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The violin and the art of its construction: a treatise on the Stradivarius violin cover

The violin and the art of its construction: a treatise on the Stradivarius violin

Chapter 19: XV. THE TAIL-PIECE (Fig. 11).
By August Riechers
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About This Book

The treatise offers practical, step-by-step guidance on making, repairing, and caring for violins, grounded in the author's decades of workshop experience and admiration for Stradivarius. It begins with selection and properties of woods, then proceeds through construction details—ribs, back, belly, arching, purfling, thicknessing, f-holes, bass-bar, neck, fingerboard, and dimensions—and continues with fittings such as pegs, bridge, tailpiece, sound-post, and strings. Final chapters address varnish, cleaning, maintenance, and bow construction, combining technical measurements with hands-on tips for professional makers and informed amateurs.

XV. THE TAIL-PIECE (Fig. 11).

This part of the instrument exercises a great influence on the tone, although the fact is doubted by a great many performers. I will endeavour to briefly demonstrate my idea upon the subject. In the first place, I would remark in reference to the shape and size of the tail-piece that the upper curve must resemble the curve of the bridge.

The semi-circular ridge at the upper end is called the saddle and must project about 1 m/m. The upper and movable end of the tail-piece is not arranged at right angles with the middle line of the same, but inclines about 1¹⁄₂ m/m. towards the G-string. This is done in order to balance, so to speak, the crooked position of the tail-piece which has been occasioned by the greater tension of the E-string in comparison with the G-string, and also to keep the upper edge of the tail-piece parallel with the upper edge of the bridge, which is very necessary to the elegant appearance of the lower portion of the violin. The space between the incisions for G and E-strings should be 30 m/m. The length of the strings below the bridge from the upper edge of the same to the saddle on the tail-piece should be 55 m/m., and then the A-string behind the bridge will give the high E. If the proportion of the tail-piece to the bridge be changed, that is to say, lengthened or shortened by the use of a larger or smaller tail-piece with the same length of the tail-piece fastener, the tension of the strings also becomes altered, and the tone and vibrations are thereby affected.

If, for instance, the tail-piece is so constructed that the portion of the A-string behind the bridge gives F, the other strings must also be correspondingly slackened, for the tension of a string reaches not only from the bridge to the nut as many suppose, but from the tail-piece to the peg. In consequence of this, the pressure of the strings on the instrument can be increased or lessened by means of a longer or shorter tail-piece, whereby the tone is correspondingly modified. The gut for the tail-piece should be from 1¹⁄₂ to 2 m/m. thick. The before-mentioned variations of tone can also be obtained by the lengthening or shortening of the gut of the tail-piece.

The rest, over which the gut passes, must be made of ebony and be 40 m/m. long by 5 m/m. wide, and must rise 3 m/m. from the belly. The button, round which the gut passes, must also be made of ebony, and has to be inserted into the centre of the lower block.