DR Tailpiece ?

DjangoDjango

Hi

I saw the DR Tailpiece and I really liked it (how it looks), but I have a few questions.

Does it fit on a Richwood (cheap) Gypsy Jazz guitar ?
http://www.tasset.com/images/richwood/rm-70-nt.gif

If so, does it improve the (tone, sound) of the guitar ?

DjangoDjango

DjangoDjango wrote:

Hi

I saw the DR Tailpiece and I really liked it (how it looks), but I have a few questions.

Does it fit on a Richwood (cheap) Gypsy Jazz guitar ?
http://www.tasset.com/images/richwood/rm-70-nt.gif

If so, does it improve the (tone, sound) of the guitar ?

MichaelHorowitz

Hard to say...I've never seen a Richwood guitar. The screw hole need to be in the same place...and judging from the rather strange tailpiece that guitar has, you may have problems.

'm

DjangoDjango

Michael Horowitz wrote:

Hard to say...I've never seen a Richwood guitar. The screw hole need to be in the same place...and judging from the rather strange tailpiece that guitar has, you may have problems.

'm

Do you know the measurments of how many space there is between the Holes in (cm) .

MichaelHorowitz

sorry...I don't have those measurements handy.

Fingers

Michael or Josh...I am curious also. Does the DR tailpiece improve the sound of say a Cigano or medium price range Gitane? What is the benefit of these tailpieces?

I am actually interested in getting one. I was wondering if the mass of the ebony wood block over the plastic one the Cigano has, and perhaps the mass of the tailpiece itself, increases sustain?

MichaelHorowitz

I don't think sound is a factor....it's more about durability and looks.

Bob Holo

Doesn't affect the sound much. The only ones that affect the sound a lot are the big ebony ones and that's really more a of a mass/damping issue because you're attaching 40grams of a well dampened material to the end of the stringpath. It doesn't have a huge impact because it is on the other side of the bridge, but it kills some of the harmonics. If you like that sound, you can get 90% of it by weaving part of a leather shoelace in and out of the strings between the tailpiece and the bridge - you can also do the same thing (leather shoelace) at the other end - just past the zero fret and string guide (nut). People have been doing the shoelace thing for years. I think Van Epps actually used to make a device to do that in a more glamorous and adjustable way but it never really took off because broken shoelaces were a lot less expensive

It's subjective. As Michael said - mostly a durability thing. Some of the cheap ones can bend up & cause problems.

marciero

. I think Van Epps actually used to make a device to do that in a more glamorous and adjustable way

Actually, I am pretty sure the Van Epps unit actually dampened the front of the strings; that is, in front of the nut. I am pretty sure I have seen this in photos. I believe that the idea was to inhibit sympathetic vibration of strings. The combination of very light pressure and closeness of the damper to the nut would have still allowed plucked open strings to sound. If you try this with your index finger you can still get all the notes to sound with only slight muffling of the tone. Based on his attention to develping a technique which was virtually free of finger squeaks, fret noise, etc, I would guess that he was willing to accept a slight or borderline imperceptible muffling of tone on open strings in order to minimize or eliminate unwanted sympathetic ringing.

Mike

Ken Bloom

I had a Van Epps damper on my old Epiphone Howard Roberts. What it did was damp the open strings. It replaced the truss rod cover and experted just enough pressure so that the open strings did not ring at all. If you were using his technique of always lifting and never sliding it helped to prevent unwanted left hand plucking when you lifted but didn't do it vertically. Handy, but not the most necessary accessory I've ever used.

Bearskie

Well I have to disagree with Bob. In my opinion the DR brass tail piece definitely changes the sound of the guitar compared to the cheap tailpieces. Brass makes it warmer sounding. I made few guitars and at first I've put the cheap tailpieces on as I had non brass tailpieces in stock but when I've changed them those guitars opened up and there was lot more clarity to the sound more pronounced