335 Tailpiece Experiments

[jazzrat]

Love my 2008 Fat Neck but wanted to play with the tailpiece a bit.

Tried several configs in a short space of time and thought it might be of interest to some.

 

This is a 2008. What is spec'd as a "light weight aluminum tailpiece" is not.

It's a very heavy standard zinc piece.

 

First the guitar sounds and plays great but there were some resonance things going on with some dead notes above the 12th fret. My hope was to shift things around and improve the problem areas.

 

First: locked the stop tailpiece down tight and top wrapped. No improvement

with the dead notes but nice soft feel and airy tone. The look bugged me.

 

Second: Installed some TonePros locking studs and kept the top wrap for comparison. No real change in tone but maybe a little more sustain and the tailpiece was no longer tipped. Felt solid. No dead notes change.

 

Third: Instslled a Gotoh Aluminum TP. REALLY light. Felt more like plastic at about one oz. Did not want to top wrap further so new strings.

Also fabricated some spacers from some extra threaded inserts I had so I could screw the TP up a bit to clear the bridge but still lock it down tight.

Yikes.....Clear ringing tone but bright. Lost some of that smokey bar-b-q tone

on the neck and the bridge was a little harsh. Maybe improved the dead notes a bit.

 

Fourth: Slacked the strings and pulled the spacers off the studs.

Re-installed the TP up two or three threads to clear the bridge.

Now were talking! Nice ringing tone, warm but tight clear lows. upper mids were accented nicely and the harsh edge was gone from the highs.

Best of all the dead notes were much improved. Just a slight wolf tone on one high Eb but that's semi's for you. Never had one that did not have one or two.

 

Anyway my experiences with one guitar over the course of a couple days.

 

I do wish I'd taken pics to explain this a bit better.

The 335 was about 8 pound 2 oz. With the Gotoh TP it's under 8 pounds by 4 ounces or so.

[L5Larry]

Nice write-up, very interesting and informative.

 

Is there a specific part number for the lightweight Gotoh stop-bar. Ive had problems in the past with Gotoh parts fitting American made guitars.

[jazzrat]

Nice write-up, very interesting and informative.

 

Is there a specific part number for the lightweight Gotoh stop-bar. Ive had problems in the past with Gotoh parts fitting American made guitars.

 

Not sure what the number is but this is the seller and the exact model I received. I've seen them other places but they usually come

with the studs for $55 or so. I already had TonePros studs so this worked for me. Great seller too. Very fast.

 

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gotoh-Lightweight-Aluminum-Stop-Tailpiece-for-Gibson-Nickel-1-oz-Featherwght-/120936848625?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item1c2865dcf1