The Ongoing 7/8 Report

For reference purposes I'm labeling this Eastman VC-100 7/8 I'm currently play-testing as Number 3, the Scarlatti 7/8 I tried at Wilder & Davis as Number 2, and the original Eastman VC-100 that was sold Number 1.

I did a bit of recording in my office, and it's not the same as the recording I did at the second luthierie. It's completely the environment; when I recorded the second 7/8 it was in a practice room lined with cellos, and so the sound was super resonant, because all of them were vibrating when I played. I have no way of checking the actual sound unless I sign out the Number 2 on home trial and record it here. Which I may do at some point this summer, I suppose. One must entertain oneself somehow.

This third one just doesn't grab me. I don't feel the same smoothness. The action's pretty high, probably because those extra millimetres of string length have to come from somewhere. It doesn't bother my fingers, though.

I haven't touched the bow. I tried it a bit and it needs a lot more rosin; it skipped around a lot. The balance seems all right, as does the weight. Nothing outstanding.

The finish is a polished satin, but I liked the colour of Number 1 better. I am very, very shallow. But it's part of the aesthetic.

I took it to rehearsal last week, and it performed adequately in the ensemble. The sound was slightly warmer than my 4/4, which tends to a more brittle sound. I don't know how much of this is due to the newer strings. Mine are a year old, after all. I did have to fine-tune frequently throughout rehearsal. (Yikes -- I just double-checked, and mine are not one but two years old. Oy! I remembered getting them just before a spring gig, and evidently it wasn't the Victoria Day 2007 concert but the April 2006 concert just before t! and Jan got married.)

Part of my problem is the cello I buy now won't be the same in a couple of years; they need to be played in before the sound matures. Mine's had forty years of settling in. This one was made last year and would need a lot of work to break it in properly. (Hell, my strings are older than this 7/8.) Of course, this is true of any new cello I buy. Still.

I do adore the case with much adoration, however. Not that this will be a deciding factor. It's good to know if I can't afford a hard case, however, I can buy this kind of soft case for the next cello and it will be better protected than the thinner gig case I use now. (Which is, I have discovered to my absolute horror, scratching the sides of the cello. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad! Did I mention that it's bad? And bad?)

Part of me is still thinking I should look at a step or two higher. Sure, the quality of the VC-100 is equivalent to mine, which is a high-end student model itself, but I really do want to upgrade in quality as well as the size. The size and playability might make a long-term difference, but I can't evaluate that until I've had the damn thing long-term. I want to visit a shop in Toronto when we're up there later this month and see what they have, too. I thought about asking Olivier to order in an other one, but I don't think I will at this point.

I can't see the point in buying something that's equivalent to mine but with a slightly different shape. Number 1 had enough of a difference in sound and feel that I considered buying it. I simply don't like this one enough. I'll play it again early next week, but I'm fairly certain it's going back. (Well, it's going back either way; I don't have the money for it at the moment.) If I loved it I'd have negotiated putting a deposit on it, but I don't, so that's that.

(Originally posted at Owls' Court.)