Why Metal AND Wood Tailpieces?

[Matt Cushman]

The ideal tailpiece for me would be one which had a built-in device for damping the unwanted vibrations of the strings between bridge and tailpiece. It should be simple enough to do. Maybe there is something available out there, but I haven't seen it. In my opinion, it should be made standard!

String damping behind the bridge is common with the mandolin. Players add small rubber grommets between the strings to dampen overtones. Some players just weave a leather boot lace between the strings.

[sgosnell]

I've used several things to dampen the strings, among them hair thingies (not the poofy ones, just thick bungee type), and a vacuum cleaner belt cut to size and threaded through the strings. The belt works very well, but it's ugly. Velcro also works fairly well, but not perfectly. I've pretty much just given up, and live with the overtones.

[A440]

Yes, wouldn't it be so much easier, especially when you change strings, if there were a proper little damping device permanently built in to the tailpiece. At the moment I use bits of dense sponge from packaging, cut to the right size and stuffed underneath as discretely as possible. While we're on the subject, surely it would be better to keep the spare string length as short as is practical? There would be no troublesome overtones, and the guitar would stay in tune better. After all, acoustic guitars have a one-piece bridge/tailpiece, and so do lots of solids. A stop tail is also fine because it has a very short distance from the bridge. When it comes to tailpieces for archtops the priority often seems to be looks rather than practicality. The 'frequensator' for instance; what's that all about?

[Matt Cushman]

If you find the right sized rubber grommets they look OK. The type I have seen used are like a small rubber doughnut with a groove cut around the outside edge. They seem to stay put and they are small black and uniform in shape. A tailpiece could possibly have a small rubber pad attached for the string to rest on to help dampen the string?

[sgosnell]

The frequensator is about tone. Its purpose is to improve the tone of the guitar. Whether or not it actually does that has been debated since it was introduced going on a hundred years ago, but that's what the marketing claimed. The length of the string, including the parts behind the bridge and the nut, have an effect on playability and, to some extent, tone. The shorter the string, the stiffer the feel, within limits. And not everyone hates the overtones.

[DanielleOM]

I just spotted a photo of a Benedetto 16B, (ebony over metal tailpiece) where there appears to be two magnets stuck to the metal portion. I have done that with my Bravo, but I was little surprised to see that some one felt compelled to do that with a 16B.