A tailpiece by any other name?

When you stop and think about it, there aren’t very many opportunities for a string musician to accessorize their instrument.  Unless the player was involved in the commission of the instrument, the maker decides the wood, the outline, the varnish, and usually selects the fittings (tailpiece, pegs, endpin, etc) that are originally installed on the instrument.  If a player is fortunate enough to own an historically significant instrument, the fittings are sometimes part of the “story” of the instrument and can’t be changed.  For the reset of us, the fittings are one area in which we can put our personal stamp on our instrument.

We just received three sets of cello fittings from Bogaro & Clemente, an Italian firm making some of the most beautiful fittings you can acquire.  These three sets are in beautiful, but subtle, Palisander wood.  Palisander (dalbergia baronii) is a rosewood variant from Madagascar.  It is difficult to capture the grain in a photograph, so I used flash to highlight the beautiful variation in color (but it’s still a terrible picture!).  Please visit us and see them for yourself!