We have an absolute plethora (El Guapo, anyone?) of case finish choices these days.  While most bass players us some version of the padded nylon bag, the smaller strings (cello included) have a myriad of finishes from which to choose.  The question is, how much does the finish matter?  If we’re discussing this question in purely objective terms, the finish of the case does not have a large impact on performance.  Sure, a cellist in a sunny climate might choose a white fiberglass case over a black one, but in terms of strength or durability, a red case is no different than a blue case.  I want to be completely clear – I’m discussing only the finish of the case, not the case material.  Fiberglass, carbon fiber, composites, flax fibers, etc all have significantly different performance properties and often determine the difference in cost between cases. What are some of your favorite colors/finishes on cases that you’ve seen?  We recently got a BAM cello case in a beautiful metallic blue that I’ve fallen in love with.  I’m not currently in the market for a case, but I’ve been tempted!

I’m always excited to welcome a beautiful new cello into the Encore family of instruments, but there are times I’m REALLY excited.  We’ve had the pleasure of representing an unantiqued cello by Michael Koeberling before, but this is the first antiqued instrument of his we’ve had at the shop.  Antiquing is a tricky art that can vary widely based on each makers’ interpretation.  At least from photos, I feel Michael has done a fantastic job of bringing a truly “old” look to a brand-new instrument without taking it into the realm of caricature.  This cello should arrive from Germany in a few weeks and I’ll be sure to let you know when it’s ready to play!

I came back from NAMM full of new information, new ideas…and the flu.  After being down for the count for almost five days, I’m back at work ready to sift through everything I saw.  I’ll just right in to a couple of the highlights: Eastman Strings is now offering workshop-installed C-extensions on select bass models.  We have two of their Lupot-model basses on order and hope to see them in a couple of months.  This should bring a fully-carved, C-extension equipped bass into a new and more affordable price point.  Very exciting! Connolly is offering a newly-branded line of humidification products…which felt timely given our horrible winter!  They are a self-regulating consumable packet you put in your case.  I’m going to do some testing – stay tuned! The Alphayue synthetic-core student strings from Thomastik are available for viola and cello now.  These have been VERY well-received at their price-point and should give students on a budget a great string choice.

I’m headed off to sunny California for a couple of days in order to attend the NAMM show.  NAMM stands for “National Association of Music Merchants”.  Paige’s Music’s owner, Mark Goff, just finished his tenure as President of the organization – a tremendous honor and responsibility. My purpose for attending the who is primarily continuing education – making sure that I am fully up-to-date on the violin-family products offered in the marketplace.  It is also an opportunity for me to give direct feedback to the workshops who supply us with instruments, bows, and accessories.  Many smaller workshops exhibit at NAMM in hopes of gaining traction in the marketplace.  The show is HUGE and large manufacturers often set up enormous displays to show their products.  My schedule is already booked full of meetings and events…I just hope I have enough time to see all the new products!  

I’m going to be a broken record for a few weeks while we’re experiencing extreme cold – stable temperature and humidity are goals worth pursuing for your beloved string instrument.  For solid-wood basses and cellos, this is a trying time.  We continue to deal with seams, cracks, slipped pegs…and a partridge in a pear tree!  A digital hygrometer and room humidifier are your best allies but require monitoring and filling…sometimes twice a day.  A whole-house humidifier can be an expensive but effective option.  Less effective are case humidifiers and in-instrument humidifiers, but a case humidifier can be an ally as well if you don’t have any control over the environment in which the case sits. Feel free to contact me to discuss options if you’re feeling lost in this dry desert! NOTE: your humidifier does NOT need to be filled with natural artesian water from the islands of Fiji…      

We have a few days reprieve from some of the coldest winter weather I can remember.  The fact that it occurred over nearly two weeks when most schools were out and buildings were cold didn’t help our local orchestra directors!  We have seen an unprecedented number of instruments covering all price points and construction methods experience open seams, cracks, and other weather-related issues.  Even here at the shop in a room that stays heated and humidified, the extreme cold caused issues.  A local professional with a valuable cello is having a top crack repaired by our luthiers.  I’ve had emails asking how to prevent this in the future, and I likened the weather we just had to a 100-year flood…it was going to cause problems no matter how well you prepared. If you haven’t already, invest in a humidifier for the room where your instrument lives.  In-instrument and in-case humidifiers can help when used well, but can cause problems if used improperly.  Always “think big” when it comes to humidification.  Your whole house if possible. If not, the room the instrument lives in.  If not that, the case.  If not the case, the instrument itself. A seam open, while never

I guess I’ve never been much for New Year’s Resolutions.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with them and I’m as big a fan of fresh starts as the next person.  I’m even willing to lay some of my aversion to making big changes on January first at the feet of advancing years!  However, it’s not because I’m cynical or pessimistic.  No, I still believe change is possible…but I also know change requires tremendous effort.  I do believe in the saying “anything worth doing is worth doing well”, so perhaps I’m just content to keep the list of “things worth doing” relatively short. 2017 was the most successful year in Encore’s history by just about any measure that businesses use to measure themselves.  It was also an immensely challenging year with the remodel and moving from one side of the building to the other.  As we look forward to the rest of 2018, we resolve to continue serving our customers to the very best of our ability, offering exceptional value, and doing our best to match fantastic instruments and bows with fantastic musicians. And sure…I’d like to lose a few pounds 🙂

As 2017 draws to a close, I thought I’d play a game of “did you know?”… Did you know that Encore… offers price matching from respected sources on strings and accessories? offers 100% trade-up on instruments purchased here? routinely carries modern-master instruments ranging up to $50,000? routinely carries modern-master bows ranging up to $10,000? stocks a wide variety of popular cases? has a violin-maker on staff? supports many local arts organizations? Will stock your favorite strings if we don’t already have them? LOVES to hear about your favorite accessories and why you love them? visits over 400 Indiana schools each week? offers free school delivery to our account schools? thinks lists with over twelve items is excessive? We WANT to be your local source for everything string related.  Shop local, buy local.  Paige’s Music has been Indiana owned and operated since 1871 and we work every day to earn your trust. We are looking forward to 2018!  Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

A now-defunct appliance store ran a series of radio ads talking about “FOBO” – fear of better options.  I chuckled every time it came on because that perfectly describes one of the most anxiety-causing factors when searching for an instrument or a bow. I’ll give away the ending right now – there IS, almost ALWAYS, a better option.  Lurking in someone’s attic, or closet, or in the dusty corner of some violin shop, could very well be an instrument that is more perfectly suited to you.  There are musicians (the household name variety – Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, etc) that would have access to practically every available fine instrument in the world if they indicated they were in the market to buy.  The rest of us must go through more conventional channels.  Please understand me – I’m not trying to paint a bleak picture!  The reality is that you can drive yourself mad during the process of searching for an instrument – “FOBO” can literally derail the entire train and cause you to search endlessly for an elusive “perfect” instrument that may or may not actually exist. I don’t mean to take the romance out of it either.  I still

It’s that time of year again!  For me, it means being greeted by slipped pegs, loose strings, and open seams when I arrive at the shop.  Although we work hard to keep things humidified, with this many instruments, winter problems are inevitable. Slipped pegs – if you haven’t already started, I suggest tuning your instrument using the pegs quite often this time of year.  You’ll often find that the peg will move farther into the pegbox this time of year and resetting it will keep you from opening your case to loose strings and possibly even a bridge that has fallen over.  If your pegs won’t stay set even after tuning, it might be time to bring your instrument in for us to evaluate.  Peg compound, or even work on the pegs themselves, might be necessary to keep them working properly. Open seams – for cellists and basses in particular, this is the time of year we start worrying about open seams, especially down at the bottom of the instrument (near the endpin).  These are often visible simply by looking for them, but occasionally the gap between the plates and ribs is so small that you need to gently tap

We’re still catching our breath after having SYBARITE5 play an amazing concert in our new showroom AND having a grand-opening reception this past Saturday night.  The rooms are looking better than ever with our seating area finished, artwork hung, and new instrument storage on order.  If you haven’t stopped by to see the new space and try our current inventory, we invite you! SYBARITE5 is such an incredible group.  Beyond their technical mastery, they have such musical rapport and warmth.  We’re pleased we could offer that performance opportunity to our customers at no charge.  I will look forward to the next opportunity for us to host another concert in this space!

When I think of tweaking, I’m usually envisioning a different tailpiece on an instrument, or possibly a different set of strings, or maybe a soundpost adjustment… As anyone who has moved into a new apartment or home knows, it takes a while to get the space set up “just right”.  After living in our new space for several months without our former central seating area, we realized just how much we missed it!  Well, it looks like it’s coming back.  Within a week or two, we should be able to assemble the pieces for our guests in the showroom to have a place to sit, relax, and evaluate instruments.  If you haven’t already, plan to come and visit us! This picture is of our mockup using a mix of chairs and painters tape for the outline of the rug size.  My sincere hope is that the finished product looks…well, more finished.  

One of the wonderful facets of my position here is that I get to work closely with violin makers.  As a group, I find violin makers fascinating.  The field attracts all kinds of personalities…but I have yet to find a boring violin-maker!  My hope is always to build a strong relationship with the makers we work with – this ensures that their work is properly valued and represented, and it also ensures that we receive excellent examples of their work.  I drove to Cleveland, OH yesterday to meet with Eugene Holtier.  He is a self-taught maker (although years of attending Oberlin workshops and talking to fellow makers has sharpened his already excellent instincts) whose past career was in industrial design.  He approaches the challenges of violin making with a fresh perspective and a willingness to break from tradition if he feels there is a better way.  In a world in which the measure of a maker can occasionally be calculated by a miniscule detail of construction, I appreciated the playfulness Eugene exhibited as he talked about some of the differences in his approach. The recently completed cello I played had a big sound, was extremely responsive and easy to play,

It’s always an exciting day when we get a cello from our good friend Larry Wilke.  Larry is an award-winning maker from Clinton, CT.  Although he makes violins and violas as well, he is known primarily as a cello maker.  We’ve had the good fortune of representing quite a few of his instruments over the years.  The cello arriving in the next few days is another of his Goffriller-inspired models and is covered in a rich, red, antiqued varnish.  I’ll plan on posting a video of the cello sometime this next week so you can hear it!  If you are local, please set up a time to come and experience the work of one of the finest living makers!  

I had the good fortune to attend Butler Cello Day this past Saturday and heard Adriana Contino give a masterclass on performing the Bach cello suites.  These six suites occupy an incredibly special place in the hearts and souls of cellists.  I personally have collected over 40 recordings of these suites and enjoy hearing great cellists tackle the musical and technical challenges they pose.  However, when pieces are so studied and revered, there is a danger of them ending up on a pedestal too high to reach.  Most cellists I know are reticent to perform the suites, feeling that it opens them up to criticism from their peers. So what do we do?  Perhaps the quote, “Music is about sharing, not proving” should be our guide.  We should also be slow to criticize a performance as “wrong”.  In the end, playing this beautiful music should fill us with joy, not fear.

Changing strings on violin-family instruments is often an “ouch” moment because of the cost involved.  Dominant violins strings are around $60/set, Obligato viola strings are around $115/set, a popular pairing of cello strings comes in around $325 for four strings, and Bel Canto strings for the bass are roughly $275/set. So what do you do when either the goals of the student, or the family budget, or both, preclude spending that kind of money on a set of strings?  Two new sets of strings on the market promise excellent performance at a price that used to be reserved for the cheapest (and most cheaply made) strings. Thomastik released the Alphayue as a synthetic-core, Austrian-made set of violin strings for under $20.  The response has been fantastic and they can be especially effective at improving the sound of the humblest instruments. D’Addario recently released the Ascente as a synthetic-core, American-made set of violin strings for under $20.  This is a great example of competition benefitting the players – where there used to be practically zero options for a great-sounding set of strings under $20, there are now TWO. We have both in stock and ready for you to try!  

Value.  A word with a myriad of connotations.  A word that has been bandied about so often as to be practically stripped of any meaning. And yet, value is a word at the very center of everything we attempt to offer here at Encore.  Through our beginning rental plan, we offer value through competitive pricing and absolute convenience.  Through our early payoff purchase plan, we offer value by allowing our customers to separate the instrument from the services offered as part of the rental.  Through our step-up rental plan, we offer value by utilizing our customers’ rent credit to allow them to obtain a higher-performance musical tool.  Through our early payoff purchase plan on our step-up rentals, we allow our customer to finish renting once they fall completely in love with their instrument.  And if they want to upgrade again in the future, we offer value by giving them full value for the instrument they own towards a more expensive instrument. I’ve had the pleasure of walking alongside a customer from their 1/2 size rental in 5th grade all the way through the instrument they take for a performance degree in college.  I’ve had the pleasure of walking alongside an adult beginner from their introduction to the cello all

All string players have experience with the inevitable task of rehairing your bow.  Even the best hair does not last forever and a bow with excessively stretched hair or too many hairs missing can potentially cause harm to the bow.  How do you know when it is time to rehair your bow?  There are some obvious reasons.  The hair is excessively stretched out making the bow difficult to sufficiently tighten.  This is often caused by changing temperature and/or humidity.  When the hair is excessively stretched out, you have to tighten the bow so much that you move the frog back to the end of its travel.  When the brass eyelet attached to the frog meets the back of the channel cut into the bow stick/handle, it can cause the eyelet to strip if the player continues to try and tighten the screw.  Another reason to rehair your bow is if there are too many hairs missing/broken.  Because the hair on one side of the bow or the other tend to break together, this can cause uneven tension as you tighten to bow and possibly even contribute to warping the bow.  One less obvious reason is that the hair is no

For the large portion of the years I’ve been playing the cello, the Larsen (and then Larsen Soloist) A and D strings have been the professional standard for cellists.  Many people continued to successfully use other strings, but cellists rarely bought whole sets of strings.  Often, a cellist would buy the top two strings from one manufacturer and the bottom two strings from another.  This became such common practice, that many shops would bundle the popular combination. Many strings have come along that challenge the ubiquitous supremacy of the Larson Soloist strings, but few ever took hold in the market.  It’s my hunch that we might finally have a pair of upper strings that will gain a strong following – the Thomastik Versum SOLO A and D string.  I’ve played them on a number of instruments now and feel that they offer the tone, responsiveness, power, and playability to win cellists’ hearts. We have them in the shop in a combo-pack (A and D) together and will also carry them individually.  Pairing them with Thomastik Spirocore Tungsten G and C will likely be a popular choice, but there are many other great options!

Because Encore handles higher quality, more advanced instruments often sought out by experienced players, we haven’t devoted as much space here to small-size, fractional instruments.  This point was driven home to me recently because of the large number of customers we’ve recently helped with small-size instruments.  We regularly stock advanced instruments in the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, and 7/8 sizes.  While the higher quality materials and workmanship in these instruments makes a significant difference, it’s the attention we pay to careful setup that allows younger players to appreciate the fuller tone.  No one wants a 1/4 size cello that is difficult to play!  While we do stock a selection of instruments in these smaller sizes, I often bring in instruments from top workshops once we’ve established the performance criteria and family budget.  Let us help your younger player find their perfect instrument!