L5 Studio tailpiece collapse

[gianluca]

xd

[JazzNote]

Recently i have also experienced damages of equipment due to poor quality of metal parts which collapsed. Always thought it was only the cheapo chinese stuff - but obviously not (or maybe the question would be: where was the tailpiece manufactured, or where the used metal has it's origin)

[dconeill]

That's a difficult tailpiece to find. For some reason, that's my favorite tailpiece, so I've looked for them before. Most such tailpieces are cheap metal and reportedly fail often. There are a few vendors with better-quality parts.

Try archtop.com/accessories tailpieces. Their website indicates that they will ship internationally. Not cheap parts, nor cheap prices.

[ThatRhythmMan]

It’s just inherent to the circa 90 year old design. It doesn’t always hold up to the strain of all of those strings. This example is from the 1930s. If you look at 1940s L-7s, 1950s ES-175s, etc. many have replaced tailpieces. Aftermarket examples are out there and can be found with a little searching. Vintage examples are available to, but almost always for considerably more money. One has to be very careful buying a vintage one though. I’ve seen many with undisclosed hairline cracks or even a section of the hinge missing for sale.


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[nevershouldhavesoldit]

is that common?

Wow! I’ve never seen or heard about that before in a recent top quality guitar, except for a few wood TPs on Benedettos and early Eastmans. It must have been dramatic. Did it damage the guitar or you?

[jazzshrink]

Would this be an acceptable replacement?


TP-0435-001 Nickel Tailpiece with 3 Parallelograms
www.allpartsitalia.com

[Hammertone]

My experience over the years with Allparts has been positive. My guess is that the tailpiece as shown comes from a different supplier than the similar-looking but much cheaper versions that come directly from China. One could always ask if the Allparts tailpiece comes from a fabricator in Japan or Korea (good), as opposed to China (bad).

If you want a guarantee of high quality, try to acquire one from Advanced Plating. They make tailpieces for Gibson. Here:

• 111 Industrial Drive Portland, Tennessee 37148
  
• 800.588.6686
  
• [email protected]
  
• Advancedmusicproducts.com

[deacon Mark]

I would just buy an L5 tailpiece that show up on ebay, even the fake ones look great and better than what you have.

[wintermoon]

I think w/ this tailpiece it's less critical but make sure the holes line up w/the existing ones when you buy...

[Billy Z]

I used the Allparts Nickle ES175 tailpiece to restore a 52' ES 175. So far so good. Did not check to see what kind of metal it is. I did age it a little. Sounds good to me.

[Spook410]

I have a L5 Studio. Great guitar. I can see why they stopped making them as an alternative to the flagship L5. However, the tailpiece certainly isn't as sturdy as it's pricier upmarket cousins. Wonder if there are any early warnings of a tailpiece failure.

[Stringswinger]

can't find it: do you have the link?

Here you go:

NOS Gibson Custom Shop L5 tailpiece for archtop acoustic paf ces jazz guitar ces | eBay

[pingu]

Looks good ! Congratulations
I hope it is a good timepiece for you

You probably know this but .... I think ....

The bridge saddle is now on the wrong way round !

[wintermoon]

He means the compensating notch in the saddle should be under the B string, not the A.
Take the saddle off and rotate it 180 degrees to give closer to the correct intonation.