3d drawing of cello tailpiece

By Andy Fein, Luthier at Fein Violins
and Ivana Truong
with comparison videos by Diane Houser and Megan Scott

A Schmidt Harp Mode tailpiece made from Pernambuco

Tailpieces do far more than than hold your strings on to your musical instrument. And and so there'due south the BIG question of how many fine tuners to utilise, if whatsoever. One? Two? 4? None?

What sounds all-time? Or- does information technology affect your tone and playability at all?

Pernambuco tailpiece with iv fine tuners made by Bois d'Harmonie

The right tailpiece can certainly make a huge in difference in the responsiveness and resonance of a violin, viola, or cello. What the right tailpiece is? - that's a more difficult subject.

Almost modern violinists and violists are using a straight steel or wound steel E ( or viola A) string. Even with Wittner FineTune Pegs (which I dear!), most players need a fine tuner for the E (or viola A) cord.

The first question is whether or not to attach fine tuners to a tailpiece. Usually beginners are advised to have 4 fine tuners attached to their tailpiece, helping them hands melody their instrument while they learn how to employ pegs.  Nonetheless, for violinists and violists, professionals and more advanced players are often expected to utilise only 1 fine tuner, placed on the e-cord, because... that'due south what sounds best, right?

Though most professionals utilize one fine tuner, Anne Sophie Mutter uses ii on her Stradivarius

This expectation is based on 2 factors, the "after length" and weight of a tailpiece. 4 metal fine tuners adds a lot of weight to one end of the tailpiece, muting or dampening the sound past effectively calculation a large weight to the bridge area. A unmarried metal violin/viola fine tuner weighs almost 5.5g, making 4 fine tuners an additional 22g! A composite violin tailpiece with 4 integrated fine tuners is only about 20g. On cellos, the deviation is fifty-fifty larger. A single metallic cello fine tuner weighs about 25g, making four fine tuners an additional 100g! Whereas a composite cello tailpiece with integrated fine tuners is only 78g.

This ready upwardly of iv metal fine tuners on a forest tailpiece should be promoted as "When you want your instrument to sound the worst!"

Fine tuners also shorten the "later-length", the infinite between the span and tailpiece. For the best sound, this length is approximately 1/6 of the playing length. Different factors, like the type of bow or cord can alter the ideal ratio, but information technology's a good rule of thumb.

Another method of determining after-length is tuning. Some luthiers volition tune the afterwards-length to be 2 octaves and a fifth up from the string frequency. That means a D cord would have an after-length tuned to an A that is two octaves higher. This is said to maximize resonance and minimize wolf tones. Do I believe information technology? No! Sooo many other factors get into helping or pain the tone of an instrument that the voodoo of tuning the after-length of one string is inconsequential. But, if you think information technology helps and you're willing to pay your luthier serious money to "tink" the annotation of the strings behind the bridge, become for it.

Regardless, fine tuners alter the afterward-length by protruding from the top of the tailpiece. This lengthens the tailpiece and shortens the afterward-length, harming the sound of the violin.

Violin fine tuners shorten the after-length by almost 10mm

However, loose metal fine tuners are non the merely option. Tail pieces with integrated fine tuners, like the Wittner carbon tailpieces, work and sound far better. The tailpiece is low-cal, and since the tuners don't protrude from the top, the correct after-length ratio is preserved. Using integrated tuners can also prevent buzzing issues, which loose fine tuners are often the crusade of.

Most cellists, beginner through professional person, use metal strings ( Larsen, Jargar, Spirocore, etc.) and yous definitely need 4 fine tuners to tune well. The various Carbon composite tailpieces (Wittner and Glasser are our two favorites) sound good. For a more enhanced tone, ane of the Schmidt Harp style tailpieces or the Bois d'Harmonie tailpieces sound much better, especially the ones made from Pernambuco.

The fine tuner on this tail piece sticks out, affecting the subsequently-length, but East string tuners don't seem to bear on the tonal qualities much at all.

© Lemonedo / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0 /GFDL

Wittner cello tailpiece with integrated fine tuners on the left, violin tailpiece on the right

While a carbon tailpiece with 4 integrated fine tuners works fine for most instruments, information technology doesn't enhance an instrument's sound in the same mode a wood tailpiece tin. Forest tailpieces are ordinarily made of boxwood, rosewood, ebony, or pernambuco. More recently, we've been using tailpieces that are fabricated from Chatke Viga (Mexican Pernambuco), Tetul (or Tamarind), and Snakewood. Each wood has its own properties, which if used correctly, can improve sound and even suppress wolf tones.

A comparison of Tetul, Rosewood, Carbon composite, Mexican Pernambuco, and Pernambuco tailpieces

Sometimes, lighter tailpieces audio better, so less dense woods like boxwood and rosewood are often used. Ebony tailpieces are heavier, but tin can make an instrument sound warmer and deeper. While Pernambuco, which is the aforementioned forest that bows are made of, can brand an instrument audio more bright and focused. Dissimilar instruments match well with unlike woods and different after-lengths.

A Bois d'Harmonie Pernambuco tailpiece with 4 fine tuners

Ebony tailpieces

 Tulip tailpiece with Parisian center, French tailpiece, Loma tailpiece with fleur-de-lis inlay (top to lesser)

Rosewood tailpieces

Tulip tailpiece with Parisian center, Vuillaume style carved tailpiece, French tailpiece (pinnacle to bottom)

A comparison of Bois d'Harmonie Pernambuco tailpiece and a Frirsz Matte Black Alloy tailpiece past Megan Scott

A Pernambuco Schmidt Harp tailpiece on the aforementioned cello setup

A comparison of the Bois d'Harmonie tailpiece and carbon blended tailpiece on a different cello

Of form, how a tailpiece looks is important too. At that place are generally a few styles: "Hill"/"English", which is peaked, "French", which is rounded, and "Tulip", which is wine glass shaped. Generally, nosotros experience that French, rounded tailpieces better adapt the curved lines of a violin, but whether a tailpiece is Hill, French, or Tulip doesn't take an impact on an instrument's sound. Still, more than recently, "Harp" tailpieces have go more popular, and they can impact audio. Harp Style tailpieces made by Dov Schmidt, too referred to as compensated tailpieces, are curved so that they are shorter but higher on G/D or C/One thousand side of the instrument. This lengthens the after-length on that side of the instrument, "balancing" the projection and harmonics of the low string with the high strings.

From left to correct, the harp tailpieces are fabricated of Tetul, Mexican Pernambuco, and Pernambuco

Tetul cello harp tailpiece

Pernambuco tailpiece gear up on a cello

Snakewood cello harp tailpiece

Ornamentation can also vary profoundly. Generally, they don't affect sound. Merely if poorly done, glued decorations can come loose or buzz. Inlays and carvings are usually fine, and can be cute. Jean Baptiste Vuillaume in particular made several very overnice carved tailpieces. His tailpieces and pegs are on both the Lady Blunt Stradivarius and the Messiah Stradivarius.

Lady Blunt tailpiece

There is an incredible multifariousness of tailpieces, in terms of material, shape, and even ornamentation. And having the ideal tailpiece, or conversely, the worst tailpiece, tin can certainly impact the sound of your instrument.

Does the length of the tailpiece, or the length of the after-length, affect the string tension? Surprisingly, NO! Intuitively, many people think that if the tailpiece is further from the bridge information technology will increase the string tension. But since you melody the vibrating length of the string (from the bridge to the nut) and that doesn't change no matter what size tailpiece you use, the tension doesn't change. Are yous ready for more detail almost that than you lot always wanted to know.  Read this correspondence from Fan Tao, Research and Development Director at D'Addario Strings (maker of such slap-up strings every bit Helicore as Kaplan) -

The mathematical equation for a vibrating string is:

Freq = {one/(2*Length) * squareroot(Tension/MassPerLength)}

Then you tin see in that location are simply four things in that equation: the frequency, the vibrating length, the tension, and the mass per unit length. Nix else matters. Just that's just the equation and information technology doesn't provide any insight into the physics unless you empathize what the equation is really describing.

Think of the vibrating string as consisting of a moving ridge travelling down the length of the string back and along between the bridge and the nut (or fingertip). The travelling wave is reflected back from the bridge and the nut when information technology hits those two terminations. The frequency of vibration is adamant past the time it takes the travelling moving ridge to brand one consummate round trip from the bridge to the nut and back to the bridge.

The amount of time it takes the travelling moving ridge to make one complete trip from the bridge to the nut and back to the span depends on i) the speed of the travelling moving ridge and ii) how far it has to travel, i.e., the length of the string.

The speed of the travelling wave depends on the string mass and the tension:

i. The lighter the cord, the faster the wave speed: call back of a machine versus a heavy truck

2. The higher the cord tension, the faster the moving ridge speed because it is the cord tension that supplies the restoring force that pulls the deflected string dorsum to its neutral position and pushes the travelling wave forrad: the stronger the forcefulness (i.e. higher tension), the faster information technology will push the travelling wave forward.

Therefore, the frequency of a cord is determined but by the vibrating length, the string tension and the string mass. Conversely, the string tension is determined only by the frequency of the cord, the vibrating length, and the string mass. Anything beyond the span and nut has no effect on the way the string vibrates, and therefore no issue on the string tension.

Withal, the stuff beyond the nut and span does bear upon the way the instrument sounds, considering they decide how the string vibrations are transmitted to the musical instrument torso which radiates the sound. In addition, if the vibrations beyond the nut and bridge are large plenty, they can affect the manner the string vibrates, and the most extreme example of that is the wolf note. Only they don't bear on the string tension.

The tailpiece assembly (tailpiece with afterlength and tailgut) has a lot of vibrational modes and can touch on the sound and response of the musical instrument so its beliefs is important. We know from practice that changing the afterlength can touch the instrument but why is information technology that I claim that the afterlength is of small importance? The reason is that when you change the afterlength, you almost always modify the tailpiece or the gut length, and those are the changes that are causing the changes. A one millimeter change in afterlength is not a very large percent change for the afterlength but it is a large percentage change in the tailgut length! And a unlike tailpiece, whether in length or weight (or mass distribution) volition affect the tailpiece assembly behavior."

Still awake? Keep reading! There'due south more tailpiece fun alee!!

              Mind to David Finckel's opinion on tailpieces and afterlength.

I remember he'southward right! The further dorsum you can get your tailpiece from the span (a long afterlength), within reason, will assistance your instrument audio more than open and responsive. So, a shorter tailpiece generally sounds more open and enhances the sound more than a long tailpiece.

So what sounds best? Andy oftentimes says, "An instrument in melody ALWAYS sounds improve than one out of tune, and it doesn't thing how you get at that place." So, if you lot need four fine tuners, apply them. But apply one of the tailpieces with the tuners integrated into the tailpiece such as Wittner, Glasser, Schmidt, or Bois d'Harmonie. If you don't need four fine tuners, one tuner for the E string (or A cord for violas) will suffice. Any of the forest tailpieces will sound prissy, and a wood tailpiece with an integrated tuner will sound nicer than one with a metal tuner fastened. The Pernambuco tailpieces will audio much, much nicer. Nosotros highly recommend the Pernambuco tailpieces!

What to avert?- Attaching four metal fine tuners to a woods tailpiece. Just. Don't.

On our instruments at Fein Violins, nosotros give you all of the above options. Carbon composite tailpieces with four fine tuners or an ebony tailpiece with 1 fine tuner are our standard (and free) options. A tailpiece made from one of the other woods in the Harp style cost a bit more than. Pernambuco is a rare wood. Pernambuco tailpieces add several hundred dollars to the price of the musical instrument, only give you an enormous audio improvement. A expert compromise on audio and value are the tailpieces made from Tetul or Mexican Pernambuco.

A word of caution- replacing the tailpiece is not something you should do at home. Bring your musical instrument to our shop- Fein Violins in St. Paul, MN or another violin specialty shop. To change the tailpiece you have to accept all the strings off and that might permit your soundpost fall. Yous won't be happy if that happens on your kitchen table and yous take an audition in ii hours.

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Source: http://blog.feinviolins.com/2018/10/tailpieces.html

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