Reverse headstock - how does it change the feel?

[duodecim]

With the pointy kind, it feels much different when you're plunging it into somebody's chest at a metal show. It's hard to describe, you have to try it for yourself.

This does bring up a good point. I'd like to get a BC Rich with a "widow" headstock. Maybe make the neck out of a really strong metal. I could put the headstock around peoples throats in the crowd and pick them up into the air.

I could actually vividly imagine that.

This one looks more like it would grab 'em by the balls, though... Look at the cut in the headstock.

 

[rupe]

I was trying to explain this earlier but I will paste it from another source:


1 - String tension is only affected by 3 factors: a) pitch (to which we tune the string), b) mass (or to simplify: string gage), and c) scale length (the length of string from bridge point to nut only.)

It is important to understand that scale length is only the vibrating segment of the string (bridge to nut). What length of string there is between the nut and the tuning post has absolutely no affect on the tension of the string.

I hate to argue, but this is not true. I've been in multiple discussions over at some other forums with a bunch of builders about this very topic.

Chunktone had it correct when he said this:

With a reverse headstock, you have a longer overall string length on the low E string. This results in higher string tension. On the high E string, you have a shorter overall string length, and you get...yep, you guessed it, the opposite, lower string tension.

But not this:

This is with or without a locking nut. The locking nut just locks it in tune at whatever tension was required to get the strings in tune.

Think about when you bend a string on a vintage strat. It could get hung up on a string tree, right? That proves that the string is moving behind the nut. That proves that string movement doesn't automatically end at the nut and bridge contact points. And if it's moving beyond those points, then it IS somehow involved in the overall tension of the string.

On a floyd, once you clamp down the nut and bridge, the string does NOT move behind the nut at all.

On a reverse headstock, the string length from bridge anchor to tuning post is longer, and has a longer distance to travel on bends. Because the string isn't just moving from the nut. It's moving OVER the nut, in the nut slot.

Bingo...exactly right! This topic is not a matter of opinion folks, its real Physics.

 

[jlbaxe]

The advantage of a reverse headstock for me is at photo ops it looks so much cooler when you point the guitar at the camera like a gun. A regular headstock just does not look as flashy when you strike that pose.

And after the Gig you can play street hockey with it.

 

[nbarts]

Thanks! Reverse headstock FTW!!