Product Review: Fults Blue Ridge Banjo Tailpiece

Fults Blue Ridge Tailpiece with XYZ Mount

If there's one thing that hasn't served me well on my Gibson banjo, it has to be the tailpiece. I purchased my Gibson banjo in 1989, and since then a vibration issue has always plagued me. I have felt in two places in order to stop the vibration, but nothing seems to work as the vibration seems to have a mind of its own; coming and going as it pleases.

My tailpiece also looks flimsy and it looks like it doesn't belong. Its design is steeped in tradition and seemingly little has changed over the last several decades. When I consider the price of a professional banjo these days, I believe that it might be time for some banjo innovation.

Vibration isn't my only complaint, and I've read that this is not an issue for some, but for me the stock tailpiece simply isn't adjustable enough. A single fastener holds the tailpiece in place, and a single screw allows the tailpiece angle to change, and that's all that she gives us.

Searches for a replacement tailpiece in the past turned up the same old thing and my last search was years ago. There just didn't seem to be anything that was new and innovative...and maybe this is how it goes for niche market products.

Enter the Fults

A new day and a new search brought about by the buzz coming from the back end of my banjo. A Google search for "banjo tailpiece" brought me to the Banjo Tailpiece Web Site.  After reviewing the various descriptions of tailpieces on the main page, I placed my order for the Blue Ridge tailpiece with the XYZ mounting system.

My Fults tailpiece arrived quickly, and when I pulled it out of the box, I realized that it is a solid thing of beauty. The mechanical design and aesthetics are excellent, and the manufacturing of the finished product appear to be executed in an expert fashion. It is a quality product that in my opinion far surpasses that of my stock tailpiece.

The tailpiece is accompanied by a small diagram. As there are many out of the ordinary components to this tailpiece when compared to my original equipment, I assumed that I would need to study the diagram to figure out how to install and operate it; however, this turned out to not be the case. The tailpiece also comes with an Allen wrench and after a couple of minutes of loosening screws, how to install and operate the tailpiece became self evident.

The image above is of my stock tailpiece. Note the addition of felt to the underside of the cover. This was an attempt to dampen the vibration. It didn't help a whole lot, and to this day I'm not really sure of exactly what was vibrating.

The image below is the Blue Ridge tailpiece. The two pins underlined by red are the mounting points for the tailpiece, and they control the height and lateral adjustment of the tailpiece. Green underlines the adjustment for the angle of the tailpiece. Here you can see that my tailpiece is mounted at more-or-less a 90 degree angle. The blue arrow points to the removable tone pin. I have not yet performed any experiments with the tone pin.

Evaluation

My intention was to baseline the sound of my banjo with the stock tailpiece, and then after installation of the Fults Blue Ridge I would compare the new sound to the baseline sound. All things would be equal with the exception of the tailpiece. I unfortunately did not pull this off as well as I would like as I encountered a couple of unforeseen issues.

The first issue is related to strings on my banjo. I intended to use the same strings with the Fults tailpiece that I used in the baseline recording; however, this was not the case. After installing the Fults tailpiece I realized that the old strings were not quite long enough, so the recording made with the Fults tailpiece are using a new set of strings. Both the old and new set of strings used are GHS PF-160 Banjo Strings.

The second issue is related to the recording. I recently made a prototype mount for my Shure Beta 98 microphone and somehow did not check the sound levels before I recorded the baseline. The prototype mount moved my microphone closer to the banjo head. This resulted in some clipped samples which manifest themselves as little pops in the recording. At this point I did not want to remove the Fults tailpiece to repeat the experiment, so I adjusted the recording levels down a bit when I recorded with the Fults tailpiece installed.

So this doesn't quite provide us with the comparison that I hoped for, but I feel that it will at least help me reach some kind of conclusion, and hopefully it will also help you form your own opinion as well.

I might also note that the video of the sound comparisons can be found in the Links and Download section.

Comparison Conclusion

As you may recall I have two issues with my stock tailpiece. The first is vibration, and the second is adjustability.

The Fults tailpiece does not vibrate. The Blue Ridge tailpiece is 1/8th of an inch thick and is solidly constructed. There doesn't seem to be anything on the tailpiece that will shake loose. I always thought that the hinged cover on my stock tailpiece was the culprit but efforts to prevent it were fruitless.

Next is adjustability. As the XYZ name implies adjustment to the tailpiece location and orientation to the banjo is possible on three planes.

To accommodate movement on two of these planes, the Fults XYZ mount uses the two hoop hooks that exist on either side of the stock tailpiece. The mount allows lateral movement between these hooks and a height adjustment along the axes of the two hoop brackets or hooks. The mount point or set screws for attaching to each hook control both of these adjustments.

The third range of motion allows the tailpiece to rotate along the third axis with the knob. Check this out in the image below. This allows you to apply more or less downward pressure on the bridge and can be used in conjunction with the height adjustment to achieve the same.

Bonus

There are two addition items to mention above and beyond my two original issues with my stock tailpiece.

I feel that I have to mention the ease of use of this tailpiece. I know. It's a tailpiece. How does one use a tailpiece? Part of this is related to the ease of adjustability that I just spoke of, and the other item to point out is the slot cut for the third or middle banjo string. One just slips the string through the slot and onto the easy to reach string posts. I find this to be a very nice feature albeit a very simple one.

The second additional item is the sound. I have played the sound comparison over and over, and I think what I'm hearing is a mid-range boost in the recording with the new tailpiece. I feel that this could be leading to clarity throughout my banjo's range in the recording and maybe a boost to volume as well. To me the recording of the new tailpiece is much cleaner and crisper.

The stock tailpiece seems to sound muddier especially in the last couple of passages where I'm playing some random Scruggs-style licks. At least to my ears the muddiness sounds more pronounced in the lower end.

I know that everyone has an opinion, but all that I can tell you is that I'm happy that I spent the money. No more bad vibrations and a clearer tone to boot! I'm looking forward to my next recording.

Keep on picking!