POP goes the tailpiece!

[lermgalieu]

I was driving home from my gig Friday night and I heard a POP, followed by the sound of my bridge falling over. Turns out the part of the wood carved for routing the tailpiece wire through had broken! Anyway, I was able to get it fixed on Saturday - the luthier just routed the wire through the tailpiece so you can now see it on the front side looping through - but hey, it beats a new tailpiece. $30 and I am back in business. Phew...glad it didn't happen on stage.

[AMJBASS]

I have had that happen twice on me! One was at home while practicing. I was using the screw lock tailpiece wire, and it snapped while I was playing. The second time it happened on a gig. This bass had a coat hanger. Fortunately I had my Fender Jazz bass with me to cover the rest. I have never had it happen on a good instrument though. Just my cheap plywoods. I always use a crimp lock with my aircraft cable now.

[Wil Davis]

The same thing happened to me last week - I was checking the tuning and noticed that all four were down by a nearly a whole tone, which was very strange, as they all keep their tuning very well, no matter what season - I should have realised exactly what was happening! Anyway, I started bringing them back up and "BANG!" …and there was the bridge laying on the floor! The wire had slipped through the clamp used on the tail-piece. Fortunately the sound-post hadn't fallen, so the repair only took about 15 minutes, and the clip/bolt replaced with an crimped aluminium ferrule which is much stronger! Luckily this happened in my living room and not at a gig!

- Wil

[AMJBASS]

Its scary eh?! You pretty much think "What just happened?"! My soundpost fell both times!