All About Tailpieces- Long, Short, and Fine Tuned

By Andy Fein, Luthier at Fein Violins
and Ivana Truong
with comparison videos by Diane Houser and Megan Scott

A Schmidt Harp Style tailpiece made from Pernambuco

Tailpieces do far more than hold your strings on to your instrument. And then there's the BIG question of how many fine tuners to use, if any. One? Two? Four? None?

What sounds best? Or- does it affect your tone and playability at all?

Pernambuco tailpiece with four fine tuners made by Bois d'Harmonie

Pegs For Violins, Violas & Cellos- Ebony, Rosewood or Boxwood?

Written by Andy Fein, luthier at Fein Violins

Ebony Violin Pegs with Parisian Eyes

Ebony, Rosewood or Boxwood. Those are usually the three choices of wood for pegs on stringed instruments. What's the difference? Probably not much beyond wood color and looks. But in stringed instruments, everything makes a difference. Considering that your pegs are the functioning unit on your instrument that enables you to tune, the pegs are very, very important.

Fix it Yourself or Bring to Your Luthier?

 Written by: Amy Tobin at Fein Violins

Violins, violas, and cellos, because they are made from wood, can change. In fact, they are designed to do so. That way, when the weather changes, and the wood shrinks or swells, it protects the main body of the instrument from cracking. So, when things happen to your instrument and it ceases to operate smoothly, which things can you do yourself, and which things should you bring your violin in to your luthier to take care of?

One of the most common things that can happen is a tuning peg that either slips or sticks.

Planetary Perfection Pegs

Written by: Andy Fein, luthier at Fein Violins

For many students and players, tuning the violin is a major impediment to playing and playing well. Traditional pegs can slip or stick. Learning the right amount of push, pull, turning and tension is very, very hard to learn. And frustrating. And expensive when you keep breaking strings. I think that some type of mechanical tuning system is necessary for students and would ease the lives of most players. I have favored using tailpieces with fine tuners built in such as the ones made by Wittner or Bois d'Harmonie.

I just finished putting the first set of Knilling Planetary Perfection pegs into one of my A. Fein/ R. Riva violins. Some things I like about them, some things I'm not in love with, some things just seem wrong.

Fine Tuners

 Written by Andy Fein, owner and luthier, Fein Violins:

An instrument in tune always sounds better than one out of tune.

Seems like a simple statement, but violin family instruments are constantly going out of tune and players are constantly re-tuning their instruments. Does it matter how you get there?

Most students start out on violins, violas or cellos with four fine tuners. They rarely touch their pegs except to change a string. With good reason - learning to tune with your pegs is very, very hard. The fine tuners have an easy to use screw mechanism that lets you tune quite easily. Almost no skill required.