you're in the spotlight.
that should Never Dull and
Reduces Hole Digging.
Endpin with required socket
Endpin for existing
10mm sockets
It’s just physics. No other endpin comes close to the increased speed and projection.
What are you really hearing?
Actual Output
Bass Treble
Carbon ████ ███
Tungsten ██████ ████
What Your Brain Notices
Carbon Treble seems emphasized
Tungsten Balanced
A similar effect appears on the interactive graph below when comparing the Tungsten Carbide with the 10mm Steel. While Steel has relatively greater output around 200–300 Hz, giving the impression of warmth, it produces much less output across much of the remaining spectrum. The important point is that words like bright and warm describe the relationship between frequencies, not necessarily how much sound the instrument is producing. Our measurements show that very stiff endpins flex less and remove less vibrational energy from the cello. Instead of being lost as bending and internal damping within the endpin, more of that energy remains available to keep the cello body vibrating—the part of the instrument that actually produces sound. The goal is not to change the character of your cello.
It is to let more of your cello speak for itself.
Measured Sound Output
Explore the measured acoustic response of five endpin materials under identical playing conditions. Examine the measurements and decide for yourself.
Every endpin influences the way a cello vibrates and radiates sound. Rather than relying on subjective descriptions alone, these measurements allow you to compare how different endpin materials affect the instrument’s acoustic output under carefully controlled conditions.
Acoustic response
Open C string · 40-second average · absolute measured level · 50–5,000 Hz
Integrated band energy
A relative summary of measured power within each musical frequency region.
Carefully controlled conditions
Only the endpin changed between measurements.
The same open-string excitation was used for every measurement.
A repeatable musical bowing pattern was maintained across each capture.
Each spectrum averages a full 40 seconds rather than relying on a single instant.
A mass attached to the bow tip controlled downward force.
The bow’s contact position was held constant.
Every endpin was extended to exactly the same length.
The cello and microphone remained in fixed positions.
The supplied spectra are retained exactly as measured. The graph opens with an additional one-octave display smoother; the raw FFT curves remain available, and no level normalization is applied.
Technical details and advanced comparison
Positive values indicate greater measured output than the reference at that frequency; negative values indicate less. Absolute response remains the default because it preserves real level differences.
- Display range: 50–5,000 Hz on a logarithmic frequency axis.
- Absolute view: supplied dB values are displayed directly; no level normalization is applied.
- Delta view: point-by-point dB subtraction from the selected reference endpin. In the default smoothed view, the same one-octave filter is applied to both curves before subtraction.
- Default one-octave smoothing: for each plotted frequency, measured dB values within one octave of total bandwidth—from f/√2 to f×√2—are converted to linear power, averaged with a centered Hann weighting in logarithmic frequency, and converted back to dB. This affects display only; the raw FFT curves remain available from the view control.
- Band calculation: dB values are converted to linear power and integrated over frequency. Percentages compare each result with the arithmetic mean of all five endpins.
- Energy summaries: integrated band-energy values are always calculated from the unsmoothed source measurements, regardless of the display setting.
- Capture metadata: the source exports identify the input as “iPad Microphone 1 Low Range.”
Why these frequency bands?
The boundaries are useful musical guides rather than hard walls. A perceived quality emerges from the entire spectrum, the transient behavior, the room, and the listener—not from one band alone.
The Less an Endpin Moves, the Better It Sounds
Why Does an Endpin Change the Sound?
Most cellists have experienced it: change the endpin, and the instrument sounds different. But why?
The answer comes down to two fundamental properties of any endpin: stiffness and mass.
A cello produces sound by converting the vibration of the strings, which has a small surface area so it cannot move much air, into vibration of the instrument's body, particularly the top, which has a large surface area to move the surrounding air. Many people believe the sound is somehow made inside the cello and then comes out of the f-holes, but that is not correct. Ideally, as much of that vibrational energy as possible remains in the cello. But the endpin is attached directly to the instrument, so it vibrates too.
No endpin is perfectly rigid. Every endpin bends slightly under vibration, much like a diving board bending under a diver—only by microscopic amounts. The easier it is to bend, the more energy it can take from the cello. Because every material has a different combination of stiffness and mass, every endpin influences the instrument differently.
The ideal endpin is therefore one that moves as little as possible: very stiff, with as little mass as practical. That combination minimizes the amount of energy diverted into the endpin itself, allowing more of the instrument's vibration to remain where it belongs.
What Should an Endpin Do?
The cello is already the least projecting member of the great solo instruments: piano, violin, and cello. Every bit of vibrational energy that remains in the instrument instead of being lost to the endpin has the potential to contribute to sound reaching the audience.
What's more, research has also shown that listeners consistently prefer even modest increases in sound level at a distance—often more reliably than many of the subtle tonal descriptions players use close to the instrument.
For that reason, our design philosophy is straightforward:
Build the stiffest endpin possible while keeping its mass as low as possible.
That combination minimizes energy lost to endpin motion and maximizes the energy available to produce sound.
This is why we chose Silicon Nitride and Tungsten Carbide. Their exceptional stiffness allows them to remain remarkably stable under vibration, helping the cello do what it was designed to do: move air as efficiently as possible.
Carbon fiber is extremely light, but it is only about half as stiff as steel. In our measurements, its greater flexibility appears to reduce output in the lowest frequencies, while its low mass may help preserve more of the upper-frequency response.
Finer Points
FAQ
Designed with you in mind
- Grabs the floor, then stops digging
- Tungsten Carbide tip lasts decades
- Ergonomic and beautiful
Why Silicon Nitride and Tungsten Carbide?
If the ideal endpin is one that moves as little as possible, then the ideal material is one that combines exceptional stiffness with the lowest practical mass.
That is why our flagship endpin is made from Silicon Nitride. It offers an extraordinary combination of stiffness and light weight, making it one of the most mechanically efficient materials available for this application. By minimizing endpin motion, it helps keep more vibrational energy in the cello, where it can produce sound.
So why do we also offer Tungsten Carbide?
The answer is simple: compatibility.
Most cellos are already fitted with a standard 10 mm endpin socket. Our 10 mm Tungsten Carbide endpin gives those players a dramatic increase in stiffness while fitting directly into their existing instrument—no trip to the luthier required.
So why not simply make a 10 mm Silicon Nitride endpin?
Because at that smaller diameter, durability becomes just as important as stiffness. Silicon Nitride is remarkably stiff and surprisingly tough for a ceramic, but Tungsten Carbide is significantly more resistant to fracture in this application. By carefully selecting a grade with a higher cobalt content, we reduce the amount of dense tungsten while improving toughness, producing a 10 mm endpin that is both exceptionally stiff and highly resistant to breakage.
The result is a practical engineering compromise. Silicon Nitride remains our ultimate performance material, while Tungsten Carbide is the best way to deliver much of that performance in a standard 10 mm endpin that fits the vast majority of existing cellos.
We didn't choose these materials because they're unusual. We chose them because the physics says they are the best materials for the job—and because we believe great engineering should also fit the needs of real musicians.
Silicon Nitride is very stiff!
But it is also quite light for all its stiffness.
A 12 Millimeter Endpin Gives You More
When a rod undergoes bending forces, it is the outermost layer particles that take the stress, not the inner particles. This means that a rod that is only a little thicker can be a great deal stiffer. But that is only possible if the density of the material is low enough.
The Krentz silicon nitride endpin leverages the incredible stiffness of the material with its greater diameter to become 600% stiffer than an 8mm steel endpin.
Mass also plays an important role in endpin function and while their stiffness is similiar, the primary difference between the Krentz endpins is their mass.
It’s just physics. No other endpin comes close to the increased speed and projection.