A talented player who studies with Jeff Solow at Temple had an accident with a cello that she had purchased from me a number of years ago. When the cello hit the ground the scroll sheared off
…and the long ordeal of the cello neck graft was on. The first step is to remove the scroll from the neck and prepare it to accept the graft. The peg box is carved out at flat angles that will provide the maximum gluing surface to ensure a lasting bond. Next step is to fashion the graft out of similar flamed maple as the cello. Using templates the neck is band sawed roughly then cleaned up by hand … with the upper part a series of angles corresponding to the prepared scroll. The scroll is then fit downward with some tension and the graft is carefully worked to let the scroll continue downward until its completely fits ( using a chalk transfer)on all surfaces at the desired spot right at the top edge of the fingerboard.
Once glued the pegbox is carved out and the neck is roughly shaped and made ready to set into the corpus of the instrument.
