Tailpiece question

Some will say that ideal would be long enough to get the afterlengths of each string to resonate two octaves and a fourth above their respective open strings. I wouldn't kill myself over it, especially since you probably have 1/2-1" of wiggle room with the tailgut/tailpiece wire. Somewhere between 12-13" would probably be fine. As for hanger material, people can have strong opinions about that too for various reasons--all possibly valid. Some like nylon (braded or solid, though I've heard of the solid wires failing a few times), some like Kevlar braided cord, and both of these are easily adjustable by retying the knot used to close the loop. My favorite is good old airline cable--steel braided between 1/16" and 1/8"--wrapped in black shrink tubing like what you'd use to gather wires together to clean up electronics. That way, it looks cool and stealthy, and helps protect the wood fittings. Just my $0.02.

 

As much as I like period correct parts on my vintage basses, I'm more fond of geting a great voice out of them. We spoke about your bass on the phone, but for the rest of the folks here, I'd suggest taking the tailpieces off your other basses and trying them all out to see which one sounds the best for your needs and let that decide. Different weight tailpieces can have as much effect as different lengths. As for the original, the crack can likely be glued back up and the plastic strip (what is that thing called????) can be improved by making a new one out of ebony ( I replaced two of those this week!).

If it is really trashed like Willie's guitar, it may even add to the vintage vibe.....maybee a few steampunk retro rivets and welding scarz....


j.
www.condino.com
www.kaybassrepair.com

 

Nice job. Lotsa' life left in that old bass; 1/2 pound of hide glue and a little effort and it will be back on the festival scene by springtime!

I've lost count how mant times people have come by my shop and said, " I need a little bridge adjustment...." and that bassbar is what I find.

j.
www.condino.com
www.kaybassrepair.com

 

Its called a 'fret'.

 

I thought that word was banned over on this side!

 

So since the tailpiece on my (now sold) Strunal did not have one of those raised bits.... I guess that made it "fretless"-?

 

That's what its called. As are the tied on pieces of gut on a viola de gamba.

 

Are you planning to replace the bar? It looks like less than the ideal shape. Also, James, do you ever recommend top inlays for basses like this? My guy in NY likes to do one between the F-holes on plys and some German shop basses. He claims that stiffening up that area improves the attack, and makes for a clearer and often stronger sound. I found the results quite extraordinary on the few examples I tried, including what became my main axe for many years. Anyone else doing this?

 

That's good to know. I always assumed it is called a saddle - like the saddle on a guitar bridge. Just behind the bridge instead of on top. Thanks for the info.

 

The saddle on a bass is down at the bottom, where the tailwire rests. That part used to be called the 'bottom nut', as in 'top nut', 'bottom nut'. Probably German origin there.

 

"Bottom Nut" would've been a great TB user name for me... ah well, I still think my user name is the cat's meow.

 

In German the nut is called Obersattel (upper saddle) and the saddle is called Untersattel (lower saddle). So Jake is probably right with his assumption, but I don't know the terms in the other (western) european languages, so I cannot proof the German origin.

 

Exactly. Its the syntax that says 'German' as much as anything else. Top nut, bottom nut, house shoes, in spraying, etc.

 

Rob:

Do mean something like a belly patch under the bridge area? On an old ply, I have never inlayed one, but I do add them on top of the existing plys often; almost always if the arches had collapsed and then they were heated up and reclaimed back to normal shape. I will say that on my personal '47 Kay, the zombie bass that was resurrected from the dead, I do have a belly patch like that: .120" red spruce (always red spruce for me!) over a half football sized area and then another approx. 4 x 6" elipse over that and the two are blended in nice and smooth. Ask ten half deaf old geezers what it sounds like and you'll get 15 different responses. A big consideration for me in this area of the country is what the customer is looking for in the voice. While many of us like and want a bit more punch and more dynamic range out of the old plys, about 50% of the folks I run into have very specific tonal desires and they want it to sound like it did back in 1937 and the more modern upgrades are not what they want. It may sound better to us, but it doesn't sound like the original ....blah, blah, blah.... I add it to all of my personal Kays, but I've got two American Standard tops with no high arches, no signs of top deformation, and they already sound great, so I have no intentions of adding it.

I'll be giving a big workshop on this type of vintage ply restoration at the upcoming Assosciation of Stringed Instrument Artisan's Symposium in East Stroudsburg, PA this coming June.'Hopefully we can get a good gathering of bass nerds and cover a lot of things exactly like this with some hands on. I'll be there for the whole week and encourage folks to get into all of the nerdy details thay want while I'm there. I'll also have some new bass builds and be giving workshops on other subject matters.

"Cool! I just picked up an awesome old plywood bass on Craigslist for a steal. It just needs a little work. All I have to do is pull the epoxied and nailed on top off, completely rebuild all of the arches, belly patch, remove the old bass bar and add a new one, redo all of the loose plys and missing laminates, fix the rib cancer, new neck block and tailblock, glue everything back on, oh yeah... and somehow get the old epoxy and gorilla glue off 90% of the seams, rebuild the busted up dovetail, add a few lag bots in the broiken heel, remove the superglued on fingerboard, new board,add some carbon fiber inserts, full setup , new nut , bridge, saddle, tailpiece, weld up the busted tuning machines, maybee get a whole new cheap neck from what's his name on the world wide waste of time, new strings, and then fix up all of the edge damage, strip and refinish it, and I'll have a kick ass better than new bass that I only paid $1500 for on Craigslist!!!!!............."

j.
www.kaybassrepair.com
www.condino.com

 

I've done a couple of belly patches - spruce added to the top between the bass bar and the treble f. Its relatively easy to tune the top using this area as well.

The sound really jumps forward afterwards - the front of the note, the attack, is much quicker and there's more sustain, too. The bass sounds more powerful. The middle of the note retains the character of the the wood of the top as presented.