascially the same way (the action seemed to be how I setup my own) - the 20th was a hardtail and mine are both piezo trems if that makes any difference.

They're all the same scale too, right?

My head hurts...

 

[jeffrey]

Trems have more tension than hardtails I believe.

 

[Spudmurphy]

Trems have more tension than hardtails I believe.

I can't see how? (Confused Spud)

 

[jeffrey]

Physically, I don't know.

But I know all my trem guitars with .010's feel stiffer than my non-trem guitars with .010's with the same scale length and brand of string.

Where's Dudley when you need him! ;D

 

[GHWelles]

Weird. Floating trems feel like they have less tension to me. When you bend the string, the springs give a little.

 

[Spudmurphy]

Weird. Floating trems feel like they have less tension to me. When you bend the string, the springs give a little.

Yeah I can see the thinking behind that - but there again I've never had a floater!

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

I have always felt that trem bridges feel like they have less tension on the whole.

 

[jeffrey]

Hrm.

Weird.

It's always been the other way for me.

 

[GHWelles]

If you mean a trem with a locking nut versus a hardtail, I agree the strings might feel stiffer. You don't get the string stretch from the nut to the tuner.

But a floating vintage trem w/out locknut gives you both the extra string stretch from the tuners and the give from the springs.

So I would say from stiff to least stiff:

Locking nut trem
hardtail - dive only vintage trem
vintage trem floating

 

[jeffrey]

Hrm.

Maybe it's that you have to push the strings farther on a trem guitar to get the pitch you want since the springs give that it feels harder.

 

[kompressaur]

If you mean a trem with a locking nut versus a hardtail, I agree the strings might feel stiffer. You don't get the string stretch from the nut to the tuner.

But a floating vintage trem w/out locknut gives you both the extra string stretch from the tuners and the give from the springs.

So I would say from stiff to least stiff:

Locking nut trem
hardtail - dive only vintage trem
vintage trem floating

I'd agree.my hardtail silo feels less floppy than my SS with wilkinson vintage trem and same goes for my FR Axis vs Axis Sport with mm vintage trem.
Komp

 

[Eilif]

Would a longer string result in more tension? It seems to me that the distance from the nut to the end of the string is longer with my hardtail Axis SS than with my Luke. The ends of the strings seem to be more recessed into the body of the Luke than the Axis SS, indicating a shorter length with the vintage trem.

 

[pauldogx]

I'm pretty sure the scale length is the same on both those guitars. Scale length definitely has something to do with tension-----Fenders have always had more tension than Gibson because fender is 25.5" and Gibby is 24.75". Prs clocks in at 25",kind of in between. So if you have a scale length of say 27"
like a bari--you'll have alot more tension. Can't speak to the differences between trem and hardtail---but it wont have as much affect as scale length.