Tailpiece fret

klaatu

I am interested in opinions on what has been described as a "tailpiece fret," i.e., a small L-shaped piece of wood between the bend in the tailpiece and the edge of the guitar body. It supposedly helps to eliminate rattles and overtones. Does anyone have any experience with these? Are they effective?

Al Watsky

They only really apply to GJ guitars . American arch tops don't need them because the tailpieces are either hinged or bent from rather heavy gauge metal. Some of the tail gut type, violin style arch top tailpieces have incorporated a raised area into the binding in the lower bout. This is a detail seen on violin type instruments and is meant to prevent crushing of the top panel by the tail gut , it also can serve to raise the tailpiece which can be a good thing on these Selmer type guitars.
I have a guitar that I added a piece of wood to in that area to raise the tailpiece slightly. I don't know that I think it changed the sound dramatically although raising the tailpiece does change the break angle if the strings behind the bridge which will change things a bit and prevents bridge to top contact on the sound board .
I have heard some folks make fantastic claims for adding a violin type saddle to the guitar , Selmer did include this detail in their guitars.
I don't know if I think its any sort of panacea .
Its not a bad idea to have the first 1/2" or so of the tail piece clear of the top. A piece of felt or leather will do a pretty good job of preventing contact between the vibrating top and the tailpiece.
One of the enthusiasts recommends placing a wooden match stick between the binding and the tail piece to simulate the saddle, claiming it unites the tailpiece with the tail block in a way that improves volume and projection. I think those claims are over blown.
You could try it and see if you like the effect.
I don't bother and play em' as I find em' . Unless there is an actual problem, why modify ?
One thing for sure , you do not want the tailpiece touching the top. If you have a very low bridge these bent metal tailpieces , especially the ones with a decorative insert could rattle a bit too much. Gluing the insert takes care of that though for the most part and if the saddle is that low to begin with you have other problems that need to be addressed .

AndrewUlle

Alain from Dell Arte had an interesting post on his Facebook page three weeks ago - April 2 - about this topic (tailpieces and spacers, etc.).

klaatu

OK, I see that. But he says "To go back briefly to the tailpiece polemic ..." which seems to imply that there was an earlier discussion on that subject, which I can't find.

Al Watsky

I would be interested to see what Alain had to say. Can't find that thread.

klaatu

I'll drop him a line.

klaatu

And Alain wrote back very quickly. The original discussion was actually on Denis Chang's Facebook page on April 2.

Russell Letson

When I had the (broken) hinged tailpiece on one of my archtops replaced with a Benedetto, my repairman removed a section of the binding and spliced in a slightly taller piece of harder wood (rosewood, I think, or maybe ebony) where the ligature crosses the top's edge.

Buco

I've never heard about this til now. Sounds simple enough to try and hear for yourself.

Buco

Anyway, I wanted to ask if the tailpiece needs to be modified in any way to allow to insert the piece of wood, tailpiece fret?
Or can you loosen the tailpiece, insert the wood and tighten it back/reinstall the strings?
In this case the tailpiece will deform a little at the bend, where the fret would sit but that would be ok?

klaatu

I suppose that the impact on an existing tailpiece would depend on how thick the wooden spacer is. Rodrigo Shopis puts spacers on his guitars, but they are very thin, so it probably wouldn't matter much.