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The old fashioned kind of endpin mount that just use a thumbscrew directly into the rod will eventually stress and break a carbon fiber endpin. If you have the kind that uses a bushing or some kind of clamping slug it shouldn't damage the rod, but many of those slip (especially with double basses). Saddle Rider makes 10 mm vector mounts that hold particularly well for both bass and cello. They're a proprietary trademarked design that uses a wedge-shaped slug to clamp the rod and fit any standard cello or bass without reaming.

Yes, the differences are subtle. Some people with some speakers or headphones can hear them better than others. But with this video wanted to show the sound on this stone floor. Every stage is different! Most favor steel endpins, in my opinion, but some favor carbon fiber. I use them interchangeably depending on the conditions.

Thanks for the kind words! Happy 2024

Really? B was my favorite in both examples

Hi tenorcello, Good job discerning as well as you did! These bridges weren’t actually designed to sound alike- they were made to show what very low infill bridges with the same shape of a wooden bridge sound like. Still, they’re very close to the bridge they’re cloning. By changing the architecture for the different characteristics of the material, I can make bridges that sound more similar. But that’s for a future blog post! My friend David Perry who makes 3D printed violins has had a 3D printed bridge on a violin for 5 years with good success. My testing hasn’t addressed long term durability yet, but things look good so far. Abrasion isn’t a concern. With the carbon fiber reinforcement it should be better than wood. That doesn’t mean there are no issues, but our hope is that proper annealing and design can make very durable bridges.

$1 in filament :) Not bad! And we’re just getting started!

@@johnhaines-eitzen6534 Amazing! Time to test unconventional designs. Straight legs. 3 or 4 legs, why not.

Thanks so much for the kind words! Glad you found this helpful!

@@cornell_cello I especially miss the racquetball at UNC and the drives to GSO, but your lessons and coaching on orchestral audition rep and your living example of achievement through perseverance and faithful thinking is the influence of which I refer above. I love that you're selling the FCR for Tall Cellists! Now that I'm skinny I think I might need one. My on board chest rest of 150 pounds of excess fat are gone!

@@cellohood Alex!! Email me! Good to hear from you!

@@Saddle_Rider_Music Hi John! I was going to email you yesterday, but the photo on your Cornell prof page made me laugh so hard I didn't know what to write so I watched some of your amazing product demos instead!

IMSLP Paganini Caprices for violin #24!

@@Saddle_Rider_Music thank you!

Brass sounds very nice as a chime! On a cello, unless it's combined with other metals like the Mistuke endpins, it can sound a little thin in the upper range.

PS I agree that Titanium isn't a favorite. Interesting that Titanium endpins are so popular, and in some cases very expensive!

@@cornell_cello I'm fascinated to learn that every single detail can have a huge impact on the cello's voice. Amazing!

@@cornell_cello I was talking endpins with a luthier recently. He said that the frequency of wood and carbon fiber are fairly different, and can work against each other, but brass has the same frequency as wood, which is why is makes for a lovely endpin and rock stop. I'd never heard that (I'm a beginner, so just about everything I've never heard before)...do you know if that's true about the frequencies?

Most people don’t use the old-fashioned set screws any more because they damage carbon fiber or other softer endpin rods. That said, if you are using a set screw with a metal tube endpin, as long as the wall thickness isn’t too thin it should hold fine for a cello. For a double bass, you might need to file a small groove, but it doesn’t need to be very deep.

Eli is a force of nature! :) Every time I play with him, or observe him in action, I'm amazed. Thanks for tuning in!

Thanks for the feedback! I chose this piece not just for the challenge of learning it (!!) but also because it shows response in all registers of the cello. Sometimes playing “at the edge” highlights differences in a way that more controllable passages don’t. But you’re right: Many different types of comparisons are beneficial! For instance, on a wooden floor, my cello usually sounds “better” with A

People seem to agree with you based on this iPhone video in this chapel! Funny, in most spaces I would say the carbon steel sounds clearer, more focused, and a little more powerful, with the carbon fiber having a slightly warmer but less focused sound, particularly on the C and G strings. But it’s very space dependent. Most of the time I prefer the steel for my concerts.

Thanks for the feedback! Responses on Facebook have been about 50/50. It may make a difference what speakers or headphones you listen on? I usually prefer A, but agree that in this space B sounds really good!

@@Saddle_Rider_Music It'll depend on the space so experiment w/ what end pin rod sounds best, & strings, all that good stuff.

Great! The sound as chimes (other video) gives a good sense of tonal character. I keep coming back to a particular carbon steel blend for most instruments, including my own. Have fun experimenting!

Hi there! I like them both, but the aluminum wound gut A and D strings make my fingers all black (really yucky :) so I need to use steel a and d. If the reaction to aluminum weren’t an issue, I would use them interchangeably depending on repertoire. But I’m always using silver wound gut G and C strings now!

Interesting point, but it’s much harder to hold them that way to get a consistent ring. I’ve found that the resonance you hear when suspending them in the middle gives a good sense of how they sound, comparatively, on a cello. Titanium, for instance is bright and has lots of high frequency resonance, etc.

@@Saddle_Rider_Music That is exactly the point, the sound of an endpin held at two ends (cello + floor) should be quite different from the "perfect" situations of a free endpin held in the middle. To some extent you even excite exactly the opposite harmonics, i.e. if you fix the middle point, only the ends move. Instead on cello + floor it is more realistic to assume that the ends do not move, while the middle part mainly is moving. On the other hand, it might be that some general conclusion will still be in place (high/low harmonics, broad/narrow resonances, etc)

@@Saddle_Rider_Music Another possible effect, is that depending on the length of the endpin, and how much it is extended the frequency response will change.

@@GregoriusAstra you make a good point! In retrospect, I could have drilled little holes in the end of the endpins and held them vertically like wind chimes. But, interestingly, balanced as they are lightly held with tape, the harmonic node isn’t clamped tightly and the resulting pitch and overtones are the same either way. This experiment is just meant to show the comparative tonal “flavor” of the different materials, not a scientific study of the exact way an endpin interacts with a cello and floor. As you say, extending the endpin to different lengths also changes the way an instrument resonates for multiple reasons. But, still, when testing endpins, in my experience an impact test intuitively tells a lot about what to expect when putting endpins into a cello. The most cutting edge violin luthiers like Joseph Curtin in Ann Arbor use impact hammers to test violins as well! Tapping the side and top of an instrument’s bridge is an extremely accurate way to record the sonic “fingerprint” using FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) analysis.

@@Saddle_Rider_Music Another idea is that if the relevant frequencies are not too high (below 1000 Hz), then it would be possible to film directly the vibrations and see what is actually happening, some modern phones can take such videos. For higher frequencies the vibrations themself will not be visible whole the amplitude yes. It will be especially interesting for verification to which extent the cello itself is immobile. To me it seems natural that a solid floor should not move while it is not clear how the cello will react. In any case I am not an expert in acoustics while I have some knowledge of physics.

Absolutely! Particularly between, for example, carbon fiber and steel. And you would be amazed that relatively small differences in steel composition are audible (that surprised me!). This is one of the topics I’ll be demonstrating as a guest artist at the Oberlin Acoustics Workshop in June

@@Saddle_Rider_Music If there will be recordings, presentations, etc at the Workshop, it would be interesting to see that! Good luck with your demonstration!

Thanks for listening! Tips: Cut the excess length at the peg and wrap very tightly there. Make sure you put graphite (pencil) in the the bridge groove for lubrication. Put Teflon plumbers tape on the knot at tailpiece to make sure it settles in well there. Use internally geared tuning pegs so when you need to tune it’s easy. A day of hard playing should be all it takes to stabilize to the point of safely using for concerts. Gut strings will always be more susceptible to humidity and temperature changes, but should be fine if installed well.

@@Saddle_Rider_Music thank you so much for your answer, it all makes sense, will try that, cheers!

I have another question if you don’t mind, when you say cut the excess length at the peg, I remember doing this once on an Oliv C and to my horror realizing it wouldn’t fit in the peg hole anymore due to being too wide, had to use a cheap spare peg and widen it for the occasion, wondering how you fit those after shortening them. Also, did you have a tailpiece without fine tuners or just a regular one? i’m planning to try again soon and wouldn’t wanna mess this up this time, thanks for your invaluable advice on a very obscure matter to me!

Furthermore, would you be kind enough to provide me with a picture of how you instal the plumber’s teflon tape at the tailpiece? Can’t seem to wrap (no pun intended) my head around how I’d to about doing that properly, It would be really great help:)

Hi Bruno, Funny you should ask! Just today I finished prototypes for a brand new patent-pending endpin mount design. It looks fairly traditional but uses a brand new type of collet. It’s similar to collets used in heavy industrial machines, but is elegantly designed from lightweight aircraft aluminum. And it fits in any cello or bass using 3D “shim” collars available for free at SaddleRider.com I’ll post photos next week. RE filing a notch in carbon Fiber rods, you shouldn’t do it! It weakens the rod, and using the kind of mount that might require it (with a screw) will dig into the rod and eventually fracture it. You need a well-designed mount with a bushing. New Harmony’s design is pretty good, but there are some design limitations because of the CNC manufacturing method. I made some design improvements that 3D printing allows in my Saddle Rider mount (Elliptical bushing channel holds the bushing more firmly than New Harmony’s round bushing channel, for example) But ellipses are hard to make on lathes, which is why they don’t do it. Glad you enjoyed the video! Check out the SaddleRider.com research blog for more info on string instrument component technology

Cornell University regulations: Masks on campus. And the video is dated, so no way around it! :)

Thanks, for the feedback, Gregor! I posted this to the Facebook International Cello Forum, and it has been interesting to see how people are about evenly divided between preferring the gut or steel. I enjoy playing on either, depending on the occasion! There's more info at www.saddleridermusic.com/saddle-rider-blog/gut-vs-steel-cello-strings-the-saga-continues

Yup, that’s the idea! Choose a bright sounding one for a dark cello, and a warm rich sounding one for a bright cello.

@@Saddle_Rider_Music The type of end pin is also going to change the Cello's sound. My Cello is a 5 String Acoustic-Electric Cello. I changed the friction pegs out to mechanical ones so that it holds tune better.

@@Saddle_Rider_Music My Cello is a 5 String Acoustic-Electric Cello w/ a High E String made by Yinfente & it's fantastic.

I want one!! Unfortunately, I only have a four string, so gotta use the thumb :)

@@Saddle_Rider_Music Good news now you can get a 5 String Cello w/ a High E String from Glasser (Acoustic-Electric Model in whatever color you like) made out of Carbon Composite. Just get some D'addario Helicore Cello Strings (4/4 Size Medium Tension + a High E String) & you're setup w/ your new 5 String Cello. I got myself a 5 String Cello & they're a little bit larger in versatility than a 4 String Cello. They should make fractional sized 5 String Cellos cause they certainly allow kids to expand their knowledge of music.

Thank you, Susanna! Great fun, attempting to keep up with the fiddlers and guitarists.

PS I've given up trying to keep up with the banjo players.

@@Saddle_Rider_Music A 5 String Cello w/ a High E String might work better & Glasser makes affordable ones

I wonder if 2Cellos would be able to pull it off. They cover a lot of classics across different genres. This would be a good challenge for them.