A-Jr tailpiece cover: push it down further?

[Tate Ferguson]

I just restrung my Gibson A-Jr, and here's a question: should the tailpiece cover be pushed down further onto the strings, or not? There is room for it to go tighter. I used to press the cover down nearer the bottom, pressing the strings down too. But looking at it now, I'd rather leave the string angle as it is. If this were a cheap tailpiece it might make sense to bend the cover up to match the angle of the strings. I don't want to bend or break the 100-year-old metal, but I want the cover to stay on. Thanks!

[MikeEdgerton]

Clamp between two pieces of wood and slowly and gently bend it up. It should match the angle. That's just wrong. If you don't want to do it with that cover there is a member of the Cafe that was making stainless copies of the cover. I'm assuming he still is.

I generally put a strip of stick on felt under those covers. It works great suppressing harmonic overtones and it keeps it from buzzing on the strings.

[Tate Ferguson]

Thanks, I will give it a try.

[William Smith]

Yes as Mike said bend it! It will not hurt it and it'll go down smooth for a perfect fit-no harm done, I've done this ao many old Gibson mandolins!
You will not break that old metal! Its stout! Are you sure that's the correct cover for the base-they made thousands for different 20's-30's mandolins-budget to Gibson!

[MikeEdgerton]

Over the years Waverly made and sold that same tailpiece and cover to almost all of the manufacturers. You will find slight differences in size over the years and I assume that was because tooling became worn.