Tailpiece weight revisited

[martinc]

The weight of tailpieces has been touched on here before....... but in the case of a plywood bass, can we say that a lighter tailpiece with a/c cable or gut attachment will always help to open up the sound?

And has anyone used a carbon fibre tailpiece on a plywood and noticed an improvement?

Thanks.

[Brent Norton]

I think it may have less to do with the construction of the bass (ply vs. hybrid or carved), and more to do with whether the bass is primarily used for pizz or arco. I tend to prefer lighter TPs for pizz / slap and heavier ones for arco -- it's all about inertia. No scientific data to back it up, just what I've found to jive.

[toman]

I believe the standard theory is that lighter tailpieces will make the bass lounder and get a better pizz sound, while heavier ones are better for arco playing. I once had a pretty nice plywood bass, and it came set up with a really heavy metal tailpiece. Eventually I got around to upgrading several parts on it, and one thing I did was replace the funky metal piece with a nice ebony one, which weighed quite a bit less. Turns out the bass sounded better with the heavy, metal tailpiece, so it went back on. I was playing virtually all arco on the bass though, so for a pizz player the results might be just the opposite.

[martinc]

Thanks for the replies.
I tried the lighter tailpiece (not ebony) and the aircraft cable and it definately helps.
Basses are just like strings I guess. Have to try stuff on it to really know if there is an improvement.