shorty drop top too tense?

[okstrat]

Here's the deal - I have five Andersons, love em all - two cobras, a shorty drop top with floyd I custom ordered, a regular scale drop top floyd and a recently acquired short drop top with vintage trem.

Why the heck does the recently acquired short drop top have more string tension than my other short scale andersons? It really feels stiffer - when I got the guitar, I thought it had 10s on it so I restrung it immediately with my usual brand and gauge, it still feels really stiff. It has the same relief as my other guitars - as straight as I can get it - and also string height is low, but so are my other guitars. I made sure the setups matched closely before I started getting weird about the tension.

What really has me confused is that the vintage trem isn't set to float, but my short floyd guitar IS - so I would think, all things considered, the floyd guitar would seem to be stiffer because as I bend a string, the trem moves a bit and makes me have to bend a string further to compensate. it feels slinkier than the vintage trem guitar.

Not complaining, love all my Andersons, but I am curious and trying to figure out what can be the difference. I always thought your scale length from nut to saddle was the only determining factor in string tension. Someone explain this to me! :)

guitar in question, just to be sure I'm not crazy, is this one:

Results for Serial Number - 09-01-13A

Model - Short Drop Top
Body Finish - Honey Burst Surf with Binding
Body Wood - Quilt Maple Top on Mahogany
Neck Wood - Maple
Neck Finish - Satin Finish
Nutwidth - 1 11/16-inch
Frets - Heavy
Back Shape - Even-Taper
Hardware - Chrome
Bridge - Vintage Tremolo
Pickguard -
Pickups - HC1+ HC3+
Switching - 5-Way with Push/Pull for 2 pickups
Strings - .009-.042 Elixir Strings
Comments -

BFTS

Pete

[Herzomud]

I have all Andersons and have a hardtail, vintage trem and two floyds

Hardtail is the stiffest feel to bend but the target note is reached earliest
Decked vintage trem feels slightly softer but I have my trem set up lightly and the plate does move forwards on large bends
Floyds are set up softer and feel the softest but also do require the most string movement to get to the target note.

This is also born out by the fact that my floyds felt stiffer to bend with 3 springs vs the 2 I have set up now. (also locking nut removes the string movement behind nut which contributes to the bend softness)

My understanding is that the feel is based upon the amount of string length affected by the bend and anywhere the string can move under tension gives a softer feel. This includes string length behind a nut or stop and tail piece vs one piece bridge. A trem plate moving forwards is actually shortening the effective scale length of the guitar during a bend and therefore feels softer but the string is also slightly detuning meaning the string needs to move more to get to target pitch.

String tension at final target note should be the same on all guitars assuming same scale length and string size but having to move it further for same tension means less effort felt when moving the distance. Kind of like using a lower gear ratio if that makes sense.

People also experience this when changing from a normal headstock to a reverse headstock, (assuming no locking nut removing this effect)

[tom]

Are the frets all the same? Lower frets can greatly affect the perceived tension feel.

[okstrat]

Are the frets all the same? Lower frets can greatly affect the perceived tension feel.

Tom - yeah, all the guitars are heavy stainless frets. I'm not complaining, just trying to figure it out. BTW love the surf burst...

[tom]

Perceived tension usually comes from a ccombo of neck bow and action height. The other thing could be saddle height. Taller usually means tighter feel. I'd be looking at all those things.

[Big Harry]

This is very strange .

I have standard scale DT with OFR and Bulldog hard tail .

Also, I tried about 2 Cobra's , 3-4 Classics and 2 another DT's with vintage trems.

The stiffest feel is coming from my OFR DT (jumbo frets) , that's why I am using 9 -46 here.
The softest are 2 Cobras , and they have the best feeling of all guitars I've tried (low to medium frets) , 10-46 are like a 9-46 on DT

Vintage tremolo DT's and Classics are in between .

Bulldog (heavy frets, low action) is also on the stiff side, I would say just after my DT.

Does the 14" neck radius have any impact on it ?
Or better question : does the actual fret radius (not fret board radius) have any impact on string stiffness .

[okstrat]

Perceived tension usually comes from a ccombo of neck bow and action height. The other thing could be saddle height. Taller usually means tighter feel. I'd be looking at all those things.

First thing I do when I get a new guitar is I restring it, tune it, set the truss rod to my preferences, which is to get it as straight as I can before getting buzz at the first few frets from backbow and then I set my strings so low I should have my man card revoked. But I play with a really light touch, so I can get away with the low action - friends who play like they are breaking out of jail find my guitars unplayable.

But yeah, everything that I can think of is the same as far as truss rod/neck settings, string brand, tuning, even string height and overall setup.

I still love the guitar. It actually reminds me a little of my Eric Johnson fender strat - awesome instrument, even if it's not an Anderson - but it's stiffer feeling than other strats I've had. Dunno. Wish there was an easy way to measure string tension on a guitar cheaply and easily other than the 'how it feels' method.

[tom]

Since you are going for lowest without buzz, and not a uniform height, I would expect more variation in feel from guitar to guitar. Especially when you are super low As the dmasmall differences are a larger percentage of the whole. I had a friend growing up who played with a setup like yours. Noone else could play his guitars. I would also expect the Floyd guitar to be the stiffest especially down low.

[okstrat]

Since you are going for lowest without buzz, and not a uniform height, I would expect more variation in feel from guitar to guitar. Especially when you are super low As the dmasmall differences are a larger percentage of the whole. I had a friend growing up who played with a setup like yours. Noone else could play his guitars. I would also expect the Floyd guitar to be the stiffest especially down low.

Checked and the floyd short drop top has the same action and truss rod setting. No worries.

Before anyone thinks I don't like the guitar, played it at a gig 85% of the night (15% was my green floyd drop top short) and left unplayed all night was a PRS McCarty with Korina body and neck. Love my TAGs!

https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1.0-9/10257763_10202713049119861_7242991957484999149_n.j pg