Daily Archives: September 29, 2023

This cello had been knocked over whilst laid on it’s side, resulting in a crack along the side of the treble f-hole. Damage in this area can be very problematic because any repairs hairs to resist a lot of combined pressed from the bridge and soundpost, but reinforcement cleats can’t always be fitted without getting in the way of post fitting (hence why soundpost patches are sometimes needed.) Luckily in this case the break was confined to an area in front of the bridge, and it was possible to get in through the f-hole to close the crack and then to glue cleats. There was a bit of retouch to be done, and we also decided it was a good opportunity to address some general issues with the bridge, soundpost and nut.

This cello came in for a general checkup after having been unplayed for a while. I think the instrument had been stored somewhere damp at a point, because the strings were rather corroded. The setup was also a bit old fashioned, with incredibly high string heights at both bridge and nut which would be more suited to low tension gut strings. I ended up doing a partial fingerboard reshoot, lowering the bridge and nut and fitting a new soundpost, tailpiece and strings.