Recommendations for Tailpieces

Buco

Dupont tailpiece is $68, just not the DR line.
Saga tailpiece are generally pretty well regarded, as suggested it would serve as a spare in an emergency.

Bob Holo

rgrice wrote: »

... tight budget ... rather not spend to get a new one. ...

OK - just take a close look at it. It might be fine. If the area looks odd or has stress fractures or the solder is balled up or in a big chunk or if there is a gap under the solder, then it's probably not good - either the metal wasn't cleaned or the rosin didn't etch & flow the solder well or the joint wasn't brought to a good flow temperature. If so - then have it fixed or get a new one or a budget backup. Buco's right. There's nothing wrong with the Saga tailpieces. They're not amazing, but they're not bad by any means - certainly good for the price.

If the repair looks smooth and tapered till it flows together at the edges with minimal pock-marking, then it's probably good. A good solder joint should not look chunky or rough or balled-up. It should look cohesive and the metals should appear to be flowed together like this:

http://www.pjmuth.org/beerstuff/images/DSC00159.JPG

alton

Bob Holo wrote: »

A few years back it was briefly popular to press on the tailpiece to get a Bigsby-style wah-wah (facepalm) but thankfully it was a short-lived fad or we'd all have been replacing our tailpieces annually. ;-)

When I first got my Gitane, a metalhead friend of mine pulled this move, to which I immediately responded, "What the f**k are you doing?" Mind you, this is a guy who plays really depressing angst on an Ibanez RG, and this was, and probably still is the only GJ guitar he has played.

Granted, I don't have a very high end guitar, but I would rather not buy something that I otherwise wouldn't have to, and I have read about tailpieces occasionally failing.

Thanks everyone for posting, as I imagine that I will eventually have to replace mine due to manhandling. After this thread, I may just go ahead and do it anyway.

So here's a question for everyone: what can a new tailpiece do for tone? Anyone have any experiences where a new tailpiece improved the tone of their instrument?

rgrice

Again thanks to all, especially @Bob Holo it appears to be good. No cracks, stress marks and fairly smooth with no bunching up. I think I'll just cool out on it and trust that it's OK! My main guitarist has half a dozen GJ guitars I could borrow if it goes.