Rebec

 I Love this Thing
What in the world would attract a cellist and theory teacher with absolutely no interest in early music to take up such an artifact? I will certainly never figure it out, but I bought this instrument the day after my birthday last year and I can hardly stand to put it down. Indeed, the story of my "rebeconery" is the story of my my life, guided almost entirely by unseen forces. I play mostly Irish fiddle tunes on it, and I now have two public performances on my resume (if you can believe it).


As far as I know, this is about the best deal around on rebecs, and while the quality is not exactly professional grade--well, hey, it's a rebec. If you want a great one, you'll have to persuade and pay a professional luthier to make it from scratch. In the mean time, this instrument sports elegant lines, has a comforting mass, gets a clear tone (mine has a soundpost glued in--not very adjustable, but it adds to both the tone and the stability of the top), and is easy to play.


I cut the awful gut strings off the tailpiece as soon as I unpacked it and re-strung it with Dominants. I contacted both string manufacturers and luthiers about this, and they assured me there wouldn't be a significant addition of pressure to the top (particularly with the soundpost) and I have not noticed any ill effects. The Pirastro company immediately sent me a set of "Violino" strings when the representative heard I was using Dominants, but I haven't had a chance to try them yet. I can't stand gut strings and could care less about "authenticity," but if you're trying to impress self-styled "experts," I'm sure the finer quality gut violin strings would work as well. The sounding string length is identical to the modern violin, so there's no need to buy any special "rebec strings" you might find.


I had to replace the bridge, however, in about three months. The one it came with was a sorry looking thing made out entirely too soft a wood--gut strings at A=415 would probably have broken it just as easily as the Dominants at A=440. My luthier offered to cut me a custom job at half his usual fee for violin bridges, but since his shop is two hours down the road, I simply bought a piece of oak from the local hardware store (I couldn't find spruce). I traced around the original pieces, and with a coping saw, a Swiss Army knife, and some 60-grit sandpaper, had a serviceable replacement finished in about an hour. I may eventually have a "real" bridge made, but until then, this works fine.


Again, the case and the bow are not exactly professional grade, but there will be plenty of time to replace them (I'm even beginning to see Baroque-style pernambuco bows marketed for around $100), and in the mean time they work well enough. I love this thing to pieces and have found that working with it has improved my cello playing considerably. Buy it, and play the music!