It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
I often leave a capo on the headstock. I guess it does the same thing to a degree but can't say I've ever noticed a difference.
https://m.imgur.com/P30UzIS
https://reverb.com/uk/item/2356189-groove-tubes-fat-head-for-strat-bell-brass-adds-sustain-and-volume-to-your-strat-hard2find -
An idea used in the 80's as well
My experience is that attaching things to the headstock does seem to change the tone a bit but doesn't change the sustain noticeably.
Unless it's an amplifier (or just the speaker).
http://sustainiac.com/sman-xd.jpg
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
FWIW, I owned a Jap Tele that came to me with a 'fathead' brass plate on the back of the headstock. I thought it looked shit and so took it off... it did change the sound and I didn't like the guitar so much without it. I swapped the guitar for a Strat but kept the plate for a long time - mainly because I didn't think it was worth much. I was wrong... I put it on eBay about 6 or 7 years ago and got almost as much for the Fathead as I paid for the complete Tele back in the 90s!!!
Wow .
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I used to have one of these daft things...years ago, I thought it was snake oil. But a few pros were endorsing them and saying they really work. Joe Satch was one such hero. I had my doubts but got one from one of the stalls at the NEC when I went to watch GOTY comp...was going 'cheap' for about 15 squids instead of £19.99....so I bit. Skeptical yes, but i'll try it me thinks to myself. Satch uses one and has pics of his JS1000 with one clamped on....well, I heard NOTHING. "well some guitars don't have dead spots and these fix that...." well none of my guitars did and none of them showed an iota of difference of any sort in terms of sound/sustain/tone. The headstock was just a few oz's heavier and that's all. So mine went on ebay and I got £15 for it...plus £2 postage. So the prank (on me) after ebay costs will have been about £1.50 loss to confirm my sceptical view. And you know what none of them pros that were singing their praises were ever seen using 'em live after the photoshoot for the ad and when they got their 'bung'.
Conclusion - pure snake oil. If you wanna be naïve/gullible - stick a metal capo on instead...at least that does have a proper function.
This will either make things better, have no noticeable effect at all, or make things worse. It totally depends on what it’s being attached too
Easy to test without buying the real thing.
Instagram
The thing with Strat headstocks I only really noticed after years of working on them, and it's outweighed by other factors. Just something that you realise makes a small but characteristic difference - like brass bridge saddles, or alloy vs steel bridge blocks etc.
I've also heard a definite tone difference from the mass of machineheads, especially on acoustic guitars. Those big metal-key Schallers and Grovers are really heavy, if you compare them to a set of vintage Klusons. It's not as simple as "light = good, heavy = bad" either.
All just little things - at the end of the day a Strat will still sound like a Strat, not like a Les Paul .
I don't think even an elastic-backed capo would dampen the resonance though, since it still adds mass.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Actually I think Sadowsky make a big thing about headstock thickness on their basses. In fact IIRC even Fender put a thicker headstock on the US Standard basses than on the MIMs.