My Willow

[stan haskins]

here are a couple more . . . I'm curious to find out what type of wood the tailpiece is.

The last pic is hard to see - it's of the x-bracing joint.

[Ken Smith]

The wood and varnish on your Bass looks beautiful, especially the Willow.

[Brett Clark]

I've got a Willow on trial from Nick Lloyd and from the look of the tailpiece on mine, I assumed it was ebony.

Something else I noticed is the string length is also about 41 1/8. They advertise the bass as having a 41 1/2 string length. 3/8" seems to be a fair amount off from the spec.

[stan haskins]

Huh - I wasn't aware of their advertised string length. I always thought 41-41-1/2 was sort of a standard for these smaller basses. Maybe you should ask John Sprague (at TB)

[John Sprague]

Hey Gents,
I just checked our site, and indeed it says 41 1/2, but we are now making that bass at 41 1/4. The stock tailpiece for that model is rosewood, and Stan yours does look like rosewood after a closer look in photoshop (pic's a bit dark).

[stan haskins]

Yeah, I believe it is rosewood.I'm very happy with this bass, by the way. Although it seems to be going through puberty at the moment. Can't wait for spring to start!

[stan haskins]

I am still enjoying my time with this bass, even if I know its limitations. It's a solid instrument. I'm not ashamed to play it in any situation.

It seems to respond very well to synthetic core strings, higher tension steel strings really choked the sound. Flexicores are too dark for it. Evah Pirazzis seem to be treating it really well for the moment. My recently upgraded bow is making the sound jump out a little more easily, which is nice . . .

A couple of months ago, i ended up taking the bass in to Arnold's shop because I wanted to try playing with very low string height (teacher's reccomendation). While it was there, Arnold did the following:
-Cut the tailpiece down a few inches and replaced the tailwire
- adjusted the bridge position and the afterlength tuning (this fixed the "short mensure" we were discussing last year)
- cut down the bridge to a ridiculously low playing height (4mm at the g string, 8 at the E, I think)
- adjusted the arch of the bridge to better fit the fingerboard radius.

The result: a new instrument. Produces more sound, is easier to play. More even up and down all strings. Less wolfiness (**almost** no wolfs).

It took me a couple of days to notice the new string length - there were some serious struggles with intonation after the work was done. It's ***much*** easier to play, though.

Arnold's the man. Get to him if you can.

[Ken Smith]

The result: a new instrument. Produces more sound, is easier to play. More even up and down all strings. Less wolfiness (**almost** no wolfs).

It took me a couple of days to notice the new string length - there were some serious struggles with intonation after the work was done. It's ***much*** easier to play, though.

Stan, I am curious about this. The pictures in your first post show the string height quite low. How much difference is the string length from the adjustments Arnold made? How high were the Strings before?

How long was the total length of the Tailpiece before and how long is it now? I am curious because they only vary about 1 to 1 1/2 inches in length on average between the 3/4 and 7/8 or 4/4 models. You mentioned Arnold cut a few inches off the length of the Tailpiece? From what to what?

You mention "Height (bottom to button): 43 ½". Is that the Back? If so, how long is the Top from the bottom edge to the Tips bordering the Neck?