Double Bass Tailpiece Time

[bassmastan]

Time for a story...

So yesterday the orchestra I play in was going through the first read of the Brahms German Requiem. Cool! The guest conductor put lots of below the E stuff in the piece, being that I am the only one with an extension and our studio teacher explicitly does not want detuning, I am there playing those low notes loud and proud. While the bass is speaking and speaking really nicely, I am noticing that my tailpiece actually will vibrate... a lot! when playing down in the nether regions of low end. So I was wondering something, because I have a boxwood tailpiece, would a heavier tailpiece be able to hold down the vibrations better? Would it actually be beneficial to the sound of those lower notes to have a heavier tailpiece like ebony or the thomastik? It does make a small rattle while vibrating, but it looks more like its going to jump off the bass rather than sounding like it. I do have a raised saddle , and a higher than normal bridge, because I like solo strings tuned down with a slightly higher height.

Thanks!

-N

 

[Eric Hochberg]

As has been noted in other threads, you could try different weight C Clamps on your tailpiece. If you tune up to solo pitch, does that
change the way the tailpiece responds?

 

[bassmastan]

Hi Eric,

I appreciate the message,

One thing I have to say that differentiates this from other posts (which I thoroughly went through before posting) is simply that the C ext makes the tailpiece vibrate. What would make it do that? A resonance between the pitch of the note and the pitch of the tailpiece? Is it not absorbing the vibration? I guess I didn't say exactly what I meant... Is this happening because there just isnt enough mass to absorb the sound, or is it just what happens?

 

[DoubleMIDI]

There is a different pitch relation between open string and underlength for the extended E. But in this case I guess the whole underlength/tailpiece thing resonates with the low C, not only the underlength.
Pluck the tailpiece and try to identify the pitch. Try adding some mass (probably metal) to the tailpiece (close to the string holder part, not the tailpiece wire part of the tailpiece) and pluck it again. Then try the low C again. If it gets better a heavier tailpiece might do the job. But changing the changing the length of the tailpiece wire might have some influence too.
A lighter tailpiece might get you in the same undesirable situation on a higher pitch than the low C, but who knows until it's tried out...

 

[bassmastan]

Okay, Ill give it a try, my tailpiece is boxwood, so its already pretty light!

Thanks!

 

[JoeyNaeger]

It's pretty normal for the tail piece to move a lot on a bowed low C IME.