What's the purpose of having a string tree? My strat has one but I heard some people take it off, why is this?

String trees are there to provide proper break angle (and downward pressure) at the nut.

I wouldn't remove one.... in fact, my Strat-style guitar has two.

I found that even staggered height tuners dont full allieviate the break angle/string tree problem. I still need a tree with staggered height tuners on the high E. It just doesnt ring true without one.

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No no and no

I have no problem playing without a string tree on a headstock with staggered tuners, but then I'm quite a light player. When I took the strings out of the trees on a guitar with ordinary tuners I found I occasionally pulled a top string out of it's nut slot when emphasising a note by snapping on the string quite hard.

Still, I prefer to do without trees where I can. It's a compromise solution to a long past manufacturing issue...



Cheers - C

Hmm, I'd like a string tree for my backyard--then I could just go out there when they're ripe, and change the strings on my guitars...

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It wasn't Willy-Nilly, it was at crows.

Yes. I have two string trees on my Stratocaster. in fact I upgraded both of them a long time ago. Nobody thought less of the guitar so there they be. When all is working right with your Strat, then don't even change it... do not even remove the dust by the bridge if you like the way it sounds. Leave it as is; A.K.A.: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

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Love my Telecaster, Stratocaster, and other guitars.

The guitars tone improves when you take them off.

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

Without them, certainly on most guitars that have them, there is insufficient string break angle over the nut. The string or strings sounds unconvincing - it doesn't ring out - it's just too loose in the nut slot.

On a Strat with 2 string trees, it's my experience you may get away with removing the tree over the D and G strings, but not the one on the B and E. As they are a known friction point for trems, I've experimented with graduated height (locking) tuners, but even with those I found the string tree is still required.

So if they're there - chances are they need to be there.

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

I was thinking of ordering a Warmoth Neck with an LSR and no string trees for one of my strats. Do they work as well as advertised?

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Darn, you beat me to it.

This is just my opinion as always but I personally don't think the LSR nuts are really worth the cost or effort. I put one on my '96 MIM a number of years back and it really didn't make that much of a difference at all. I wouldn't fuss if I got a guitar that already had one installed but personally I wouldn't go out of my way for a neck with an LSR and I'll never put another one on any of my other Strats.

Now with that, I would add that I have also put roller T's on my '96 and I thought those were a nifty little upgrade. Could just be my imagination but I thought it did make a slight different towards improving tuning stability. I think the roller T's were only a few bucks so I can't complain.

Again, just my own personal opinion.

Peace,
Jim

I've never used string trees... I have one of the old gull-wing trees on my Strat, and I just bypass it when I put my strings on. I like my strings to be as straight as possible with a minimal break angle. I've not had a string jump out of its slot yet... well, maybe it's happened sometime in the past twenty years, but I can't remember it. I find that strings bind too much to the tree and give me minor tuning problems; i.e., I've got everything up to pitch just the way I want it, and then there's a little "ping" and the tree gives up that last minuscule bit of string it's been hanging onto. It's not much of a problem ironing out those quirks, but since I find the string tree useless for my purposes I prefer just to do without it.

Just been doing some initial reading on string trees and I saw on another forum that the general consensus there was that the string tree on a MIM Standard strat is too low ie too close to the headstock.

Is that feeling the same here? I am wondering if I should look at raising the tree or even swapping it out. I have only just got my strat so still learning about it at this stage. I have noticed that whenever I pick it up by wrapping my hand around the neck just under the head stock and lifting it off the guitar stand it makes a lovely "ping" sound. I assume this is a string "pinging" somewhere on the neck. Is that the likely explanation?

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Cheers!

I'd be curious to know why some guitarists place there string trees farther from the nut. For example, the John Mayer guitar lists this as one of the unique features of the guitar. I would love to know why this is done and what is hoped to gain from it.

If you're still learning, then the first suggestion I would actually make is simply don't get yourself too excited about this sort of stuff. Issues such as "the ideal height for a Strat String T" is actually a VERY minor detail when it comes to a guitar's setup. It's one of those very small little things that a more experienced player may be concerned about but for most inexperienced players, you're probably not going to notice much, if any difference. For a lot of us guys who have been playing for a fair number of years, some of these little nuances can become something we get fixed on. After all, if you've been playing guitars for 20 years or more, you start to be aware of all the smallest little details ("Oh no...my high E string is .006" too low", LOL). For a newer player though, most people will simply hear a greater improvement in their tone, sound and and such by simply learning how to play better.

So that said, if you -KNOW- you actually have a problem with those string T's then sure...go ahead and change them. They're fairly inexpensive and it's an easy DIY job and you really don't have anything to loose. As I said elsewhere, I'm a big fan of the roller T's myself. If on the other hand you're just "fishing for a reason to do an upgrade" (not that there's anything wrong with that, LOL), it's not the kind of thing I would worry about right away...better pickups or even a better amp, etc., will usually have a much great impact than something as minor as the type of string T's you have on the headstock. As far as tuning stability goes, I still have to say that a good and proper setup will go further on a Strat than most gadgets or gimmicks ever will. Also understanding a little about things like humidity and temperature and how they effect a guitar...that can help too

Anyways, again just my opinions.
Peace,
Jim