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Double Bass Tailpiece Length/ String afterlength

#23
bonaventura said:
And who the f*** is Arnold?:p
Click to expand...

Most likely Arnold Schnitzer. He used to post here but no longer. He is a highly respected and accomplished NYC DB luthier. There are so many different theories / opinions about tailpieces and how they affect things. When I got my bass (which was made by a shop founded by folks trained in Markneukirchen where the guild was founded) the afterlengths were tuned to the major 3rd up a couple of octaves. Bob B. (he may still post here, seems to come and go) said the old standard for violins was one sixth of the mensur for afterlength. If the strings were the same diameter all the way and such and didn't have the wrappings on them, this would be a couple of octaves above the 5th. If the strings were the old gut type, that would be a 5th for sure.

As for staining the wood black to look like ebony, that was a fairly standard practice until lately. The tradition TP wood is dyed pearwood, or even earlier, undyed pearwood. Ebony is a late comer for this use. Mine is dyed something and it looks great and weighs a ton! But it doesn't look near as good as what you've got on yours now 1st Bass! If you really want to get slick, get one of those Pecanic tail pieces that can be custom tuned on each string. He can make them from whatever you want. Those allow one to experiment without having to have a new one cut.
 
#26
From the marvin website:

* Single cable across the saddle does not stabilize
the bridge allowing freer movement and
vibration.

This seems to make a lot of sense, although aren't the strings doing a lot of stabilsing/destabilsing with their respective tensions anyway?


I find then so ugly though that i would never try one. (maybe that's good. One less thing to worry about)
 
#27
Traeger has a similar theory about bridge movement and his fix is to narrow the spacing of the tailpiece wires, for the same reason.

I think the idea has some merit, but the effect will be small.

Much greater effect would be due to a more flexible tailpiece rope/wire and the absence, in Marvin's case, of a damping mass in the tailpiece. But in the end, it'll be each bass needs something different.

yeah I think they are ugly, too.
 
#30
I picked up one of the Marvin tailpieces fairly cheap at the convention so I'll post results when I put it on my bass.

-Edit-
I just put the tailpiece on my hybrid bass. In terms of feel, it had similiar effects to the pecanic rig I put on my solano. The strings were easier to depress, they felt looser under the bow, and the over all response seemed better. Initially it seems to have brought out more overtones to the sound as well. This bass has always been really midrangy, but now it has a fairly bright and pleasing tone. It makes for a nice compliment to the dark sound of my Solano so I'm a pretty happy customer. If anything changes, I'll post it.

Here are some pictures. It's kind of cool in an ugly sort of way...
DSCN0669.gif

DSCN0670.gif
 
#36
I had a rig similar to that in college I made out of the 3/32" cable. I worked pretty well to free up the sound and soften the feel on my hybrid romanian bass. I put my quiver in front of it and it looked like a tailpiece from a distance... cut down on the funny looks and stupid questions.:cool:
 

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