Cooper Musical Components Tailpiece Vs Historic Tailpiece Or Others?

[ToneHenge]

It looks like Cooper is releasing a die casted vintage correct tailpiece with a waitlist.

To my knowledge, the Montreux Time Machine the currently best replica, and I have been using them for years now. I joined the Cooper waitlist, but I am curious as to the improvement versus the Historics and others thoughts. The old ones have jumped up in price significantly. Does anybody else find swapping tailpieces add any value to tone or appearance?

 

[tonyfrancis]

I have a couple of Cooper abr-1s and there was definitely an improvement in tone. It made the guitar fuller sounding. I think it is primarily the saddles. I tried the Cooper saddles in my old Pigtail abr and it sounded the same, fuller and bigger.

 

[ToneHenge]

A friend and I have got his bridge as well. The bridges are fantastic. There is a lot of anticipation about this tailpiece. I got this from the Cooper Instagram, but Cooper has all the best repros to compare.

 

[Arnold M.]

I always used the DMC and loved it but they are getting hard to find now .. I await the newest Cooper offering with bated breath.

 

[ToneHenge]

Does anyone have a photo of the underside of a PigTail tailpiece?

 

[ToneHenge]

Cooper sent me this photo just before lunch. This is the first die casted 50s aluminum tailpiece replica from Cooper. I believe this is before machining though. I cannot wait to compare this to others.

 

[buyusfear]

But aluminum?

 

[ToneHenge]

But aluminum?

The originals from the 50’s were aluminum, and I can’t remember when we’ve had a good repro since DMC. Coop says he can make things out of pretty much any metal. He made a steel ABR for a friend of mine because Callaham doesn’t do it anymore.

 

[DANELECTRO]

Does anyone have a photo of the underside of a PigTail tailpiece?

Here's a comparison of a 1950's wraparound to the Pigtail and Historic parts. A stopbar is the same part except that counterbores are machined into the backside for the string balls and the set screws are omitted.

The Pigtail is a nicely made part which looks very vintage-like. The most notable difference between it and the 1950's tailpiece is that the crown is better defined, which means less chance of a buzz.













When these parts are cast, the mold opens front-to-back of the tailpiece, so there is a mold seam that runs around the circumference through the center of the part. The metal enters the mold through the wide gate on the bottom side of the part and exits into a an overflow on the topside of the part. The gate and overflow would be cut-off using a die in a press, then the seam is hand-sanded and polished smooth prior to plating. The seam is polished on the upper visible surfaces of the part and left sanded but unpolished on the bottom side of the ears. All of the sanding was done by hand which is why you see variation from one tailpiece to the next.

This is a graphic I made a while back showing what I envision the mold gate and overflows probably looked like. The holes are machined after casting so they would not be present as they are shown here. The gate shown here represents the 2-1/2" wide gate that you see on a Historic tailpiece. The gate on the 1950's and Pigtail part is only 1" wide. They probably went with a wider gate on the modern part to improve the flow of material into the mold.

 

[ToneHenge]

Wow that is incredible! Steve Rowan really did a great a job! Do you happen to know if Pigtail makes the tailpieces for Montreux? Because they look incredibly similar.

Pigtail even got this hook right on the top that I have seen on vintage pieces. From those photos, the Historic and the Pigtail look taller than the vintage one as well. How do they compare weight wise? The vintage piece I own weighs about 29g.

 

[buyusfear]

The originals from the 50’s were aluminum, and I can’t remember when we’ve had a good repro since DMC. Coop says he can make things out of pretty much any metal. He made a steel ABR for a friend of mine because Callaham doesn’t do it anymore.

My post was more of a statement though. I agree that we haven't had a decent option since DMC.
However, 50's tailpieces weren't actually aluminum, but a type of cheap throwaway alloy consisting of aluminum among other metals.

 

[DANELECTRO]

Wow that is incredible! Steve Rowan really did a great a job! Do you happen to know if Pigtail makes the tailpieces for Montreux? Because they look incredibly similar.

Pigtail even got this hook right on the top that I have seen on vintage pieces. From those photos, the Historic and the Pigtail look taller than the vintage one as well. How do they compare weight wise? The vintage piece I own weighs about 29g.

I don't know if Pigtail makes tailpieces for Montreux or not, but I agree that Steve did an superb job of copying the 1950s tailpiece. I weighed both the Pigtail and a 1955 wraparound at 31G.

 

[ToneHenge]

I don't know if Pigtail makes tailpieces for Montreux or not, but I agree that Steve did an superb job of copying the 1950s tailpiece. I weighed both the Pigtail and a 1955 wraparound at 31G.

Thank you for this! I do know when Steve set out to make these things, he told me he also set out to make improvements to the vintage pieces hence why you see the bump on top sharper. Given this information, hopefully, the Cooper can serve as a formidable option. As far as I know, the DMC was the closest anyone had ever got. The flaw with the DMC was the pin ejector marks on the front and the top shape. The plot thickens.

 

[ToneHenge]

I just got this photo from Coop at CMC regarding the tailpiece project because he claimed the project is nearly completed, and from the photo, the image looks fantastic to my eyes. According to Coop, these weigh at an average of 1g or less and have no copper underplating. Coop couldn't send me photos of the short seam on the bottom, but he assured me the short seam is present. You have to join the waitlist to get one of these, but I'm weary at how much these are going to cost.

 

[TM1]

Steve's Widow, Pam is really knowledgeable about all this! Very nice to deal with. She can tell you all about how these are made!

 

[Bygone_Tones]

@TM1 please check your PM's

 

[ToneHenge]

These tailpieces are released! I just got my tailpiece from Coop and placed it on my Murphy Lab R8, and it is incredible so far! I don’t know how it compares with other boutique versions other than the stock one, but he did a very good job on these. He upgraded his packaging by a long shot too. I have noticed a small difference in tone. I'd be curious to see if others have got one as they are pricey.

 

[tonyfrancis]

I got one and really think he did a great job. Worth the money in my opinion. The box was cool too.

 

[ToneHenge]

I got one and really think he did a great job. Worth the money in my opinion. The box was cool too.

Did the strings in the slots fit like a glove for you and did you get it aged? He included a letter and toothpick in the box about this, but I didn't have any issues. I am trying to help Coop by posting here because I personally want to support homegrown US companies in this space. I just bought another tailpiece for my upcoming M2M. I can't believe how different it is from the Historic piece, on my scale, it is a little bit lighter too.

 

[Mr. Legit]

Dave you weren't kidding about this after all! While I appreciate your immense support for us, you don't have to do it this way! If people want to support my mission to be vintage correct, I'd rather it happen organically anyways... However, I am grateful for all those that have chosen to support my company (Cooper) with their hard earned money! I can't say this enough, but everything we do is truly a labor of love and obviously not a means to get rich. Keep on rocking that R8 my man! Glad I could help make it better!