Stop- Bar Tailpiece on SG Gibson

[SG Sydney]

Good- day Gibson  lovers... I noticed on my SG  that the strings rest on the  bottom of theNashville Tune- O Matic bridge  before entering the  Stop- Bar Tailpiece, it came like that from the Gibson factory as this SG  2019 model  was purchased new 3 weeks ago.  I know raising the Stop - Bar Tailpiece will rectify this issue , I was wandering if other SG guitars  have this same issue  or  is like that from new.  I don't want to reset Stop - Bar Tailpiece as the guitar plays superb, but if it is a problem  somehow I will adjust  this issue.  Cheers......

[arcticsg]

Congratulations on your new SG! 🙂.  

In a perfect world, the strings should not be touching anything on the bridge other than the saddles.  You are correct in raising the stop-bar/tailpiece to correct that.  

After I set the bridge where It needs to be during setup, I always raise the stop bar just high enough for the strings to clear the back of the bridge.  

[SG Sydney]

 

Good day Arcticsg , makes sense to raise bridge so strings don't touch , wonder why Gibson tech didn't raise bridge, might leave it that way for a while, plays well enough though, if strings break  then I'll tinker with it...touchy subject stop tailbridges..... Cheers.....

 

 

[Twang Gang]

As long as it plays well and sounds good you probably don't have to raise the stop bar.  I played Gibsons for many a year with the stop bar always decked and never knew that the strings weren't supposed to touch the back of the bridge.  Big topic of discussion, but in reality I don't think it makes much difference. 

[SG Sydney]

Glossy Twang Gang,sorry for late reply but I don't get on computers much , but yeah just playing this SG and all good so far , came with strings touching back of bridge 

new from Gibson this year. If it ain't broke keep on playing.... Cheers.....

[mihcmac]

I had an SG Standard with the bat wing pickguard , the TOM bridge sits above the pickguard and the stopbar was adjusted to sit about 1/16" above the body. I adjusted the stopbar down and then the strings touched the back of the bridge. Thinking that I wanted the strings not to to touch and the stopbar to be as solid as possible, I installed some nickel plated spacer washers left over from a Duesenberg tremolo under the stopbar, just to ease my mind.. It worked very well, but in reality nothing needed to be done..

[Eracer_Team]

Why don't you "top wrap" the stop tail if you want to deck the stop to the surface of the guitar.

That way the string are "that much" higher than the holes in the stop tail for the strings and will be pretty much a straight run from the TOM to the stop tail

I'm not going to get into the "strings can't touch the back of the TOM" argument 

If I want an argument,  I'll talk to my wife 

[badbluesplayer]

The stop bar should be hIgh enough so the strings clear the back of the bridge.  There's no rule that says so, but that's the way Gibson does it.

[SG Sydney]

Yeah I've been checking other SGs at guitar stores and some touch back of bridge and some don't......SG playing well enough , no worries....Cheers

[Big Bill]

IMHO, between the nut and the bridge is where you get the magic, anything beyond those points does not matter. Maybe the life of the strings... maintaining tuning ... nothing more than that... I heard all the arguments against what I just stated, don't bother, my mind is made up. 😁

[SG Sydney]

Yeah I get your drift.....I only stumbled to on this issue when I saw it on Utube , other wise it didn't matter to me....SG plays well and stays in tune.... no worries.....Cheers

[brad1]

1 hour ago, Big Bill said:

IMHO, between the nut and the bridge is where you get the magic, anything beyond those points does not matter. Maybe the life of the strings... maintaining tuning ... nothing more than that... I heard all the arguments against what I just stated, don't bother, my mind is made up. 😁

I believe this too.