My wife’s friend just gifted us an old Englelhart 1/4 size blonde for my cello inclined 11-year old to goof around with, so of course I had to try to put in 5ths. It needed a couple seams reglued, loosened the sound post a bit, and added flexible tailgut — but otherwise stock. I used a low B Spiro mitt for the C and 3/4 scale Spiro Red Mitchell for GDA and holy moly this thing plays far better than it should! I honestly didn’t think it’d handle the low C, but it booms! The cracked patina is super good looking, too. If I wasn’t so committed to 42” scale, I could see me putting a lot of play time into this one. So much fun…
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