Does higher string tension help you play faster??

djangology

true, rest stroke obviously works well with any guitar (and even high tension guitars or hard-tails) , but there is something missing when you do so that you only get with looser (bridged) strings... Its something you wouldn't notice unless you had spent a lot of time on the wobbly strings with a correct technique.

marciero

Similarly, higher tension strings on an instrument designed for it will offer a feel and sound that cannot be gotten with lower tension. They are different. Rest stroke with higher tension requires more strength and stamina, but there are rewards.

Two other things:
What we feel is actually the restoring force, and not the tension. The restoring force is the force that resists the deflection of the string by the pick and tries to restore it to equilibrium position. This is greater by the bridge (some simple geometry and mechanics can explain this), despite the fact that the tension is the same at all points along the length of the string. The restoring force is greater with greater tension, so picking close to the bridge gives a similar feel to higher tension strings picked farther from the bridge.

but there is something missing when you do so that you only get with looser (bridged) strings.

I am not sure if you are suggesting that floating bridges result in lower string tension, but this is simply not true. Two identical strings tuned to the same pitch on two different guitars of the same scale length, one with a stop tailpiece and the other a trapeze or floating bridge, will have exactly the same string tension; it is independent of the length of string behind the bridge.

Mike