A quick overview of how to tune the playing strings and understrings of the hardanger d'amore.

Birdseye Maple da Spalla d’Amore by Devon MacRae. Completed June 2026. Dev has a proclivity for adding sympathetic understrings to bowed instruments. The Violoncello da Spalla, which translates to ‘cello for the shoulder’ in Italian, is no exception. The story of how Dev came to build a da Spalla with 5 sympathetic strings (i.e. d’Amore style) can be traced back to a Väsen concert we attended in late 2023 at Club Passim in Boston. We were immediately struck by the sound of Mi

The 9- and 10-string Hardanger d'Amores (4 or 5 playing strings and 5 sympathetic understrings) that I make are my own version of Salve...

I suppose it depends on your take of what "life" is, but, as Evelyn Waugh wrote, "[change is] the only evidence of life", and these...