Student cello repair

[Kyle Barbour]

I know this is a guitar building forum but I figured I would post here to see what kind of info you might be able to share on this. My wife brought this cello home from the school she teaches. It's a cheap plywood student cello that has a broken neck block. The damaged neck block caused the back to separate from the sides. There are some splits on the one side of the neck but I should be able to repair them without much of a problem. I was able to get the back off to get a better look at the neck block. Hopefully I can get the neck separated from the block without much hassle. If I can do that I think I can get this back into the hands of a kid who wants to try their hand at playing cello. Any suggestions on how to proceed or a suggestion on reference material will be appreciated. Here are some pics.

[Kyle Barbour]

A few more pics.

[Dave Bagwill]

I've got nothing for you, Kyle, but it does look like kind of a fun project. Hope it works out..

[Tim Benware]

Looks like a fairly clean split. Dry clamp it so see if everything lines up and to be sure you have the clamps you'll need to do the job, if so, I'd glue it up with titebond and then add a cross grain lamination patch to the back of the block for additional structural support. Then finish it it up.

[ken cierp]

I think Tim's got the program -- since that neck block is made with the grain orientation in the wrong direction (mostly why this happened) I suggest that you put a fairly large cross-grain or plywood plate that will cover the entire neck block. You should get a pretty accurate neck set just by aligning the break points.

[Kyle Barbour]

This seems to be the popular reply for this fix. I think I have some Baltic birch ply at the house. I'll see what I can do and let you know the outcome. Thanks for all the help guys.

[Lonnie B]

I agree with the consensus. When I first saw it I thought man I would replace that with another block... I had a chance to buy a Cello last year. Nice looking instrument but the neck heel was busted in half. Some body had tried to glue it back together. It was a very nice instrument and the guy offered it to me for a fantastic price. But the thoughts of going in after somebody had botched the job basically making it worthless did not appeal to me. Now don't get me wrong I've always wanted a Cello but they take up quite a bit of space. Then you have to buy a bow. One of them can set you back a pretty penny. So I passed. Will be watching this thread though. Good Luck...Lonnie B