Floating Tailpiece

**Walt** · Sep-12-2009, 12:56am

Here is my first attempt at a floating tailpiece. It is from a piece of curly maple and I hope to use it on top of a red top mandolin I'm building. The plan right now is to try and attach it to the end pin like a violin tailpiece. I have a piece of brass rod on order that I'm hoping to use as the string posts. Any ideas on where to go from here would be greatly appreciated. I've noticed on Monteleone's floating tailpieces that he uses a piece of hardware to go around the endpin. I wonder if this is for decoration or if it serves a purpose? I will probably include an ebony saddle on the end of the mandolin, just like on a violin.
The last picture in the series is the tailpiece just sitting on top of my mando. The tailpiece isn't anywhere near being ready to mount.

**sunburst** · Sep-12-2009, 8:29am

John (Monteleone) uses a dovetail way, rather than an end pin, to hold the tailpiece. There is a piece of hardware fastened to the end of the mandolin and a piece fastened to the tailpiece. The height of the tailpiece can be "tweeked" by sliding the dovetail up or down a little.
Bob Benedetto uses a cello tail gut and end pin for his floating guitar tailpieces, but they only have six strings to deal with. The pull of 8 steel strings on a wooden tailpiece is a lot. Perhaps some sort of hardware "skelaton" would be a good idea.

**Lefty Luthier** · Sep-12-2009, 9:42am

I am experimenting with a similar approach for my new 5 string Boomer. This Lefty prototype has an ebony external tail with 5 filister head machine screws threaded into the top of the block with a standard ebony end pin which helps absorb the string tensile load. There is no internal tail block in this instrument.

**Walt** · Sep-12-2009, 10:26am

Thanks for the input guys. I just found a good picture of the Benedetto tailpiece over at stew-mac, and it may be more like what I'm going for.

I guess the monteleone tailpiece goes way over my head. Here is the picture of the monte tailpiece that I was looking at.

The tailpiece itself is floating, right? Where is the dovetail involved? The dovetail allows you to raise and lower the ebony saddle at the base of the tailpiece?

**sunburst** · Sep-12-2009, 12:23pm

That one doesn't seem to have the dovetailed way. Maybe he abandoned that approach...
It was in the part fastened to the end block. There was a small piece that could be slid up or down to slightly adjust the height of the tailpiece over the top.

**Walt** · Sep-12-2009, 1:38pm

It looks like in the picture of the monteleone tailpiece, that he actually has the floating piece tied to the hardware rather than the endpin. Like you said earlier, it may be because of all the tension associated with 8 strings. Maybe the endpin alone will not support the tension. I'm sure Mr. Monteleone has that hardware specially machined for him, so I doubt it would be available to the public.

**sunburst** · Sep-12-2009, 2:03pm

John Monteleone's father and brother were/are artists who do lost wax casting and sculpture. That's the reason he can make his own custom hardware more easily than some of the rest of us. I doubt that piece of hardware is available from him.

**Rick Turner** · Sep-12-2009, 2:20pm

It's not that hard to carve wax patterns and have them cast by a foundry or jewelry casting sub-contracting business. You can also carve a wax original and then make a silicone rubber mold from that into which you pour the disposable wax patterns for investment casting. If the parts are simple enough, you can do sand casting, too.