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Yamaha Electric Violin Tailpiece Replacement
Yamaha Electric Violin Tailpiece Replacement
Click picture for more detail
Click picture for more detail
Yamaha is a well-known name in the musical instrument world, particularly for woodwind and brasswind instruments, pianos, and electric violins. They have produced numerous designs and refinement of electric violins, violas, celli, and basses, and have steadily worked to improve the electronics, playability, and in most cases the quality of their instruments without significant changes to the pricing.
This model, the SV-100, is a fairly straight forward electric violin with a few "bells and whistles" for the player to adjust, including different reverb settings, tone control, and volume adjustments. It can also (like all of Yamaha's electric "silent" violins) be played through headphones; as the violin does not have a wooden cavity like an accoustic violin to amplify its sound, when bowed the instrument produced very little audible noise. It is only when hooked up to headphones or an amplifier that the violin can be easily heard.
One aspect of the SV-100 design, which was no doubt made cost conciously from a manufacturing and labor standpoint, is an integrated tailpiece which is bolted to the top of the instrument, rather than a traditional "floating" tailpiece as seen on accoustic violins which is suspended between the strings and an end button anchor. This design is well and good, but does not allow for tailpiece adjustment, or in the case of this instrument, replacement with a readily available traditional tailpiece if damaged. The part has to be specially ordered, and then installed.
Interestingly, in the assembly of the violin, the tailpiece is one of the very first components to be added to the instrument body. This being the case, to replace the tailpiece requires for the instrument to be nearly completely disassembled in order to access the tailpiece bolts, burried under the electronics and "rib" assembly.
The tailpiece of this violin apparently let go while the violinist was playing the instrument, likely compromised by a crack or chip inflicted on it prior. As there are no real instructions available from Yamaha on replacing the tailpiece, I decided to document the process to perhaps be of aid to anyone else needing to attempt this work. It was not difficult work to perform, and the only tool really required was a phillips screwdriver. Anyone relativly coordinated and with a basic grasp of hand tool usage would not have a problem doing the surgery themself. Re-assembly and setup is not very difficult either, aided by the fact that the bridge can only fit back in exactly one place, and as long as the bridge is set back facing the right direction, a player competant in changing their own strings could re-assemble the instrument. Of course, when in doubt, and if at all uncertain, leave it to your trusted luthier!
While the instrument was in the shop, I also cut a new bridge for it. Unlike an accoustic violin, the feet of the SV-100 should be perfectly flat on the bottom, to make maximum contact with the flat piezzo pickup that the bridge sits on. The factory fit bridge was not perfectly flat on the bottom, and as this is the only means of transfer of vibration for sound production on the Yamaha, it was imperative that this was a good fit.
Yamaha is a well-known name in the musical instrument world, particularly for woodwind and brasswind instruments, pianos, and electric violins. They have produced numerous designs and refinement of electric violins, violas, celli, and basses, and have steadily worked to improve the electronics, playability, and in most cases the quality of their instruments without significant changes to the pricing.
This model, the SV-100, is a fairly straight forward electric violin with a few "bells and whistles" for the player to adjust, including different reverb settings, tone control, and volume adjustments. It can also (like all of Yamaha's electric "silent" violins) be played through headphones; as the violin does not have a wooden cavity like an accoustic violin to amplify its sound, when bowed the instrument produced very little audible noise. It is only when hooked up to headphones or an amplifier that the violin can be easily heard.
One aspect of the SV-100 design, which was no doubt made cost conciously from a manufacturing and labor standpoint, is an integrated tailpiece which is bolted to the top of the instrument, rather than a traditional "floating" tailpiece as seen on accoustic violins which is suspended between the strings and an end button anchor. This design is well and good, but does not allow for tailpiece adjustment, or in the case of this instrument, replacement with a readily available traditional tailpiece if damaged. The part has to be specially ordered, and then installed.
Interestingly, in the assembly of the violin, the tailpiece is one of the very first components to be added to the instrument body. This being the case, to replace the tailpiece requires for the instrument to be nearly completely disassembled in order to access the tailpiece bolts, burried under the electronics and "rib" assembly.
The tailpiece of this violin apparently let go while the violinist was playing the instrument, likely compromised by a crack or chip inflicted on it prior. As there are no real instructions available from Yamaha on replacing the tailpiece, I decided to document the process to perhaps be of aid to anyone else needing to attempt this work. It was not difficult work to perform, and the only tool really required was a phillips screwdriver. Anyone relativly coordinated and with a basic grasp of hand tool usage would not have a problem doing the surgery themself. Re-assembly and setup is not very difficult either, aided by the fact that the bridge can only fit back in exactly one place, and as long as the bridge is set back facing the right direction, a player competant in changing their own strings could re-assemble the instrument. Of course, when in doubt, and if at all uncertain, leave it to your trusted luthier!
While the instrument was in the shop, I also cut a new bridge for it. Unlike an accoustic violin, the feet of the SV-100 should be perfectly flat on the bottom, to make maximum contact with the flat piezzo pickup that the bridge sits on. The factory fit bridge was not perfectly flat on the bottom, and as this is the only means of transfer of vibration for sound production on the Yamaha, it was imperative that this was a good fit.
*** This page has proven to be quite popular, and I am glad it's been of some use! I have received many inquires over the years about purchasing the replacement tailpiece part. I do not sell them, and the one I had purchased for this instrument was from a seller on eBay in 2015 whose shop is no longer in existence. I unfortunately do not know where to source this part these days, and since this model of electric violin is no longer produced by Yamaha, I am not sure if they are making or offering the part any longer. If you own one of these instruments and need this part, I would recommend reaching out to Yamaha and seeing if they may be able to help you with warranty, as this seems to be a reasonably common breakage (and perhaps part of why they discontinued this model)