Violin Tailpiece

How Many Do You Know About The Violin Tailpiece

The violin tailpiece is an accessory, which is made of hard wood such as jujube wood, ebony, mahogany, etc, the shape is close to trapezoid, and the strings are tied to it.

There are many kinds of common tailpiece. One of the most used has ridges and triangles on the surface, which is called "British style". The other is arc-shaped and called "French style". Some tailpiece are shaped like wine glasses called "tulip style." "Harp style" is believed to increase the string end length of the G string and reduce the tension of the E string, thereby adding more vibration and improving the sound.

“British Style Tailpiece”

“French Style Tailpiece”

“Harp Style Tailpiece”

“Tulip Style Tailpiece”

The 4/4 violin tailpiece has a length of 110-115mm and a width of 41-43 mm. The tailpiece not only plays a decorative role on the violin, but also has a certain impact on the sound of the violin. Therefore, the importance of the tailpiece to the sound of the violin cannot be ignored.

Tailpiece wood density and speed of sound transmission

The tailpiece is made of wood from different species. Tailpiece made of different types of wood have very different densities and sound transmission speeds. Even the wood of the same tree species will have subtle differences. Chosen tailpiece made by hand made from five different woods: jujube wood, ebony, rosewood, boxwood, and brazilwood were selected for analysis, and these tailpiece are as close as possible in terms of volume and length and string hole distance.

♦ Introduction to the wood of the tailpiece:

Jujube Wood Tailpiece

1. Jujube wood is hard and has fine grain. The color is light red or dark red. Jujube is a perennial woody plant with hard and dense texture. Jujube trees generally grow very slowly, like trees with thick thighs will need to grow for decades. The outer bark of jujube is light yellow, and the core of the tree is light red. The core part of the tree is mainly used to make violin accessories.

As Europe does not produce jujube, only Chinese violin accessories use jujube instead of boxwood traditionally used in Europe. Its effect and color are similar to European boxwood. The reference value of jujube density is 0.75-0.80g/cm3.

Ebony Tailpiece

2. Ebony is a kind of wood produced in Africa and Asia, and part of it is also produced in southern our country China. The wood of ebony is hard, the grain is fine, the bark is white, and the core part is black.

Since ebony is not produced in Europe, ebony is generally regarded as a precious imported wood to decorate valuable musical instruments and furniture. The reference value of ebony density is 0.85-1.17g/cm3.

Rosewood Tailpiece

3. Rosewood is a broad-leaved tree with hard wood, uniform structure, clear and natural texture.Rosewood is often used to make violin accessories, guitar backs, etc. It is resistant to corrosion and insects. It is a green and pollution-free tree species widely advocated and recommended internationally. The reference value of rosewood density is 0.75-1.04g/cm3.

Boxwood Tailpiece

4. The wood of boxwood is smooth, fine-grained, and creamy yellow. The longer the time, the color changes from lighter to darker, giving people a simple and elegant beauty. European boxwood is relatively soft, and most Chinese boxwood is harder than European ones.

Using boxwood to make woodcarving works can well show the details of characters, flowers and birds, and appear delicate and vivid. The same is true for violin accessories.

The density reference value of boxwood is 0.85g/m3.

Brazilwood Tailpiece

5. Brazilwood is abundant in Brazil and was mainly used as a dye in ancient times. It is also the best material for making violin bows.

The surface of Brazilwood is yellowish red to brownish red, the cross section is slightly shiny, and some can be seen dark brown, and the texture is hard.

Brazilwood has high density, high elastic modulus and fast sound transmission speed.

The reference value of Brazilwood density is 1.02g/m3.

♦Density of tailpiece:

The actual result of the density test is: ebony> rosewood> Brazilwood> jujube> boxwood.

♦The sound transmission speed of the tailpiece:

Among the five different timbers but basically the same shape, the ebony with the highest density has a sound transmission speed of 4435m/s. The sound transmission speed of boxwood with the smallest density is 3481m/s. The fastest sound transmission speed of the Brazilwood tailpiece is 5288m/s.

The influence of the density and the speed of sound transmission on the sound of the violin needs to be demonstrated separately.

After analyzing the frequency spectrum of these different wood tailpiece, it is found that the tailpiece of different wood have little effect on the high frequency range, and therefore have little effect on the brightness of the violin's tone. But it has a certain impact on the fullness and sensitivity of the tone.

It is not difficult to find that the sound transmission speed of different wood will affect the timbre. Tailpiece made of wood with faster sound transmission speed tend to have better sound quality. From the perspective of density analysis, the peak value of the spectrum of the ebony tailpiece with the highest density is not the highest, but the peaks of rosewood and Brazilwood are better comprehensively displayed. In terms of sense of hearing, although the peak of the frequency spectrum of the boxwood tailpiece is not high, the sound is softer and warmer. The Jujube wood tailpiece and ebony tailpiece, which are most commonly used by luthiers and players, are very similar in terms of spectrum display and sense of hearing.

From the experience of the luthiers, the weight of ebony is heavier. Although the spectrogram shows that it is not the best, if the sound of the violin is too thin, it needs to be eliminated some vibrations can be considered to use ebony tailpiece. Brazilwood's sound transmission speed is the fastest, which means that its elastic modulus is high. For violins with insufficient vibration and dullness, it is better to use the Brazilwood tailpiece, which can improve the sensitivity.

The material characteristics of the violin tailpiece have an influence on the sound of the violin. The specific choice of which kind of wood tailpiece needs to be matched according to the specific situation of the violin and the requirements of the player.