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I reckon it's a trade off, to an extent.... it does open up the tone somewhat for sure but you also lose a bit of that nice upper mid-range honk that is emphasised by having more break angle. It can make your tone lack definition. Definitely depends on the guitar though..... my previous R8 loved it and my current one doesn't.
It depends on the particular guitar. Some bright guitars sound great with a bit added depth and slinkyness to tone due to topwrap. Some darker sounding ones need to have bigger string to bridge angle.
I decided to try top wrapping when I did my last cleaning and restring of my 2000 std. I didn't notice any significant change in "slinkiness" and I have not actually played in plugged in yet. I did like the feel of the guitar but a lot of that can be contributed to a thorough fret board cleaning and new strings. I don't know if I will keep it or not at this point.
Picture a tall tail piece atop two tall pole pieces. It actually moves back and forth more and more the higher it stands. This side to side movement can be avoided by keeping the tail piece low to the body.
But!
This creates a steep string angle over the bridge.
A really cool think I picked up from this video about topwrapping:
See how the balls at the end of the strings stick out? They cut off an old ball and slide the new string through it so that the wrapping at the end doesn't rub your palm...Pretty cool...:headbange