Ed of H is (seriously) Missing His Shop...

[edwardofhuncote]

Lately I've been looking for inspiration anywhere. I can't play music, or really do much of anything else but think about stuff on my daily walks. (which I've now been told to scale back - another story)

My upright bass repair shop has been emptied out since a couple weeks before my surgery, but soon I hope to be able to handle some light work in there. Anything to occupy my brain for a few hours a day would be great. I've got a rocking chair in there that I fixed for the lady who took care of me in those crazy days of purple haze after I got out of the hospital. It just needed some glue and clamp pressure, and I needed something to fix. It felt great to shuffle around in sawdust.

..........................................................

So a couple years ago, I bought a bunch of student-grade cellos in various states of disrepair... from easily repaired, to busted beyond being worth fooling with, but the deal was, I had to take the whole lot. There were 10, altogether. After a quick triage, I fixed three and sold them, covering my initial investment with the first sale, then I stripped all the bridges, fine adjusters, tailpieces, and any other ebony and rosewood parts that were salvageable from the rest and sold them to another repair shop.

Now a couple years later, I've got 6 cello husks just taking up space in my garden shed. It just goes against my nature to throw away wooden stuff, but there's no reason to waste any time trying to make any of these things into a playable musical instrument. So there's got to be some clever way to upcycle a bunch of fractional-sized plywood cellos... heck, maybe I can even pay some of these incoming bills with them. (!)

I put up a thread on TalkBass this morning and got a couple interesting ideas from it, (and a couple smart-aleck comments) but I'm wondering what this group might come up with. (possibly better smart-aleck comments?)

Here are the subjects at hand, and a couple ideas that look do-able. Go!

[adriaan]

You could turn the table on Man Ray and paint a woman on the back of the cello ...

[cozmik_cowboy]

You could turn the table on Man Ray and paint a woman on the back of the cello ...

Or the incomparable Bryn Davies - who not only is an amazing player, but has these tattoos:

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1490&bih=785&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=F0zfW42yJ4zAjwTPzbWgDA&q=bryn+davies+tatoos&oq=bryn+davies+tatoos&gs_l=img.3...52755.55684..55915...1.0..0.149.513.7j1......0....1..gws-wiz-img.......0j0i30j0i5i30j0i24.YtlYI11n7Ic#imgrc=AB6SmwToAsaVqM:


(and, as a friend commented when I showed him this, great lower bouts.....)


Peter

[edwardofhuncote]

Oh, my... Coz, you've just unlocked another piece of the grand puzzle of a bass player's life. Turns out Bryn and me like the same movies! 

Or it could just be another amazing coincidence. 

[edwardofhuncote]

More to Aadrian's suggestion, I had given thought to just using these as a backdrop for some hand-painting... just a simple scuff-sanding with some 220-grit on the palm sander, followed by a couple coats of flat white... it'd make an interesting canvas.


I'm hardly qualified for that part though.

[David Houck]

I like the bookcase suggestion.

[cozmik_cowboy]

I like the bookcase, too.
And, as an aside, I know a guitar tech who also has ƒ-hole tats - but hers are on the undersides of her forearms.

Peter

[jacko]

cut one in half, stick a handle and some hinges on and you've got an interesting hardcase for a viola (or violin).

Graeme

[elwoodblue]

Maybe use pair for speaker boxes?
The bookshelves look great (and would be pretty easy),
... maybe glue a mirror to back above the top shelf.

[edwardofhuncote]

Actually, the TalkBass thread rendered a couple interesting ideas, with speaker cabinets among them, along with shelving units, birdhouses, planter boxes, wine racks, ans somebody even suggested cutting holes, covering with carpet, and making them into a kitty playhouse. Most people on there seemed determined I was making a huge mistake not converting them into something playable again, and I expected that. Most people don't understand what it takes to make a junk instrument playable isn't worth what a new student-grade instrument costs. Yes, theoretically you could fix anything.

It's a long thread, with (fair warning) some rather tasteless humor mixed in. https://www.talkbass.com/threads/so-i-got-these-6-cellos.1371611/

I may go up there and look them over again today... brainstorm a little while. It's rainy and cold, not much else to do.

[gtrguy]

Glass the inside and make a fish tank!