A new birth of resonance: introducing the da Spalla 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 Mikael Marin’s da Spalla, as well as his astonishing ability to hold and bow the instrument (which is roughly the size of a 1/10 fractional cello) like a giant violin, thanks to his impressive Swedish stature and large hands. At that time, Dev was getting into building hardanger-style instruments and he contends that I said he should make a da Spalla with sympathetic strings that night. I don’t actually remember that, but it is sweet of him to include me in the origins of this idea.

Since then, Dev has made many hardanger d’Amores and his interest in resonating instruments continues to expand, with the construction of a unique pochette hardanger (‘pocket-sized’ hardanger fiddle) he made me for Christmas in 2025.

In spring of 2025, Dev was once again captivated by a video of Väsen with Mikael on the da

Spalla and was firmly resolved, once and for all, to build the first da Spalla with sympathetic strings (though we note there may well be other da Spalla d’Amores as yet undiscovered or lost to history)—also hugely inspired by the celebration of old and new forms of resonance from players like Dan Trueman, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, and other makers like Lynn Berg, Fred Carlson, David Finck, and the inimitable Salve Håkedal, who crafted the first ever hardanger d’Amore in 2010, guided by Dan Trueman’s vision.

In February 2026 Dev completed the very first da Spalla d’Amore—and the sound and resonance has been a revelation for us both. Selecting the right playing strings and finessing the resonance by adjusting the gauges of the understrings has been an exciting process. Dev has received wonderful guidance on playing strings from Don Rickert, who makes gorgeous da Spallas in Georgia.

When I picked up Dev’s very first da Spalla d’Amore for the first time I was somewhat intimidated, assuming that it would be difficult to adjust to the body size and longer scale length (my arms and hands can’t compete with Mikael Marin’s after all!).

However, I have been so thrilled by how approachable it is and how easy it is to hold across the chest, held with a simple leather strap around the neck. It is quite a lightweight instrument—much lighter than a traditional nyckelharpa, for instance. I never thought I would be able to play a cello-like instrument so easily (as a lifelong fiddle player, the opposite setup of a standard cello is quite unwieldy for me). I have benefited from the instructional videos that another fabulous maker of da Spallas creates—Daniela Gaidano of Italy.

I have found Dev’s da Spalla d’Amore really comfortable for my hand to play Celtic and Scandinavian music (or improv) with cello fingering much of the time, and some shifting. That means that I will play a major scale often with the fingers 1, 3, and 4, rather than 1, 2, and 3. It has been surprisingly easy to adjust to that fingering and I have no doubt that many players from a fiddle background would find it approachable to implement cello fingering or even violin fingering with a tiny bit of stretching, depending on the size of their hands. The scale length of the da Spalla d’Amore is of course much shorter than that of a standard full-size cello. I find that shifting on the da Spalla d’Amore seems more forgiving than shifting on a violin too, just because the relatively longer scale length seems to provide a slightly larger margin of error for the pitch of each note.

Below is a brand new da Spalla d’Amore that Dev just finished, made of Birdseye Maple and Spruce. It just so happens to be the 100th instrument (!) that Dev has completed over the last 15 years of making mandolins, guitars—and now almost exclusively—bowed instruments with sympathetic strings.

This instrument is only a couple days old and already has incredible resonance and a buttery, warm sound. The strings (which are extra-long viola strings tuned down plus a cello C string) are quite easy to play with a standard baroque fiddle bow, although we are keen to explore baroque cello and bespoke da Spalla bows as well.

We are so excited by what this instrument can do!