Fun with Tailpieces

[Joe Mendel]

I just thought I'd show off the first tailpiece I've made, it turned out pretty well and did what both Joe (the customer) and I had hoped it would. The mandolin was carved with a very high arch that starts pretty near the edge of the body, and the original cast tailpiece nearly touched the top where the strings exit. The TP was starting to stress crack from the extreme string angle from the TP up to the bridge and the mandolin sounded really tight, as though you could hear all the stress. Joe asked me to make a floating tailpiece for it, and after playing around with several ideas this is what I came up with. I tried to, more or less, mirror image the headstock. I used nylon coated steel rope & .114" brass rod from McMaster-Carr for the tailgut and string posts. The wood is Ebony with mahogany decoration. It really opened up the sound a lot, more overtones & sustain. I'm pretty happy with it.

[crazymandolinist]

That looks great!

[Skip Kelley]

Joe, nice job on the tailpiece! It compliments the peghead nicely!

[Walt]

I know this is an old post, but I have to say awesome tailpiece! How did you attach the brass to the ebony? Where did you get the piece of hardware that the endpin is attached to?

[Walt]

Actually, I guess if you drill the holes for the brass at an angle, you wouldn't really need to attach them to the ebony, as long as they fit snugly. Sort of like putting a stake in the ground at an angle.