Advantage Disadvantages?

[Stone]

Howdy all, anyone know if any advantages or disadvantages of a string through body as opposed to a stop tail?

like this

Thanks all for your valued input

Cheers
Mike

 

[Sleezy E]

String throughs have slightly higher tension, and some say they have more sustain...

 

[gearJunkie]

nice aesthetic

 

[metropolis_4]

I had an ESP with the TOM and string thru like that. The one problem I had with it is that there’s a very sharp break of the string over that top metal ferrule that creates a problem spot for string breaks.

I had a lot of strings break right at those ferrules on that guitar

 

[DrewJD82]

My SZ is a string-thru, can't say I notice any advantage/disadvantage, the few times I've snapped a string has been at the saddle but even that's rare.

Buy a Solar Buy a Solar Buy a Solar!!! F*cking great guitars!!!

 

[laxu]

Absolutely zero.

I used to have a Dean 7/6 string doubleneck where the 7-string neck had a TOM + stringthru and the 6-string was TOM+tailpiece. Sounded exactly the same. I guess the only reason for the stringthru was that there were no 7-string tailpieces available.

Stringthru does require the manufacturer to be more precise with neck angle though as too much neck angle could mean the string angle to the bridge becomes an issue. With a correct neck angle, no problem.

 

[Jarick]

I had an ESP with the TOM and string thru like that. The one problem I had with it is that there’s a very sharp break of the string over that top metal ferrule that creates a problem spot for string breaks.

I had a lot of strings break right at those ferrules on that guitar

Yeah that's the thing to look for. TOM bridges have that sharp edge at the back behind the saddle, and if the angle is steel you can have the string resting right on the back of the bridge. This may or may not be an issue but is something to keep an eye on.

I can't honestly tell any kind of sustain difference with my Tele (string through) vs Les Paul (TOM/stop).

 

[DrewJD82]

Nice, gradual incline to the bridge! That’s one of my favorite TOM-kinda bridges, too. The Gibraltar III, those saddles are so damn smooth.

That guitar is closest in sound to a Les Paul, but that’s probably a lot more to do with the wood/construction than just the string-thru aspect.

 

[metropolis_4]

The spot I was talking about is actually the metal ferrules where the string comes through the body. Circled in this pic:

The string breaks at a sharp angle over that metal ferrule and I had trouble with strings breaking right there

 

[Eagle]

As long as there are no sharp edges the sharpness of the bend is not an issue .
As for sustain it doesn’t really improve on a good stop tail. There is an optimal angle over the tunamatic but it is not super steep.