A violin tailpiece is a structure that serves as an anchoring mechanism for the end of the violin strings not connected to the tuning pegs. The tailpiece sits centered on the bottom of the front of the violin below the bridge, and is connected to the endblock, or bottom of the violin, by a cord known as a tailgut. Violin players pay close attention to the tailpieces of their violins because they influence not only aesthetics of the instrument, but also the overall sound and responsiveness.
Violin makers construct violin tailpieces from various types of wood. The most-used types of wood violin makers use for this purpose are ebony, rosewood or boxwood. Traditionally, the tailpiece is made from the same wood as the fingerboard and pegs. This helps the violin appear balanced and has some impact on the physical balance of the instrument due to the fact that each wood type has a specific density. A typical wood tailpiece weighs about .5 ounces (15 grams), although synthetic tailpieces may weigh less than half than that amount.
A violin tailpiece may appear in one of three major styles. The first is the English or Hill type, which has a roof-like shape. The second is the French, which is rounded. The tulip style is shaped more like a wine glass.
If desired, a violin maker may add embellishments to a violin tailpiece. For instance, he might add intricate, carved detailing into tailpiece wood. These are purely to add beauty to the instrument. The embellishments never are supposed to interfere with the overall structural integrity or function of the tailpiece, nor should they drastically influence the overall weight or balance of the structure.
On a playable violin, there is tension between the violin tailpiece and the tuning pegs. A well-constructed violin tailpiece must withstand this tension, regardless of whether the tailpiece is embellished. This is why manufacturers use harder, denser woods like ebony for this part of the violin.
Due to differences in the wood used and subtle modifications in design, every violin has its own characteristic weight and tonal color. A violin tailpiece ideally should be matched to the characteristics of the violin to which it will attach. If a violin maker does this properly, the violin will have greater warmth and responsiveness. There also should be few, if any, wolf notes, which are notes produced when the played note matches the resonating frequency of the instrument.
When a manufacturer creates a tailpiece, they pay attention to the length of the tailpiece, the position of the string and tailgut holes and how the tailpiece arcs. All these factors, like the density of the tailpiece wood, impact how the tailpiece functions and how the violin sounds and responds. A good tailpiece should roughly match the arc of the bridge, and the strings should not taper inward. Violins that have a shorter distance between the bridge and the end of the violin need a smaller tailpiece, while just the opposite is true for violins that have a long distance between the bridge and the end of the violin.
In theory, there is an ideal distance for the afterlength, the amount of string between the tailpiece and the bridge. This is 1/6 the playing length of the string. The tuning of the afterlength should be two octaves and a fifth above the open note of the playing length. For instance, the afterlength of the G string should be D.
Some violin makers include fine tuners on violin tailpieces. Fine tuners usually are placed only on the E string due to the added mass they have. These fine tuners allow players to make adjustments to the string pitch that would be difficult to achieve through the larger tuning peg.