yaumnik Posted July 22, 2022 Report Share Posted July 22, 2022 Hi all, Asking violinmakers and players alike... Anyone using a harp style tailpiece on their violin(s)? What's your general impression vs standard shape in terms of sound projection and tembre? And which strings are being used? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JacksonMaberry Posted July 24, 2022 Report Share Posted July 24, 2022 They've been around in one form or another since the Renaissance, but my experience and opinion is that it's not a very useful or interesting way of adjusting an instruments tone or performance, and other than as an aesthetic touch is pretty meaningless. I think they look really neat though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpappas Posted July 25, 2022 Report Share Posted July 25, 2022 I’ve never seen a high end player/fiddle with a harp tailpiece. I’ve seen all kinds of fittings, tastes, choices, but never a harp tailpiece in use by someone who makes a living playing the instrument. I am sure there are and I’ve just missed them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Law Posted July 28, 2022 Report Share Posted July 28, 2022 On 7/24/2022 at 8:13 PM, dpappas said: I’ve never seen a high end player/fiddle with a harp tailpiece. I’ve seen all kinds of fittings, tastes, choices, but never a harp tailpiece in use by someone who makes a living playing the instrument. I am sure there are and I’ve just missed them. Paul Cortese uses a harp tailpiece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exR6tMdGN6A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yaumnik Posted July 29, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2022 A teacher friend of mine has an older German shop violin which sounded just plain dull when I heard it first. She had a set Visions on. Then, on a recommendation of a local luthier, she had a harp tailpiece installed and put on a fresh set of Peter Infelds. That fiddle came alive, bright with plenty projection (due to Infelds), and tons and tons of rich overtones especially on G and D (harp tailpiece?). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Kasprzyk Posted July 29, 2022 Report Share Posted July 29, 2022 On 7/23/2022 at 8:33 PM, JacksonMaberry said: They've been around in one form or another since the Renaissance, but my experience and opinion is that it's not a very useful or interesting way of adjusting an instruments tone or performance, and other than as an aesthetic touch is pretty meaningless. I think they look really neat though! The ancient Crwth instrument used harp style tailpieces and I suspect they were used for acoustic rather than aesthetic reasons. The attached photo is from the National Museum of Wales: https://museum.wales/collections/online/object/04ed7758-dae7-3ba8-9a47-96269174597e/Crwth/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guido Posted July 29, 2022 Report Share Posted July 29, 2022 1 hour ago, Marty Kasprzyk said: The ancient Crwth instrument used harp style tailpieces and I suspect they were used for acoustic rather than aesthetic reasons. The attached photo is from the National Museum of Wales: https://museum.wales/collections/online/object/04ed7758-dae7-3ba8-9a47-96269174597e/Crwth/ This one seems to give the shorter afterlength to the lower strings. Mmmm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guido Posted July 29, 2022 Report Share Posted July 29, 2022 I was also wondering about the role of e-string fine tuner types in this regard, i.e. English vs extending out in front of the tailpiece. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Kasprzyk Posted July 29, 2022 Report Share Posted July 29, 2022 7 hours ago, Guido said: This one seems to give the shorter afterlength to the lower strings. Mmmm The strings are in the opposite order with the lighter higher pitch strings using the shorter after length. But the two drone strings do have short after lengths like you mentioned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Kasprzyk Posted August 3, 2022 Report Share Posted August 3, 2022 On 7/24/2022 at 8:13 PM, dpappas said: I’ve never seen a high end player/fiddle with a harp tailpiece. I’ve seen all kinds of fittings, tastes, choices, but never a harp tailpiece in use by someone who makes a living playing the instrument. I am sure there are and I’ve just missed them. Attached is a photo of the violist Elias Goldstein with his 1850 Vuillaume viola fitted with a harp style tailpiece. Notice that his tailpiece's fret has a curved S shape rather than a straight diagonal / shape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Bean Posted August 4, 2022 Report Share Posted August 4, 2022 On 7/29/2022 at 3:14 AM, yaumnik said: A teacher friend of mine has an older German shop violin which sounded just plain dull when I heard it first. She had a set Visions on. Then, on a recommendation of a local luthier, she had a harp tailpiece installed and put on a fresh set of Peter Infelds. That fiddle came alive, bright with plenty projection (due to Infelds), and tons and tons of rich overtones especially on G and D (harp tailpiece?). Possibly due to the change of strings and not necessarily because of the harp-style tailpiece? I experimented with harp-style tailpieces and could not hear any difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpappas Posted August 4, 2022 Report Share Posted August 4, 2022 17 hours ago, Marty Kasprzyk said: Attached is a photo of the violist Elias Goldstein with his 1850 Vuillaume viola fitted with a harp style tailpiece. Notice that his tailpiece's fret has a curved S shape rather than a straight diagonal / shape. I stand corrected. I should have said I have not seen "many" players with harp tailpieces. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeDeF Posted August 5, 2022 Report Share Posted August 5, 2022 This is cello, not violin, but cellist Clay Reude has done a few videos comparing the Frirsz (harp-ish) tailpiece with other "straight" tailpieces. In this case, I definitely hear a difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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