To whom it may concern
Recently I can across the warrior soldier bass line and was very impressed with their 'G-factor' bridge system where for the 5 string, the B and hte E string can be strung regularly or through the body which helps alot on the tension on those strings. I own a soundgear 5 string and am unimpressed the the lo B flabbyness and would like to tighten it up. If I got the right guy to do it for me, would it be a big deal to drill a hole throught the body of my bass right behind the bridge at the B and E string, dress up the hole with something like a washer so that it looks pretty and string my B and E through it to lighten them up?
I'm wondering how risky that would be, and since the instrument wasn't designed that way originally, if 'I need to worry about things like neck torque and other things.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Unfortunately the concept you've described on the Warrior's is nothing more than advertising hype. Don't be duped. No amount of string after a nut or before a saddle will change the playing tension of the string when it is properly tuned. Stringing through the body CAN increase down pressure on the saddle but it can't do a thing to the playable length of the string.

This is probably the most widely misunderstood detail in bass guitar physics.

Thanks Hambone. That "string it through the body" thing never made any scence to me. How would that increase the tension on the playing part of the string. It can't.

I'm no luthier, but a basic understanding of physics could tell you that.

Phattybass: I had a thread in here that had to with avoiding a floppy B string. I think it was Hambone who posted a link about bass guitar physics that explained it well. The general concensus was to make sure you had a good strong joint between the neck and body. There were a couple of other points made too. Look it up, it whould be easy to find. I started it les than a month ago.

Good luck, Bob

I ordered my current bass with the through the body option... because I think it's cool. It may ad a 'slight' increase in sustain, but a solid modern bridge will do the same.

I think the floppiness comparison between Warrior & Ibanez is a product of neck & neck joint construction.

Drilling the Ibanez... so long as no sharp spots exist in the strings new path, it should be fine. But as said, it does nothing for nut to saddle tension.

You could try a larger B string?

Yeah use a bigger string, I put a .145 B on my Ibanez and it fixed her right up.

-Mike

What I would do is to wrap the string a couple more times around the machine head post. The lower the string goes, the more downward pressure on the nut end.

Weird thing is, on the end of violin instruments, it is commonly believed that tone/wolf tones can be effected by altering after string length on the tailpiece end and also tuning the after length to particular pitches... At least that's the case for cellists :)