Breakover angle at nut
Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 11:57 am
I use two instruments that both have some fairly heavy wound strings. On my baritone acoustic, the 6th string is a .070", and on my standard-scale Lowden where I regularly tune the 6th down to a B, I use either a standard .056" or even a .060".
These strings are thick enough that they don't easily bend over the angle of the nut if I do the windings around the tuner the way I am accustomed to doing them: with the lowest winding being the "exit" winding such that the string goes from basically the bottom of the post to the nut. As a result, the action is increased. I can force a bend at the nut once tuned, but for example on my Lowden I change tunings a great deal, ranging from that low B up to E. A permanent bend there causes issues.
Or...I could change the way I wind the string around the tuning post, so that the exit winding is higher, decreasing the angle over the nut. This does seem to help a bit, but it got me thinking about whether there are other factors that might be affected doing this? Is there an optimal break over angle? Is there a generally agreed proper direction to wind the string around a tuning post?
These strings are thick enough that they don't easily bend over the angle of the nut if I do the windings around the tuner the way I am accustomed to doing them: with the lowest winding being the "exit" winding such that the string goes from basically the bottom of the post to the nut. As a result, the action is increased. I can force a bend at the nut once tuned, but for example on my Lowden I change tunings a great deal, ranging from that low B up to E. A permanent bend there causes issues.
Or...I could change the way I wind the string around the tuning post, so that the exit winding is higher, decreasing the angle over the nut. This does seem to help a bit, but it got me thinking about whether there are other factors that might be affected doing this? Is there an optimal break over angle? Is there a generally agreed proper direction to wind the string around a tuning post?