Best tailpiece?

[beidlerp]

Need a recommendation for the ideal tailpiece for my Capek F-4 copy mandolin. I use it mainly for classical music. I'd like something that looks great, I'd like to be able to change strings quickly, and I'd like something that, through the added weight and the material, will improve tone. Looking for the best her--any recommendations?

[Charles E.]

Allen Guitars makes some nice cast tailpieces. I use one of the AR2's and like the tone and look, string changes are a little fussy.

http://www.allenguitar.com/tpcs.htm

[John Flynn]

The James tailpiece is great for looking classic and being easy to change strings. It is on the expensive side. I like the Allen tailpieces myself. The big selling point for them is you can use both loop and ball-end strings. If you want to experiment with string gauges, ball-end guitar strings are available in a much greater selection and better prices than mandolin strings. Then once you settle on gauges, you can buy bulk guitar strings in the gauges you want and your amortized price for one of your custom set of strings is down to like 4 bucks. You can do that with loop end strings, but you have somewhat less variety and it is somewhat more expensive. Also, ball-end strings are the easiest to change, by far.

[Jim Nollman]

After you change strings the first time with a James tailpiece, it's hard to go back to the old clumsy way of trying to keep tension on a string with one hand while winding the string on a machine with the other hand.

[mandroid]

Yea .. on The James, when You Shut the lid, the string loop is trapped by the way the lid closes on it.

Will it make the tone better?, that's an aesthetic only your ears can judge, some say I did,

if the tone already makes you happy, It will still sound fine.

the O rings that secure the lid, are also a damper for the secondary vibrations of the string portions
between the bridge and tailpiece. cast and then CAM finished on CNC machine,

You May be able to order your instrument's makers name engraved on it, since it's not Gibson[TM].

[Mike Snyder]

I hope, one day to have a Hamlett tailpiece. It's the most organic, fluid-looking one I,ve ever seen.

[Ivan Kelsall]

On any tailpiece,instead of trying to keep the string on the string post with one hand while tightening up the tuner,simply put a small piece of Blu-Tak over the string loop. It'll stay there with no problem.
Mike - The John Hamlett t/p is a work of art & 'organic' sums it up in one word,
Ivan

[Philippe Bony]

James (http://images.google.fr/images?q=james%20mandolin%20tailpiece&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=fr&tab=wi) tailpiece is great!

[Malcolm G.]

I have an Ashton Bailey cast tailpiece on my F Style that I find pretty, functional and rather inexpensive when compared to many others..