Double Bass Question about the wittner ultra light tailpiece

[Oscalypso]

Hi
I have installed the wittner ultra light tailpiece on my bass a few years ago and I like it. The sound is less dark and projects more ( the bass is a carved Czech from beginning of 20th century and I play mostly pizz with gut strings). The old tailpiece was 280g, the weight of the wittner is almost half.
On the back of the tailpiece there are 4 holes to attach the wire. I only use the 2 last ( the closest to the saddle).
I was wondering if it's the right way...
Before trying to attach with the four holes, i'd like to have your thoughts...
Thanks

 

[Francois Blais]

This will change the distance the tailpiece will be from the bridge.

 

[ctxbass]

My bass came from Arnold Schnitzer's shop with the Wittner tailpiece installed as yours is, using only the two holes closest to the saddle.
I would leave it as is.

 

[Oscalypso]

@Francois Blais
I know, but I mean using the 4 holes while keeping the same distance
@ctxbass
Thanks for the info

 

[Francois Blais]

As I said, I think it's meant to be able to adjust the distance of the tailpiece to the bridge, depending of one's bass dimensions.
So I wouldn't worry about that.

 

[Oscalypso]

Oh ok. Adjust the distance without cutting the wire, that make sense. I think also that by putting the wire in the upper holes (implies the lower ones also), the tailpiece will be more rigid, vibrate less...
I'll try when I'll have the time

 

[etorgerson]

Wittner’s brochure pdf on their webpage explains that they are both usable.

 

[etorgerson]

 

[KUBA]

Sorry for resurrecting the thread but I've got a question about this tailpiece. Does it matter if the nuts on the wire are tightened equally? In my case, they look identical. But when I pluck the two sides of the wire, on the endpin side, one is almost a semitone sharper than the other. Now I'm not sure if that can have negative impact on my bass.

EDIT: I probably should have mentioned that I don't tighten the nuts all the way down, because that would bring the tailpiece to close to the saddle on my bass.

 

[DoubleMIDI]

The reason for this is the friction of the tailpiece cable at the endpin assembly.
In theory you can tighten the nut at the lower sounding side a bit, but since you need to remove the tailpiece cable from the endpin assembly, the position of the cable at the endpin assembly will differ from the last one and so the tuning of the tailpiece cable.
The higher tuned side is always a bit more stressed as the lower tuned one. If it is a (monofiber) nylon cable, that might not be good for the cable (doesn‘t matter with aircraft cable) as nylon tail cable break easier than steel ones.
Doesn‘t matter for the bass.

Take the string tension down, slowly and equally tighten the inner strings and check the pitch of the tailpiece cable sides while doing this. Move the tailpiece a bit sideways under lower tension to get the same pitch. Then tighten the outer strings by alternating the tuning upwards. I think you can get a much lower pitch difference that way.
Maybe you tightens the string from the low to high strings or the high to the low strings that this has happened.

But overall this is not too much important.

 

[KUBA]

Thank you for the answer. It's an aircraft cable and I'm relieved to hear it doesn't matter that much. I'll do what you suggested to even out the tension, although at this point I'm starting to think I might have OCD...

 

[Mark_T]

Thank you for the answer. It's an aircraft cable and I'm relieved to hear it doesn't matter that much. I'll do what you suggested to even out the tension, although at this point I'm starting to think I might have OCD...

The sound of the bass is affected by the oscillation of the tailpiece, so changing this could maybe have small effects on the sound or move wolfs around. On my bass I can move the wolf slightly by pinching the wires together or spreading them out.