Underwood Pickup/Tailpiece Custom Fit

360guy · #1 02-27-2011, 08:53 AM

A customer has been having problems with a weak connection where the male 1/4" phone-jack hooks up to his tailpiece. I am exploring the idea of making a custom made tailpiece that would include a holder for the jack. Anyone tried to address this issue? Thanks, John

robobass · #2 03-01-2011, 07:00 AM

You could follow the idea of the Merchant Vertical Bass which has a 1/4" jack mounted through the tailpiece just under the string holes. You could just drill/counterbore a hole in the same spot on the existing tailpiece and mount a jack.

360guy · #3 03-01-2011, 07:44 AM

I checked out Bill Merchant's website. I didn't see any tailpieces that had that feature on them. But I can get a mental image of that kind of set up.

I checked out your web site as well, http://www.basscapos.com. Your invention looks quite well thought out and made of high quality materials. I've booked marked it.

So as a fellow inventor you can probably understand my quest for the "best" design. I will most likely make up 2 or 3 tailpieces and try them all out.

From my customer's point of view this is a real concern. The jack takes a lot of stress ( pushing and pulling the cord in/out) and he's played a concert where the jack started to short out. He had to stand stiff as a Buckingham palace guard throughout the gig to keep the noise from happening.

robobass · #4 03-01-2011, 11:09 AM

You can't see very well on the site, but Bill has the jack mounted under his logo on the anodized aluminum tailpiece (I made them

). This (Bill's design) has got to be the most practical and reliable jack mount you could ask for, but isn't ideal for players who want to be able to regularly remove the pickup from the bass.

My approach is to mount the jack in an "L" bracket which is screwed into the back side of the tailpiece. This is also difficult to remove, but has less visual impact.

I haven't used an Underwood for like 25 years, but I remember it having a solid Switchcraft 1/4" F jack and a plastic zip tie (which wasn't all that), but I never had any problem with it. Perhaps the connection from the wire to the jack just needs to be beefed up.

In the end, I don't see the need for a custom tailpiece design to combat this problem. There are lots of ways to mount a jack. Might I suggest buying some "off the shelf" tailpieces and making some experiments? I think that any design which involves a good, solid mount to the tailpiece will be a success.

BTW, I think that the jack in the lower picture actually came from my old Underwood!

Eric Hochberg · #5 03-01-2011, 11:23 AM

I like the Schertler Stat B mounting system. Easily removable with a thumb screw. I like the RCA connector, too, as it is light weight, slips easily on and off, yet holds well enough.

tstone · #6 03-01-2011, 07:44 PM

I have a Realist pickup, but I have never been happy with the mounting scheme they provide for the jack. They give you a flimsy plastic cable clamp, to be held on to the tailpiece by the ball end of one of the strings. The result is very floppy and, as you say, not well suited to the rigors of a large 1/4" phone plug being plugged in and pulled out many times.

So I have designed a couple of mounts for the Realist. A challenge with the Realist jack is that it has no nut or threaded bushing or mounting bosses, it is just a smooth plastic cylinder with a couple of small molded beads around its circumference.

So both these designs use a yoke made out of small maple blocks. The yoke clamps around the body of the jack, and then the whole affair is attached to the bass.

The first design, shown below in photos 1 and 2, is rather like a Fishman mount, in that it clamps onto the two middle strings between the bridge and the tailpiece. It consists of a two-piece wooden yoke and an aluminum plate. I think that how it works is evident from the pictures. This design works very well, but it makes it very obvious that you have a pickup on your bass, which can provoke disdainful looks from the snobs in some playing situations.

The second design, shown below in photos 3 and 4, more or less hides the jack behind the tailpiece. Again, there is a yoke which clamps around the Realist jack. The four machine screws which clamp the yoke also are threaded into an aluminum plate. That plate in turn is secured to the back side of the tailpiece with three small wood screws. I don't have this design installed on a bass at the moment, so photo 4 shows it sitting on a sketch of a tailpiece. Bear in mind that you are looking at the *back* side of the tailpiece, so the Realist's cord is actually aimed towards the foot of the bridge that sits over the bass bar.

These concepts may not be directly applicable to your situation, but perhaps they will give you some ideas. Good luck with your design and its implementation.

360guy · #7 03-02-2011, 12:09 PM

Some very good ideas. Thanks to all!