BYO Tailpiece?

Bones

I'd like to try building a tailpiece and I can do that for use with ball end strings but I'd like to be able to use loop ends. Has anyone figured out a way to custom make the little posts or a place to buy something that will work like that?

thx

Joshl-m

Try this: https://www.etsystudio.com/listing/580602227/sam-brown-browne-screw-stud-button-round
Would that work?

Bones

That might work?? Also I was trying to figure out if there is a way I could just cut a feature into the brass if I used thicker material.

thanks!

Joshl-m

When you say, 'feature', do you mean something engraved or embossed? I was wondering about what it might take to make a basic stamped tailpiece as well.

Bones

Hey Josh, I'm not sure exactly since I have not really thought about it but I was thinking some type of U-shaped slot cut into a thicker brass tailpiece that you could put the loop over. The tricky part would be to radius the edges of the slot so it didn't cause too much stress in the loop end and break the string.

Lango-Django

I couldn't find a picture on the Internet, but during the 1920's Gibson had a really cool trapeze tailpiece... the strings were hooked into a nicely sculpted piece of semi-translucent brown Bakelite plastic... anybody else remember that one?

scot

A few years back I made a number of tailpieces from all sorts of materials - titanium and 301 stainless, 7075 aluminum etc. I first made a couple for loop ends using very small aerospace fasteners called hiloks which have grooved collars to slip the loops over, but it really wasn't a satisfactory solution. Since I don't believe there is any difference in tone between ball or loop ends, I then made several with an ebony block to hold ball-end strings, and this was kind of ok. But every tail piece I made tended to flex (arc) badly from the bend to the string attack point. I then tried riveting strips of various kinds of material along the long axis but that did not work either. I though about making a stamping block of some kind to emboss along the tailpiece but never did it. I wound up putting the steel Favino tailpiece back on my guitar, it works far better than anything I made. It's not only properly embossed, it's also very slightly rolled along the edge of the top, and does not flex. Good design and execution are hard to beat.