Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Stupid Tailpiece Cover

#1

Found out I really REALLY don’t like the tailpiece cover on my banjo. Most of the time it just sits there and IMHO does nothing. BUT, every so often, when things are going well, it decides it needs to touch the tailpiece and start buzzing. Every dang time, it takes me awhile to figure out WTF that stupid buzzing is. Is it my playing? Very possibly, I’m very new. It’s something out of adjustment? Maybe, I bought my banjo from Adorama, so it didn’t come setup (I had to do it, thank goodness for the Steve Huber videos).

Noooo… after minutes spent trying to figure it out, it’s the tailpiece cover every dang time. So, I’d flip it up off the tailpiece and eventually it would fall back down and touch metal to metal.

Today… enough is enough. That stupid thing had to come off.

Weird side effect of removing the tailpiece cover: my banjo sounds just a tiny bit brighter. Like it’s happy to have to thing gone.

Phew, I feel better venting. Back to practicing.

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#2

My Japanese Epiphone has a spring loaded tailpiece cover that snaps shut with a BANG! every time I to try to thread a new string.
My solution is to give the banjo to my brother as a house warming present. He just retired and moved to East TN, but does not play any musical instrument at all. I figure it’s illegal to live in East Tennessee and not have a banjo, so I’m sending him this white elephant!

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#3

This was spring loaded as well, but the spring was crap (and a pain to get out), so it just kind of floated around.

I’m a bit of a tinkerer, so this whole thing with the cover has sent me down a rabbit hole. I’m looking at tailpieces now thinking… maybe I should just change the whole dang thing. Really like the looks of the Pisgah Hawktail, but can’t find any information if it’s okay for a resonator banjo or just for open backs.

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#4

Jake told me a camp a good tailpiece can make more difference in tone than most people realize. He was right. He adjusted my tailpiece and just that adjustment made a real difference.

I’m sure Jake or Adam could recommend a good replacement for you. Give them a call at the store or shoot them an email.

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#5

Oh, how well I know those rabbit holes! Good luck!

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#6

I’m sure you’re right, and I’ll probably call him next week. BUT, I kind of like testing stuff… so I might just buy a bunch and try them all. There are some neat tailpieces out there.

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#7

:smile:

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#8

Practicing today without the tailpiece cover and no weird buzzing at inopportune times is just bliss.

1 Like
#9

My tailpiece cover used to buzz as well, but all I had to do was put a piece of duct tape on the inside and the buzz went away.

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#10

Duct tape probably would have been easier… sadly, I never do things the easy way. :sweat_smile::rofl:

1 Like