I may very well be wrong...... has been known before, but, I had always assumed that Top Wrapping came into existence because of the variations of "Neck Set" found on Les Pauls over the years? I have owned a few LPs over the years and would say that I have only had one that was "near" to right. By "right" I would say that I am talking about a Bridge that was barely off the body and still allowed for a very low action and no rattles and buzzes. With the Tailpiece screwed hard down, there was really no more angle on the rise from Tailpiece to the bridge saddle than there was from the nut to the Tuner post.
I had sort of assumed that Top Wrapping came into its own when people were having to raise their bridges so substantially that their strings were binding on the back of the bridge before crossing the saddles. Instead of raising the stop tail piece to alter that angle, it was more simple to just top wrap which then negated the need to raise the Stopbar.... which is reckoned to be a way of decreasing the guitar's natural sustain, so....... wind the stopbar down tight and topwrap!
As I say..... this might of course be a load of old cobblers, but it makes sense to my addled mind.
