Trapezoid cello

Please put any questions about repairing your instrument or the finish on it in our Repairs section.
Post Reply
John LaTorre
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2012 11:43 pm

Trapezoid cello

Post by John LaTorre »

Hi, all,

I recently came across a book called Making a simple violin and viola by Ronald Roberts. He'd built several violins and violas with trapezoidal soundboxes, based on some experimental work done by Savart about a century ago. He claims that the sounds are comparable to the conventional violin.

The advantages of the trapezoidal design, from a builder's standpoint, are no side bending and no need for a complicated mold, just a simple trapezoid frame.

That got me thinking about making a cello based on the same design as the viola but scaled up to 4/4 cello size. My thinking is that, while it may not have the volume of a conventional cello, it would be far less unwieldy, and it wouldn't be a problem to install some pickups to electificate it.

I intend to use an existing neck, fingerboard, and peg box from a scavenged cello, and copy the relevant measurements from another 4/4 cello on loan to me.

Has anybody on the forum done anything like this? (I already know about the "cigar box cello" YouTube video.) Your comments and suggestions are welcome.
John LaTorre
Sacramento CA
Post Reply

Return to “Bowed Stringed Instruments and Bows”