When your tailpiece is broken…

[fws6]

….go to your local saxophone repair guy !

(Most) luthiers, jewelers or welders cannot do it, but for brass instrument repair shops it’s their everyday job. This weld was €55, so cheaper than getting a replacement tail. Which would be impossible to find for this model also. The weld was touched up with a pencil thin line of gold-toned lacquer, so no replating necessary. Replating is expensive & would not look nice on a 55+ year old instrument anyways.

snapped



and fixed

[deacon Mark]

Yes I have always said that is he way to go for anything like that. Great job and great post.

[pingu]

Nice job ,

Do you know if the TP is steel ?
Did they braze it ?

[fws6]

Nice job ,

Do you know if the TP is steel ?
Did they braze it ?

the tailpiece is made off brass

pardon my english if I say weld and you say braze. Not a native speaker so not quite sure if there is a nuance difference or I said it wrong. Technically speaking, the brass is soldered with silver, then the area is touched up with metallic toned lacquer of the same color. Someone experienced can do it quickly and nearly invisible. It is cheap and stronger than the brass itself. So if it breaks again, it for sure wont break at the same place. But I had quite a few done by now and all held up so far…

[John A.]

the tailpiece is made off brass

pardon my english if I say weld and you say braze. Not a native speaker so not quite sure if there is a nuance difference or I said it wrong. Technically speaking, the brass is soldered with silver, then the area is touched up with metallic toned lacquer of the same color. Someone experienced can do it quickly and nearly invisible. It is cheap and stronger than the brass itself. So if it breaks again, it for sure wont break at the same place. But I had quite a few done by now and all held up so far…

Welding = joining pieces of the same material by melting them at the joint (typically, strongest but most difficult)
Brazing = joining pieces by melting a filler material that bonds to the heated pieces (less strong)
Soldering = same concept as brazing, but at lower temperatures (least strong)

I don’t know which of these processes was used to repair the OP's tailpiece, but I would guess either brazing or soldering. It’s very difficult to weld small pieces like this without making them weaker.

[2bornot2bop]

fws6, I don’t have to tell you that you possess some absolutely beautiful guitars in your collection. Well done!

[Sam Sherry]

A timely thread. I just chose a different approach for dealing with a broken tailpiece stub.

It's an approach which would be completely inappropriate for a vintage Gibson but works very nicely for this Eastman El Rey 0 :



Sounds good too!

[fws6]

A timely thread. I just chose a different approach for dealing with a broken tailpiece stub.

It's an approach which would be completely inappropriate for a vintage Gibson but works very nicely for this Eastman El Rey 0 :

Sounds good too!

nice….

I guess if the strings are long enough