Ebony makes the violin sound woodier and guttier. In a good way. Titanium makes it more resonant and probably marginally louder, but at the expense of warmth and naturalness. It’s like comparing a natural sports person and a jacked up mass monster.
I agree with you, but everyone's situation is different, and some instruments are too guttural, dark, or weak, in which case this tailpiece (or any lighter tailpiece) could change things pretty simply.
I agree, I personally like the ebony one. To my ears it sounds a bit brighter, which I really like. Also, the titanium tailpiece seems to me like it’s making the sound a bit more muffled, but that’s just my opinion.
" Titanium makes it more resonant and probably marginally louder, but at the expense of warmth and naturalness. " What a nonsense. The problem is much, much more complex. You have to learn a lot about the problem known as "violin setup" before you make such naive comments. Generally you have always some room for sound improvement. Violins can be too bright or too warm for example and you have to compensate. Other characteristics are : - tone too loud but "empty" or - tone complex in overtones but not focused and projecting enough - tone very smooth and velvet and cultivated but not strong enough. Etc. People ae willing to pay thousands of dollars just to improve one of the aspect above. Situation is much more complex if you have multiple problems and you try to solve them all which is sometimes alchemy and sometimes impossible and you have to make compromise. You have to experiment with violin itself, strings selection, bow selection, bow hair, bridge material, bridge shape and height and weight, soundpost diameter and material and length, soundpost postition, bass bar dimension and shape ... and even tailpiece. I make it short. Bright violin needs heavy tailpiece and longer tailgut to make sound darker. Dark violin needs light tailpiece and short tailgut to make sound brighter. Not projecting violin needs good sound conductivity (titanium tailgut and endpin and maybe even tailpiece), thin and light bridge, sometimes it needs reset the neck and make the bridge higher and it needs high tension strings to compensate. Not focused violin needs brighter and low tension strings to compensate and soundpost adjustment is very difficult. They are mainly cheap factory made violins, because plates are not graduated properly. Resonanating characteristic of tailpiece materials is as follow: Very dense and heavy: snakewood, mostly used on cello Heavy: standard quality ebony - universal solution for the most instruments including cheap factory made, because they have mainly thick plates and poor craftsmanship resulting in ugly, harsh, metalic tone, which must be "rounded" and cultivated by heavy tailpiece, that's why standard quality ebony tailpieces are bulky and overweigth. Medium: palisander, jujuba, pernambuco (pernambuco is VERY resonant and can cause wolftones), high quality ebony with thin walls - for neutral, good made instruments Light: boxwood - for dark and warm instruments, for example for old instruments made for gut strings, instruments with thin plates or from very soft material Very light: titanium - for very dark and muted instruments So titanium is not silver bullet solving everything, it just give you more possibilities. That's all.
The carbon composite is the lightest with 4 fine tuners. Once you add 3 more fine tuners to the others, they will no longer be lighter. Overall, the composite is best for the non-professional player. But the titanium does look cool, assuming you can get by with only one fine tuner and have a rich uncle.
That tailpiece is a real babe magnet. That tailpiece I think is backwards engineered from a downed UFO :-) It **seems** to me that the titanium seems screechier on the higher notes but it brings out the warmth more on the D and G strings.
It ses to me thay the distance of the ebony tailipiece is so the same as the titanium. Therefore this video should not be considered as valid as we already now that the distance of the tailpiece from the bridge makes even bigger role.
This will be great to liven up my antique german maggini that has evah pirazzis and boxwood fitttings and a titanium end button
Michael that looks so cool and sounds great. Reminds me a bit of the Eiffel Tower. Fiddlershop has the coolest things.
Ebony makes the violin sound woodier and guttier. In a good way. Titanium makes it more resonant and probably marginally louder, but at the expense of warmth and naturalness. It’s like comparing a natural sports person and a jacked up mass monster.
I agree with you, but everyone's situation is different, and some instruments are too guttural, dark, or weak, in which case this tailpiece (or any lighter tailpiece) could change things pretty simply.
I agree, I personally like the ebony one. To my ears it sounds a bit brighter, which I really like. Also, the titanium tailpiece seems to me like it’s making the sound a bit more muffled, but that’s just my opinion.
" Titanium makes it more resonant and probably marginally louder, but at the expense of warmth and naturalness. "
What a nonsense.
The problem is much, much more complex.
You have to learn a lot about the problem known as "violin setup" before you make such naive comments.
Generally you have always some room for sound improvement.
Violins can be too bright or too warm for example and you have to compensate.
Other characteristics are :
- tone too loud but "empty" or
- tone complex in overtones but not focused and projecting enough
- tone very smooth and velvet and cultivated but not strong enough.
Etc.
People ae willing to pay thousands of dollars just to improve one of the aspect above.
Situation is much more complex if you have multiple problems and you try to solve them all which is sometimes alchemy and sometimes impossible and you have to make compromise.
You have to experiment with violin itself, strings selection, bow selection, bow hair, bridge material, bridge shape and height and weight, soundpost diameter and material and length, soundpost postition, bass bar dimension and shape ... and even tailpiece.
I make it short.
Bright violin needs heavy tailpiece and longer tailgut to make sound darker.
Dark violin needs light tailpiece and short tailgut to make sound brighter.
Not projecting violin needs good sound conductivity (titanium tailgut and endpin and maybe even tailpiece), thin and light bridge, sometimes it needs reset the neck and make the bridge higher and it needs high tension strings to compensate.
Not focused violin needs brighter and low tension strings to compensate and soundpost adjustment is very difficult. They are mainly cheap factory made violins, because plates are not graduated properly.
Resonanating characteristic of tailpiece materials is as follow:
Very dense and heavy: snakewood, mostly used on cello
Heavy: standard quality ebony - universal solution for the most instruments including cheap factory made, because they have mainly thick plates and poor craftsmanship resulting in ugly, harsh, metalic tone, which must be "rounded" and cultivated by heavy tailpiece, that's why standard quality ebony tailpieces are bulky and overweigth.
Medium: palisander, jujuba, pernambuco (pernambuco is VERY resonant and can cause wolftones), high quality ebony with thin walls - for neutral, good made instruments
Light: boxwood - for dark and warm instruments, for example for old instruments made for gut strings, instruments with thin plates or from very soft material
Very light: titanium - for very dark and muted instruments
So titanium is not silver bullet solving everything, it just give you more possibilities. That's all.
@@rofo2107 that’s what I hear on the recording on my headphones.
@@rofo2107 thanks for the commend! Fully explained ! I nearly order one without much thought, you save me a large sum or money !!!
Ebony 2:58 Titan 3:05
Thanks for watching!
The carbon composite is the lightest with 4 fine tuners. Once you add 3 more fine tuners to the others, they will no longer be lighter. Overall, the composite is best for the non-professional player. But the titanium does look cool, assuming you can get by with only one fine tuner and have a rich uncle.
How about the Senza System? The Senza System Tailpieces are cool.
That tailpiece is a real babe magnet. That tailpiece I think is backwards engineered from a downed UFO :-)
It **seems** to me that the titanium seems screechier on the higher notes but it brings out the warmth more on the D and G strings.
🤣🤣🤣 Babe magnet - that was a first!! Happy New Year to you ,Tony, from all of us at Fiddlershop 🤗
I was going through my recommendations on UA-cam and was like, "what kind of musical witchcraft is this?" I just had to see it in action...
There’s definitely a better resonance with the titanium tailpiece
Thanks Elvina!
Nice, y'all need to play something different. It sounds great, but some new varieties would be nice too.
Thanks, Joe. I'll try to make that happen. :-)
Don't hear any difference. Titanium sounds maybe more hollow? Like sound when hearing someone on speakerphone
It ses to me thay the distance of the ebony tailipiece is so the same as the titanium.
Therefore this video should not be considered as valid as we already now that the distance of the tailpiece from the bridge makes even bigger role.
Thanks for watching!
Is this also available with 4 built in tuners ?
i dont think so
Do you have for viola too?
Hi! We sell this product for viola: fiddlershop.com/products/titanium-tail-gut-for-viola Thanks for asking :)