Tailpiece pressing on top - effect?

[Richard500]

I have a mandolin with a lot of top curvature. The usual tailpiece actually contacts the top about an inch and something from the back edge. Does this effect the sound?
I tried an experiment by putting a wedge under the tailpiece of another mandolin so that it too pressed on the top, but couldn’t really hear a difference. I do know that what goes on aft of the bridge is related to the total dynamics, so am interested in any comments.

[dhergert]

You can bet it has an effect, but whether a person can hear the effect depends on how serious the tension against the top is.

Do you get rattle from that area?

Have you determined if this has always happened or if it's just started to happen? Also, especially if this a recent occurrence, have you determined if the tailpiece is bending or if the top is rising?

[Richard500]

No rattles. History unknown. It’s an elDegas, looks fairly recent. The top is likely pressed rather than carved, but has a lot of shape, kinda like my old Stainer type violin. The bridge was lowered, probably because of some overall bending, and thats why the tail makes contact. There is a bit of sinking under the cantilever fretboard but no neck separation. I added an external brace there just because, and it has no sonic effect. The top is high gloss, and I don’t see any suspicious waves or flat spots. I converted it to faux mandola, and love it. Sounds what I think some call ‘woody’ but even. Could, of course, raise the tailpiece a bit.

[Dale Ludewig]

Your description, especially including the sinking under the fingerboard, is sometimes an indication that the top is underbuilt. In such cases, bulging of the top in front of the tailpiece is not uncommon.

[dhergert]

If you are using a stamped tailpiece, it is possible that it is bending with string tension, especially if you're using higher tension strings with your mandola work. I've seen tailpiece bending happen before on my old F-9 under standard tuning with medium tension strings...

I don't know if this is worth while for you, but replacing this tailpiece with a James tailpiece on my F-9 not only stopped my tailpiece bending issues, but it also raised the tailpiece another ~1/16" above the top.

If the top is moving in that area under the tailpiece, this could also indicate something is not attached well around the end block. Our luthiers can probably provide better info about that.

Regarding sound, people usually cannot recognize less than a 10% difference in tone or volume. While there probably is a difference in tone or volume with this tailpiece/top contact, it may not be recognizable.

If it were me and everything else is extremely stable, I would at least put a piece of felt between the tailpiece and the top just to make sure there is no serious damage happening from the contact.

Good luck with this!

[pops1]

If you are using a stamped tailpiece the bend of the tailpiece on the front under the strings may be bent too much for the changes you did. Take it off and bend the front less so the strings won't push it down so far. I have done this recently and it helped a lot.