This cello was given to me by a gentleman I have known for many years at the church I formally attended. He had no intention of doing anything with it and decided that he would give it to me. In my mind, I hoped it would be in reasonable condition. It turned out to be in pieces. The top was in four pieces, a section of rib from the neck to the corner block was detached completely with a small section of wood missing. The biggest problem was something I had never seen before. The neck and top block was made out of one piece of wood! Since the projection was off and the neck was too short to begin with, I decided to put a new neck, top block and bottom block into the instrument. The original bottom block was not wide enough to install an end pin. The original bass bar was very small and had to be replaced along with a bass bar crack almost the length of the instrument that had to be glued and cleated. Some might say all this work for an antique factory instrument wasn't worth it. I wanted to hear that old wood sing again, as I believe old instruments have a tonal advantage over more modern instruments in many cases. It took a long time to complete this project, but the instrument really sings, now.
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