Re: Banjo Mandolin Question
Probably someone at Tyler Mountain (or whatever the name of the Chinese factory that makes Tyler Mountain instruments) saw "banjo" and reached into the five-string tailpiece drawer.
You can use light-gauge mandolin strings (with loop ends) on your mandolin-banjo, and you can "double up" the loops over three of the five posts you have. Not an ideal solution, but workable.
I Googled around, and couldn't find a dealer that listed mandolin-banjo tailpieces in stock. A regular eight-string mandolin tailpiece won't do; it has to be a banjo tailpiece that attaches to a bracket. There were a couple vintage ones, but they were [a] corroded, and [b] pretty expensive.
You might inquire with Gold Tone, a Florida firm that imports a wide variety of stringed instruments from Asia. They don't show an eight-string banjo tailpiece in their parts inventory -- just four, five and six -- but they sell a mandolin-banjo, presumably with an eight-string tailpiece. I've found in my experience that Gold Tone is quite customer-friendly; I've bought cases and gig bags, as well as a couple of banjo/mandolin family instruments. Might be worth contacting them to see if they'd sell you the correct tailpiece.
Allen Hopkins
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