No mandolin content, but might be of interest nonetheless, this article from the Chicago Tribune's series, "My Instrument," features the Guarneri cello owned by the principle cellist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The article traces the instrument's interesting history, and also its rehab by a luthier, and the owner's comments on how the sound of the instrument has changed, and how it took him several years to adapt to it. The article includes a video and a few photos.
"It took me quite a while to decide to buy it, because the cello was not sounding at its best, you could say. For various reasons it had an unusual setup. It wasn't really vibrating in a proper way, so the cello had some problems, but I sensed there was something very good in the sound.
"Rene Morel, a well-known luthier (that is, string instrument repairer/maker) examined the cello. 'He started looking at it and looking at it and looking at it, and he got more and more excited, and after half an hour he was saying, 'You have to buy this cello. Everything about this cello is right.' It's from Cremona, the period and the place of the golden age of instrument making. Everything was right about the instrument, the arching, the varnish. It was in, for a cello of that age, impeccable condition. It has no major cracks. So it took me a long time to take the plunge and actually buy the instrument, because usually you play it, and you love it, and it sounds wonderful. This cello took quite a while to sort of come into its own sound wise."
"Coming to love it: 'It was a matter of years, and it was very difficult. As a player you have to adapt to many of these old instruments. You can't play them the way you play other instruments. They really don't respond in that way. That took me a long time to figure out. Also, a bow that suited the cello made a very big difference. Bows can have their own characteristics, and I had a bow that was very unsuited to the cello for a long time.'"
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