Cast tailpieces on the bay - to good to be true?

[Oliver R]

This seems very cheap, I am tempted to buy one just out of interest..
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/75x45x9mm-...YAAOSw1g9ZpnqG

[Paul Busman]

There's another thread on these.

[Oliver R]

So there is, missed that...i'm gonna buy one to stick on my Loar (The) as the one on it is a nightmare.

[Willie Poole]

Those mounting holes won`t line up with the holes that are now on your The Loar, but a little cosmetic alteration won`t be hard to do...

[almeriastrings]

You can also get better quality 'traditional' tailpieces that are far nice quality than those I have encountered some of 'The Loar' mandolins... even quite cheaply on Ebay.... heavier, firmer metal with better plating and a smoother cover fit, etc. With these, the holes will usually line up correctly.

[Ivan Kelsall]

I'm wondering 'why' they're so cheap ?. If they're Brass / Bronze,they'll be fine,but if they turnout to be 'pot metal',they might not last very long as that stuff is very brittle indeed. Plating can cover up a multitude of sins !.

As Willie correctly points out,the hole pattern in your existing tailpiece/mandolin is different. These t/pieces have the Monteleone' style hole pattern in them (like my Lebeda in the pic.)& if you buy one,you'll need to check if any redundant holes will show outside the new t/piece outline.

My first mandolin was much cheaper than your ''The Loar'' & the 'tin' tailpiece was lethal !. I decided that a cast t/piece was for me,so i bought a good Allen cast t/piece which took all of 5 minutes to fit - one off / one on.

In my opinion,buy a decent tailiece with the proper hole spacings,
Ivan

[Oliver R]

I take your point regarding the hole spacing but i'm not adverse to a bit of plugging/drilling.
When I got the Loar the tailpiece was miles out of line and utter rubish so I replaced it with one of these....
https://www.hobgoblin.com/local/sale...lpiece-nickel/
A very very bad mistake, string changes are harrowing to say the least! so the instrument has other drilled holes in it, a few more wont make any difference and if the cast one only lasts for a bit its a 10quid experiment!

[colorado_al]

I say go for it! Please report back.
Thanks!

[MikeEdgerton]

A previous thread can be found here. At least one member has already received the tailpiece and has it in use.

[Ivan Kelsall]

From Oliver - "When I got the Loar the tailpiece was miles out of line and utter rubish...". Oliver,the 'tin' tailpiece on my Michael Kelly mandolin was fitted squarely enough - but !!. The actual tailpiece & the sliding cover obviously didn't mate up,so somebody must have hammered the darned thing on there. When i came to put a new set of strings on it,i had to use a pair of pliers to pull it off & i couldn't get it back on. The sides of the cover were at an angle to the sides of the actual tailpiece. I left the cover off,looked for a decent tailpiece & ordered an 'Allen' from the US,
Ivan

[JRG]

Well, here's my experience with these cheap cast tailpieces and I will post this on the other thread as well. I plugged the existing holes and installed the tailpiece with the screws that came with it. Got it on and strung it up and everything was good until the bottom screw pulled out. IMO this style tp puts more force on that bottom screw than the original "cloud" tp and the screws that came with the cast one are half the size of what comes with an AB. Now I want you all to take a deep breath and understand we're talking about an old Harmony here so try and relax and visualize a hundred dollar mandolin that I'm puttin' a ten dollar tailpiece on. Bottom line, I used the bigger strap button screw on the bottom and all is good so far. Strings have been tensioned for a week now and everything is holding together. So you get what you pay for.

[HoGo]

Well, here's my experience with these cheap cast tailpieces and I will post this on the other thread as well. I plugged the existing holes and installed the tailpiece with the screws that came with it. Got it on and strung it up and everything was good until the bottom screw pulled out. IMO this style tp puts more force on that bottom screw than the original "cloud" tp and the screws that came with the cast one are half the size of what comes with an AB. Now I want you all to take a deep breath and understand we're talking about an old Harmony here so try and relax and visualize a hundred dollar mandolin that I'm puttin' a ten dollar tailpiece on. Bottom line, I used the bigger strap button screw on the bottom and all is good so far. Strings have been tensioned for a week now and everything is holding together. So you get what you pay for.

JRG, I don't think it's problem of the tailpiece. Your tailpiece angle must fit angle of strings towards bridge otherwise it will exert too much force on the screws. These bridges are designed for Gibson style mandolins and I guess your bridge on Harmony is much lower than what the angle of tailpiece wants. You should look for a way to bend the tailpiece to fit your mandolin. These cast tailpieces can be quite stiff and may even break if pushed too hard...

[Ivan Kelsall]

You simply can't bend a 'cast' tailpiece,the grain structure is all wrong,in a similar way to not being able to bend cast iron - or any 'cast' metal. Only if such a tailpiece was 'forged',would the grain be able to be 'bent'. 'Cast' items have a crystaline grain structure which won't bend,
Ivan

[HoGo]

Ivan, there are alloys of brass or bronze that can be bent, but they require heating to red glow and bend in one move. But one never knows if or when it breaks. Sometimes it's pretty easy to bend, sometimes it just snaps... but on $9 tailpiece you can take the risk of very slight bend.

[Hewines]

I bought one of these tps for an electric I'm building. It arrived quickly and I think is well made. One issue though is the through holes looked to have sharp edges and weren't chamfered. An easy fix by lightly twisting a small drill just to knock the edges off. But this isn't easy for the middle holes as the string posts block access on the inside. In my case it wasn't a problem as i drilled out the posts to give clearance for ball end electric strings. I'm sure you could probably get in with a small welders file as they flex.
I'm not keen on gold bling, so polished it off back to nearly silver. I've still to finish my build so haven't fitted or strung it up yet.,but i like it.

[Jim]

Got one coming , was $9. Let you know how it turns out.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Hi Adrian - I take your point,maybe some cast materials can be bent - up to a point !!. For most cast metals,bending is out of the question.The 'grain' is crystaline in nature,but i suppose that if a large amount of heat is applied,they could be bent - but who would want to do it ?,
Ivan

[Jesse Kinman]

I also bought one of these recently, have yet to put it on my Kentucky, but it is my next project that I will hopefully be able to find time for within a week or two. I’ll report back here as well.
My original tailpiece, the cap keeps falling off, and one of the hooks for the G string has bent up a bit under the strain of the string, that I was concerned that it would snap shortly, and I am glad I was able to get a cast tailpiece without spending a days wages...lol

[rljmusic13]

This looks like a Bailey copy. This tailpiece also looks like the one on my Washburn F body Mandolin. I have seen these on eBay for around $10.00 USD. It is brass and it is cast and it will work. Probably is the same manufacturer that Washburn uses. I would use it.

[Ivan Kelsall]

From above - "This looks like a Bailey copy.". If it's a 'copy',then it won't be the same as the ones fitted to Washburn mandolins,unless they're fitting 'copies' as well. The 'Ashton Bailey' tailpieces seem to be made by the Morgan Monroe folks.
https://www.ebay.com/p/Morgan-Monroe...ome/1538295527

It looks like somebody's ripped off the AB design - the originals have the initials 'AB' on them,
Ivan