Tailpiece for L7
 

A friend of mine needs to replace a tailpiece that failed on his '44 L7. Searching online, he's found some inexpensive ones that seem possibly suspect in quality.
Others are over $100, up to the neighborhood of $200.

Can anyone recommend a source for one that's somewhere in the middle, price-wise? The tailpiece he needs is an ES-175.

You're right about the cheap ones being suspect in quality - speaking from first-hand experience here - besides, you don't want to muck up a fine old archtop by fitting it with something that looks like total crap; FYI I almost bought a couple wartime-issue L-7's when they were cheap back in the '70s - maybe it was a function of imposed restrictions, but the shallower arching in both top and back (they most likely used thinner blocks of wood) and L-50 style tailpiece (which used a wooden crossbar) made for a very lightweight, resonant instrument with richer bass response (comparable to a similarly-sized flattop) than the pre-/post-war examples I've played. That said, unless your bud is willing to have someone hand-carve/retrofit a Brazilian rosewood crossbar to an L-50 type tailpiece - and that's not going to come cheap - I say ante up the $200 and get one of these:

https://www.archtop.com/ac_access.html#Anchor-11481

Are you sure it can't be repaired?

Amazing things can be done by laser welding. Some jewelers have them.

Or find a welding school.

Thanks for the responses and advice.

So, he bought the cheap knockoff to hold him over until he decides to (get smart and) buy the real McCoy.