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romkeymm
Mar-22-2004, 10:48pm
The tailpiece on my 1975 Givens F is broken and I need a new one. The tailpiece itself is ok, but the thing that the strings attach to is broken and I need one that is 3 quarters of an inch down, from the first screw, if I remember correctly, to the end piece. I bought one and it didn't fit, any ideas where I can find one? I'm going CRAZY without my mando!!

Thanks,

Pete Braccio
Mar-23-2004, 12:29am
I just got one (actually two) from Keith Newell. They are solid and look great. His site is: http://www.newellmandolins.com and he's on the Cafe as mandolinkgn.

Drop him a line to see if his tailpieces would work for you.

Pete

TonyP.
Mar-23-2004, 4:59pm
If I understand what you are talking about you are saying that one of the little "hooks" that are stamped out of the tailpiece broke, right? I had that happen on mine, tracked down another stamped tailpiece and put it on, it was supposedly thicker, and in a short time it broke the same hook. Not wanting to go through the same thing again I took a small piece of sheet metal(actually and old dashpot bracket off a carburetor I had laying around) and fashioned a little c shaped piece that went into the hole left by the broken off hook. It held for over ten years until I decided to replace the tailpiece with a solid one. I would still be using it like that had I not replaced it and I'll be honest with you I don't feel like I got any sonic benefits from going to the solid tailpiece, unlike what others have posted here about the benefits of the solid tailpiece.

Romkey
Mar-25-2004, 1:57pm
Howdy! SM was no help so I called Greg Boyd, whose shop website has a section on Givens mandolins. He says you can almost never find a tailpiece that will fit, and that the tailpieces are different even between two Givens of the same model made a few years apart. His advice is to get a rasp and enlarge the hole in the tailpiece to fit around the strap peg (which is what this mando has). Proceed accordingly! -- Your dad

rigelrover
Jan-17-2012, 2:29pm
Hi Matt,

I am not writing about the broken tailpiece, but instead to get in touch. I met you and your dad on the way to the first mandolin symposium. At the time we were probably the only mandolin players from our neck of the woods. I've been trying to get some musicians together locally again and was reminded of you guys after seeing you dad on stage with an Irish group (Barley House Band?) at Cool Beanz a few months ago.

I think that you can reply to my Mando-Cafe account, but here is my e-mail address:
rigelrover@gmail.com

mandroid
Jan-18-2012, 3:12am
This might be a good time for a TP upgrade, A tech can fill and re-drill holes that don't line up.
so don't restrict your choices for that reason.

Skip Kelley
Jan-18-2012, 7:53am
Matt, I sent you a pm.

Jim Garber
Jan-18-2012, 8:26am
I hope you guys all realize that the last time Matt posted here was March of 2004 and the last time he posted on the Cafe at all was July of 2008. I hope he answers you in any case.

bmac
Jan-18-2012, 9:41am
I don't think we need to be concened with Matt. Many of us have had similar problems and welcome the comments 'cause they are relevant to our own instruments.

Besides, for all we know Matt may still be working on his broken tailpiece.

Jim Garber
Jan-18-2012, 10:09am
Bart: I only commented because there were two people who wanted to get in touch with Matt. Sometimes people don't realize that an old thread has been resurrected. Nothing wrong with that at all -- I do it all the time.