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Double Bass "Weird" tailpieces

#41
I bought a Chinese (I assume) "carved" bass off of Craigslist last week (or at least not laminated ;))and had some work done on the neck and bridge by a local luthier. He said that it was a steal ($1000) and that I couldn't have bought the wood for that price. It has a metal tailpiece on it - very light and what appears to be a nylon type of cable to the endpin. I have noticed that it has a wolf tone in the G area on the E string, especially noticable when amplified on my gig. I'm using an older traditional Realist pickup. It also has a midrange "hollow" type of sound that is not noticable unless amplified. I have ordered a wolf tone eliminator from Gollihur, but was wondering if a different tailpiece might help the problems. I'm thinking of trying my tailpiece from one of my other basses...any thoughts on this metal tailpiece? It is very thin. I will try to post a photo soon; I can get something with my phone on the gig tonight. I bought it to leave on my house gig at a luxury hotel. Any input is most appreciated!

John
 
#45
Heres a question for the tailpiece guru(s):
My open G note is much louder than the other notes on my bass and can be a real problem in situations where I'm using an amp at high volume levels because I end up having to EQ around that one note at the expense of overall tone.
Anyways, I discovered that by attaching a small weight (the hollow outer shell of a 1/4" jack) to the back of my tailpiece I can substantially reduce this imbalance although I do lose a bit of low end.
Does this mean that my tailpiece is the culprit? I have the standard ebony tailpiece, btw.
 
#47
aaronallen said:
Heres a question for the tailpiece guru(s):
My open G note is much louder than the other notes on my bass and can be a real problem in situations where I'm using an amp at high volume levels because I end up having to EQ around that one note at the expense of overall tone.
Anyways, I discovered that by attaching a small weight (the hollow outer shell of a 1/4" jack) to the back of my tailpiece I can substantially reduce this imbalance although I do lose a bit of low end.
Does this mean that my tailpiece is the culprit? I have the standard ebony tailpiece, btw.
Click to expand...

Well, changing the mass of the tailpiece will alter the note - that's a given. If you want the bass to sound its best you'll need to change the mass in a beneficial way with some direction in mind...

After-length tuning and mode matching are both covered in Traeger's book.
 
#50
I know this is out of context of this thread originally, but updating on the aluminum tailpiece: bssist - you were right on, replacing my tailpiece on my ccb was what I needed. I found that the old tailpiece after length was almost 8.75 inches on a 41.25' scale length bass. The after length should have been closer to 6.87. inches at the ratio of 6 to 1. Replacing the bridge to an ebony one with the right specs made the bass come alive - no wolf tone and no excessive ringing. I basically went in, set the amp flat again and it sounded great. The string tension went up and I was able to get the sound that I wanted. The bass was extremely bright and had excessive midrange and weird overtones before and now sounds like a real bass. @arronallen - I would check the after length on your bass...I think we both need to get Traeger's book!

Thanks Talkbass!
 
#52
shwashwa said:
wow, amazing that a tailpiece can make so much of a difference. im getting mine done, but my luthier has had my bass almost a month because we cant get the tailpiece we want. time to go a different route i guess
Click to expand...

In my case I think the after length had a lot to do with it. However, I knew that the bass should darken a bit with a heavier tailpiece. Lighter=brighter in this case, or at least IME. I also moved my soundpost to tweak the sound a bit; my G string was louder than the other strings so I moved it a little closer to the foot of the bridge. This instrument is newer, so it benefitted from the heavier tailpiece. This is a matter of personal taste. Good luck with your quest for sound!

John
 
#53
Jon Stefaniak said:
I have had the Frirsz tailpiece on my bass for about a week. It didn't do much to solve the wolf tone problem I am having - I am pretty sure it is more an issue with the bass's resonance and not the tailpiece. The afterlengths are roughly tuned with a fourth between the top two strings, a fifth between the middle two, and a fourth between the bottom two. I experimented with different positions (tail cord length) and settled on having the afterlength of the G string around B flat. Frirsz Music recommends "that the tailpiece is installed low on the instrument.* This creates more open string area* below the bridge and is generally the preferred set-up." I tried it all the way back (G string afterlength around A) but this was noticeably worse, so we moved it back up. I guess my bass is a bit larger than what this tailpiece was designed for.
I am not confident to describe the sound quality with any certainty, but it seems like an improvement over the boxwood french style tailpiece I had on the bass. I feel like I can hear a more refined bass tone. Despite it being a tad expensive, I have decided to keep it.
View attachment 346114
Click to expand...
Who made this tailpiece in the attached photo?
 
#55

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#56
DBone76 said:
Thanks, but I was talking about the tailpiece in this photo you had up earlier. Is it made of rosewood? Who made this one?
Click to expand...
No, that's the Frirsz tailpiece. I think it is just colored to look like rosewood. Perusing the Frirsz website, it looks like they stopped making bass tailpieces. They had two types made of layers of wood impregnated with epoxy resin. One looked like rosewood (the one in the picture - I don't think it is rosewood), the other was multi colored - purple, green, white,red etc.
 

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