I had a metallic sitar twang on my E strings that I couldn't diagnose. Joe Campanella Cleary suggested I look at the tailpiece. The lid on the James tailpiece catches the ends of the rubber O rings and stretches them over the sides as the tailpiece closes. They had been stretched thin enough that the E strings were hitting the front metal edge of the tailpiece. Since I don't have any extra O rings on hand, I pulled the O ring out of its slot on the front edge and ran the strings up over it there. Twang is gone.
Seems like there should be a notch on that tailpiece lid so it can't grab the outer edges of the O rings and stretch them down over the side of the tailpiece. I looked at another James tailpiece on a different mandolin and the lid was catching the outside edges of the O rings also and pulling them down the side of the tailpiece. This one is a fairly new install with maybe 2 string changes max.
Any remedy for the tailpiece lid catching the O rings and pulling them down the side of the tailpiece?
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