glebert

That's really cool. I wonder if they were looking for new uses for their wonder-material? I'm pretty sure that someone was making aluminum cellos in a similar timeframe too.

This seems like a situation where finding sellers that have a good trial-by-mail program would be helpful.

Fourth viola after making a bunch of violins?

Just out of curiousity, and being somewhat related to this topic, do people fake makers that are still living? Wondering if it is too risky to make a fake when the maker is still alive and can be asked to verify an instrument.

Also, gotta figure the future experts are going to say "I can't describe a real Burgess, I just know one when I see it."

Hi! This is a really, really old thread. I found the folks at Stringworks to be super friendly and helpful, and the cellos I played were nice. I doubt they will hold their value super well, but I don't think many entry/intermediate instruments really do. I think brands like Eastman would probably hold value better. If I look on Reverb.com it seems most used Stringworks cellos end up not selling.

Prakticello was what I was thinking of when I found the trench cello pics. As a cheaper alternative I wonder if one could take a CSO and cut lengthwise down the body to about the width of the bridge and then make some side panels to complete the box. I have done such things to make travel drum kits, and always felt weird about taking a saw to a working instrument, don't know if I could do it to even the cheapest cello.

I remember reading a story about Janos Starker playing a concert very late in his career, and was using a borrowed cello since he wasn't comfortable traveling with his Gofrillser anymore (or something). Supposedly he spent two days just learning where his fourths and fifths were on each string.

Here is a page that details the process on guitars. https://mimf.com/nutcomp/

It seems to me like you are just going to be fighting the geometry of the smaller body at every stop. I would consider something more like a trench cello, since you are basically going to get a much lower acoustic output anyway. They can also collapse for transport!

I have a cello I call "Dustbin" since I was told that was where it belonged.

I think this makes it a much easier decision, if you don't have any emotional or financial investment in this. Trade it in if you can get something for it, or sell it on Ebay with a starting price of whatever the minimum you would take for hte hassle of shipping it, and anything you get is gravy.

Obviously it will depend on the quality of the work, but what are the odds that the sound or response will be altered by the repair? It is sounding like the cost of the repair may (at least) equal the value of the violin afterward, and if there is a possibility that the violin will be degraded to me that would push me towards not repairing, perhaps I would see if I could get a few hundred trade-in for it. If you work with a dealer that deals with that maker maybe they could use it for parts or send it back to China to be refurbished as Phillip had suggested. Or maybe someone would use it as a

Hopefully not a dumb question, but is the $4k for the Chinese violin the new price or the price one would pay for an equivalent used one? I'm curious how much depreciation these kinds of instruments have.

I have a local hack experience that goes the other way, but for another market. I flip guitar amps, and there are a couple local guys that for some reason have good reputations but really doesn't like to get into even moderately complicated repairs, so they will just tell people that it isn't worth fixing. They then sell it to me for cheap. Whenever I see an ad that says "I took it to Brian over at XXX.." I know to take a closer look