Where can I get this tailpiece?

[shadowfyre]

I've been looking for a small electric guitar to take with me when I travel. I'm not looking for amazing sound or anything, just something to whittle the time away when I don't have my regular guitar. So I found these:

http://www.travelerguitar.com/pro_series_specs.htm

and

http://www.risa-music.de/Products/GUS650MP_Zo.html

If you look at the prices, they are rather high. I found an old electric at a garage sale for $20 with a bolt on neck and strat style pickups. All I need is a a piece of wood and I can make something like these myself, except I think they are a bit boring, I'd like to spice up the design. The only problem is the tailpiece.

The tailpieces look identical on both guitars. A quick email to Risa told me that the tailpiece is an aluminum cylinder with plastic rollers.

Does anyone know where I can get one of these tailpieces?

Thanks for helping the new guy out.

It's nice to meet you all.

 

[leadbelly]

Welcome!

As for that tailpiece, it will be tough to find through retailers/distributors. Google is your friend.

I must admit that I'm surprised by your post. Are you already a skilled woodworker? Lutherie is quite difficult. It takes a lot of skill to produce just that one single recess where the neck attaches to the body. The flat and shoulder both need to be at a precise angle so that the string height on the neck is correct (the truss rod gives limited adjustment). Also, all 4 sides of that recess need to be of tight tolerance or else the guitar won't stay in tune. In other words, the screw tension alone is not enough to overcome the force generated by strumming those tight strings.

Unless you really know what you are doing I would say just pull the electrics out of that guitar you bought, take it to a bandsaw, and just cut away as much wood as you can from the body, approximating the shape of those travel guitars. The problem with this is of course that now the guitar has a horrible balance with all the weight on the neck, but you do wind up with something usable.

 

[shadowfyre]

I've googled and googled and googled this tailpiece and can't find a thing, that's why I came here hoping that maybe someone came across something like it on some obscure website or something.

I wouldn't call myself a 'skilled' woodworker. Competent, maybe. But I've found that there is no substitute for experience in cases like this. The overall width of the body will be less than 3 1/2 inches and less than 12 inches in length, so I can do 8 mock ups on a cheap 2x4 wall stud. The fir/pine, I realize, will not stand up to the tension of the strings, but I will be fairly confident by the time I go to maple or ash.

I'm more concerned in keeping everything straight, e.g. the bridge relative to the neck, than I am about the tight tolerances. But that's what the mock ups will help me get a feel for.

I thought about cutting away some wood on the cheap guitar, but there are so many routing holes that it would be a nightmare trying to fit everything in it's proper place. Besides, it's not thick enough to fit the tuners properly down on the body.

I've got some other ideas. They may not be as pretty, but they'll work.

I'm going to be very busy the next couple of weeks, but when I get it done, I'll post a pic.

 

[Enzo]

Try Stewart-MacDonald, they have most everything for building stringed instruments. www.stewmac.com

And for a selection of instruments used or new try www.elderly.com I don't mean to advertise for them, but they ought to have what you need.

There are full scale guitars with diminutive bodies, then there are short scale guitars or even soprano guitars. A quick look at Musician's Friend shows a couple inexpensive Epiphone PeeWee guitars. The "VeeWee" is a hoot, I want one. And ther is the Squire mini-Strat. Look up stock numbers 518312,518339,510421 as examples. musiciansfriend.com