Broken Tailpiece - Rookie Mistake or Bad Parts?

[FrankM]

Sorry, peeps, I really hate starting all new threads, but I can't seem to get what I'm after on the search. So...

I'm RTO a Anton Richter 4000 Series (2007). I've just started taking lessons on the upright so I can learn the technique (jazz, mostly) the correct way the first time, although I've been playing electric bass for some years now. I had lessons this Friday and the teacher seemed pleased with the bass. I had some guest over Saturday to look at it (no one touched it but me). Sunday I go in and the bridge and parts of the tailpiece are all over the room. Sometime after dinner but before lunch today, the tailpiece broke at bottom where it glues to the body. The piece were the retaining wire for the endpin was also broken.

Am I supposed to "detune" the instrument prior to playing it? Is there something wrong with leaving the instrument in a stand (I bought an Ingles bass/cello stand)? Should I have replaced the strings after I bought it (old strings = too much tension) or am I just the unlucky victim of poor parts/workmanship?

[Bob Gollihur]

Just sounds like a tailpiece with a weak point in the wood. I wouldn't call it anything other than bad luck without seeing the tailpiece. It may be a fluke, or could be a substandard hunk of wood. But nothing in your list would say that you bear responsibility

Excrement occurs.