Any Top (W)Rapper Here?

[FuzzMonkey]

I'm about to re-string my Yamaha Revstar Standard with set of good 'ole Ernie Ball 10s and thought, as an experiment, I'd try Top Wrapping the tailpiece as I have never tried this before.

I've read that it is meant to increase sustain, string slinkiness, and low-end response.

NOTE: Not top wrapped, but the sustain.


Anyone care to share their experiences with this practice before I give it a go?

[porkpie]

I have two top wrapped LPs and i cant really tell any difference.
Your results may vary of course.

[GrantB]

There are 1,998,422 topics on this on the internet. None of them conclusive in terms of evidence.

Only thing I notice with top wrapping is less string tension due to lower break angle. Which in turns affects the attack and twang of the string, but minutely.

Others will postulate alternative views.

[NippleWrestler]

it's for playability. Everything else is guff and psychosomatic. What top wrapping does is drastically lower the break angle behind the bridge, the same as if you raised the stop bar (if you have one), but then to get the same height from a raised stop bar it'd need to be very very high which would bend the posts, so top wrapping became a 'solution' to lower the tension of the strings.

[dayl]

I do it because, like most things guitar, I think it looks cool.

20250216_110757.jpg (371.08 KiB) Viewed 1570 times

[jeremyb]

When I had my Edwards LP I had a go at it, theory was you could lower the tailpiece right down to the body therefore getting more sustain... and it 100% made the strings feel like they had less tension, was like going down a gauge but without the thinness, I didn't like the way the strings felt to be honest, so if I was going down that path again I'd probably go up a gauge first.

[NippleWrestler]

There's also the half and half approach - top wrap the 3 skinny strings for bendability, and leave the other 3 as normal for the feeling you're used to.

[MiniForklift]

I've top wrapped my LP's for years, can't remember exactly why I started doing this but it might have been because I saw/heard Bonamassa blabbing on about it

Do I really notice any difference from doing it? No
Do I break my E or B strings less since I started top wrapping? Possibly

[Jay]

So top wrapping is like tone wood then?

[jeremyb]

So top wrapping is like tone wood then?

A real thing that changes your tone, sure is!

[Cdog]

So top wrapping is like tone wood then?

Fixed?

[jimi]

I've top wrapped my LP's for years, can't remember exactly why I started doing this but it might have been because I saw/heard Bonamassa blabbing on about it

Do I really notice any difference from doing it? No

This is me too, less the bit about bonamassa. Probably read a thread about it here, gave it a go, and haven’t changed strings since.

[Molly]

I do this because I don't want the string to hit the bridge before it hits the saddle.

As for tension, I've spent an unhealthy amount of time pondering the effects of overall string length, scale length, and break angle on string tension. Top-wrapping increases overall string length which you'd think would increase tension. And why break angle would matter I've no idea. Never owned a reverse headstock Strat but I'd be interested in comparing tension with a regular Strat.

[FuzzMonkey]

Thanks for the comments and feedback on this matter. The Revstar is now officially top wrapped.

[matman]

All you crazy Top (W)rappers are Not Like Us regulars