Double Bass tailpiece rope broke

[jj.833]

Hi,
On the school bass I'm teaching on (plywood Strunal/Dvorak) the tailpiece rope broke today. It was a steel rope, and the joint (metal tube pressed onto both ends of rope) finally gave up after more than 10 years. The bass is strung with Spirocore mediums, and nothing seems damaged, even the soundpost didn't fall off.
I was looking that there are steel, nylon and kevlar ropes for sale. Is there any reason to use other than steel rope for Spirocores?
I'm planning to repair it myself, thinking that if I keep the original length, nothing can go much wrong. I could take it to luthier, but I have no spare bass to teach on meanwhile. Any advice from more experienced?
Thanks a lot!

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I'm sure a real luthier will chime in soon, but what I see almost everywhere these days is a steel braided wire with a metal connector with 2 set screws in it. Since I've had basses with this setup, I've not had one fail.

 

[getrhythm]

Regardless of which cord you eventually choose, it’s not a difficult job to do on your own. There IS a formula for making it the correct length but I forget what that is. Sorry.

 

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

JJ, that was probably a scary thing to experience. To answer your question about whether rope or stranded cable might be preferred with Spirocores, all I can say is that I prefer cable. In my experience, nylon or any other type of synthetic rope stretches, making the final length a bit of a guessing game. It may sound softer and less clear than the cable but it’s subjective. I know there are adjustable ferrules with set screws but I’m simple. In my shop I use 3/32” cable and this ferrule

It does require a good pair of wire cutters (dikes). I feed the cable through and approximate the length. Then I gently tap the ferrule to limit movement. After getting the length right I will take out my frustrations with a hammer.
I set the afterlength to 1/6 of the string length and am seldom off by more than 1/8”. Rarely, a wolf tone may lead me to experiment but I generally go with what works.
Marine rope will work fine though. Tie a simple loop knot with the tailpiece as short as possible to permit the gut to bend over the saddle and saturate the knot with CA glue. It will stretch.