1920s Willy Tiebel (Germany) 4/4 Stroh Resonator Cello

Ever seen one of these? I hadn't seen one in the flesh before and when it walked-into the shop I was super excited. Willy Tiebel worked in Germany and a number of his instruments were Stroh-style copycats with aluminum-cone resonators and horn attachments -- as seen here. There are design flaws with Stroh-style builds (for instance -- half of the tension is not converted to useful sound production due to the bridge being mostly-supported by the solid body) that I would love to try and address some day with my own build in a similar style, but who can argue with the pure cool factor of something like this?

It came into the shop playing like a bear, with a loose endpin, and with rattly cones and whatnot. I was lucky-enough to get to do all the work on it, so I recut the bridge (yes, it's a little extreme, but we'll live with it), refit the endpin area, and then set to work getting the cones and their canisters fit correctly. The first big problem, there, is that a third leg of support between the two resonator canisters needed to be added so that the horn/resonator housings were more stable. I just added a dowel between the two of them with some thin-film adhesive to keep them from compressing together anymore. Someday, maybe, it may visit again and I can figure-out an aesthetically-pleasing, more-permanent solution.

After that it just needed the usual tightening/anchoring of rattling parts, etc. that helps these sound clean and clear. The customer supplied some gasket material, too, and so we fit some where the horns mount to the body so that they rotate more freely. I found that a "one horn up, one horn forward" rotation on them worked best so that the player can hear the instrument well and the audience can, too.

In tone, it really does sound very-much like an ordinary cello, though the lowest notes have a little more of a metallic lilt to them. I was surprised at how warm and rich this one sounds. Like most Stroh-style instruments, the sound is extremely directional.