Excuse me, but what the hell is this?

[Mr_Sore_Fingerz]

Whatever it is there is no need for such an aggressive thread title. It also worries me that OP has a Fender instrument and does not even know what the function of the string tree is....

Since when does owning something mean you know what each part's function is? Not to mention he stated already that he didn't own one, his friends did and seeing it made him curious.

 

[pnut166]

But that does not tell us what the Japanese ones do or is it a government conspiracy to keep us from asking about the MIJ ones?

The Japanese ones improve fuel economy !

 

[tinman 1967]

It is a tuning ring. Tap it lightly and it rings an A440 tone

Back when I was a teenager, we were in a room full of people, boys, and girls both. Drunk and partying it up. It was quiet, my best friend picked up an old acoustic guitar and asked me what the plastic "thingy" was at the bottom of the guitar. Without skipping a beat, and as serious as a heart attack.... I promptly told him that it was a "pitch pipe", and if he blew into it.... it would give him the perfect note to tune by! He did...... it wasnt..... they laughed....


I am still reminded of that.... 30 years later!

 

[Sufenta]

Back when I was a teenager... Drunk and partying it up.

At least this is a valid excuse.

 

[Invisible_Kid]

-_-

 

[nostatic]

The number of people who feel a sense of superiority is equal to the number that have no sense of humor.

Well, give or take a million. The interwebs is a big place...

 

[dave_bass5]

You know, if the big bass manufacturers keep going the way they are there wont be any string trees left soon.

Save the planet and bend your headstock is wot i say ;-)

 

[michael_atw]

Hate to break it to you, but it looks like you've got some sort or fake Fender there. Real ones have a string tree for the E/A strings as well. Your E and A strings are sure to go flying off the nut putting you and anyone near you at risk of severe bodily injury.

I've seen it. Low E has been known to cut hands off without the string tree in place. I once knew a guy from Nantucket...

 

[michael_atw]

Today I learnt something. Never ask a question. I love the "banter" by the way.
By the way "banter" may just be an exclusively English word for taking the p**s.
Grandad Paul.

I learned how many people will respond to 'curse words' in a title about a string tree.


The title for my next thread about pickguards:

"HOLY $*%&!! CHECK OUT THESE!! MY GOD, THIS IS ABSOLUTELY REPULSIVE!!!"

 

[michael_atw]

Back when I was a teenager, we were in a room full of people, boys, and girls both. Drunk and partying it up. It was quiet, my best friend picked up an old acoustic guitar and asked me what the plastic "thingy" was at the bottom of the guitar. Without skipping a beat, and as serious as a heart attack.... I promptly told him that it was a "pitch pipe", and if he blew into it.... it would give him the perfect note to tune by! He did...... it wasnt..... they laughed....


I am still reminded of that.... 30 years later!

Sounds like you ran some really dangerous and destructive violent parties back in the day. I'm extremely surprised with these sort of pranks that everyone made it out alive.

 

[dave_bass5]

I learned how many people will respond to 'curse words' in a title about a string tree.

Another way of looking at it is the thread title had a question in it and people looked in to see what it was about.

 

[tinman 1967]

Sounds like you ran some really dangerous and destructive violent parties back in the day. I'm extremely surprised with these sort of pranks that everyone made it out alive.

Yes Sir!!! We were living on the edge! Kind of like the basement scenes on "that 70s show"

 

[michael_atw]

Yes Sir!!! We were living on the edge! Kind of like the basement scenes on "that 70s show"

hahahaha...love that show. I was born in the wrong generation.

 

[gjbassist]

If you're looking for the milk of human kindness - some persons here are not the cow.

Brilliant! My new sig!

 

[Mark Wilson]

This thread is ALMOST (not nearly, actually) as funny as the battery thread a few years ago.

 

[Invisible_Kid]

This thread is ALMOST (not nearly, actually) as funny as the battery thread a few years ago.

Yay, I made something almost not nearly actually as funny as some other thread.

 

[lenorules1950]

To be fair, I've been playing bass for 20 years and I have no idea how to perform maintanance on my instruments past changing the strings- and up until now I just referred to the part in question as "that thing you put the 'D' and 'G' strings under".

 

[BgTckt]

...on the band name "Cows of Human Snarkiness"

(Who'd go to see the "Cows of Human Kindness"? BORRRRINGGGG... )

Kid... I always called it a String Retainer. And FWIW, I always took mine off, on my guitars anyway, as the rumor was it lessened the resistance through the nut and improved tuning stability. Whatever. First, I suck at guitar, and second, I never knock the strings out of the nut. I use it as kind of a test. If your buddies want to play your stuff, but they knock the strings out of the nut... distract them with a beer and put the guitar away.

 

[bassbenj]

If the strings don't cross the nut at the correct angle they might buzz, and will definitely lose a lot of sustain.

Too much of an angle is bad, too.
The string gets bent and tone/intonation goes in the toilet.

I have been known to add washers under the string tree, or grind away the bottom, just to get it right.

The name "string tree" comes from the way they are made for Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters, etc.
It's a smaller design that has to be seen to be understood.

What nobody is telling you is that this is a feature of cheap mass-produced instruments (like Fender). Quality instruments have the headstocked angled back to the correct angle so that strings always go across the nut just so.

But now think about this. If you angle a headstock back that means the piece of wood you saw the neck out of has to be thick to handle the angle and then you saw most of the wood away under the thin part of the neck. Of course you could just glue the headstock onto the neck and you do see this done with certain brands. (Les Pauls) But obviously you can have resonance problems as the wood is two different peices and the grain is not the same or same angle in both pieces. Plus the joint could fail over time.

Leo just said "to hell with it, I"m not spending all that money on wood for my instruments!" He just lowered the headstock just a tad and shot it out more or less parallel to the neck. I"m sure he saved at least a couple of bucks doing that!

But now the strings enter the nut at different angles. The ones from the tuners farthest away have the least angle. And I'm sure Leo noticed that this made his basses buzz at the nut like crazy. So he added the "string tree"! The string tree pulls the strings down that go to the farthest tuners and help stop the buzz.

But of course a string tree costs money too! So instead of some nice roller or the like that would let the string move freely when you tune it, Fender came up with the washer on a stalk thing with two (sharp) grooves on the back. Costs a couple of pennies. Saves 1/2 or 2/3 of the wood to make a neck. And nobody cares.

OK? Now you are initiated and one of us. (never speak of this again except to other initiates)

 

[Sufenta]

What nobody is telling you is that this is a feature of cheap mass-produced instruments (like Fender). Quality instruments have the headstocked angled back to the correct angle so that strings always go across the nut just so.

Well, Sadowsky makes what many would consider a high quality instrument, certainly not cheap or mass produced, and they use a virtual carbon copy of the Fender headstock design/angle/string-tree.