What are string retainers for?

[dfvxc]

I was just wondering since I've seen it on a lot of floyd equiped guitars, and it's absent from my kelly.

Thanks.

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: What are string retainers for?

In the diagram below, ignore the blue arrow. Look at the bar running across the headstock that the strings slip under.



Also called a "string tree", it pushes down on the strings to add downward pressure over the nut. They don't all look like that though. Fender has a few different types on their guitars and basses. My Jacksons don't have them, but most Ibanez guitars I've seen have them.

Usually, with an angled back headstock, you don't really need one, and I don't see why my Ibanez guitar needs one since its headstock is angled back like my Jackson headstocks. Typical Fenders, with their straight headstocks, use the string trees to exert downward force on the strings, which supposedly increases sustain and energy transfer to the nut and neck.

This particular Fender guitar has two of them:



This particular Fender bass has one:



[ April 10, 2004, 09:41 PM: Message edited by: Number Of The Priest ]

[MOSHWITZ]

Re: What are string retainers for?

and there you have it in a nutshell [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
and i think it goes something like,
no need for the string trees after 11 deg. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: What are string retainers for?

And I JUST noticed that the G string on the Fender P-Bass ISN'T going under the string retainer as it's supposed to... D'oh!! [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[toejam]

Re: What are string retainers for?

My Fender only has one string tree for the E/B strings, since the machine heads are staggered in height (notice the E and A strings are higher, the D, G, B and high E are lower).

[Venomous]

Re: What are string retainers for?

On a guitar with a floyd rose nut ,if you have the string retainer set right(low enough) it eliminates alot of the fine tuning you'll have to do after you lock the nut.It keeps the string down against the bottom of the nut and keeps them from going sharp after you lock them down.

[metafaza]

Re: What are string retainers for?

I don't think they do anything when you have a Floyd on the guitar. The only thing would be to eliminate/decrease the pitch change when you lock the nut.

[dfvxc]

Re: What are string retainers for?

Thanks for the explanations guys! Seems that it's not really that essential, so I won't worry about it.

Damn my shoulder is sore from playing standing up for too long. Having too much fun with it... [img]graemlins/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Dave's tip for the kelly is awesome!