Positively Providential

Shortly after purchasing Sophie's cello (there seemed to be no rental options in the area), the cello teacher Mrs. R pointed out that the bridge was too flat, making it difficult for Sophie to play only one string at a time. I have also been dissatisfied with the sound produced by the instrument, but the music store was so far away that we kept putting off getting the bridge fixed. Besides, I no longer had much confidence in a place that didn't fit the cello up correctly the first time. (I didn't catch the problem in the first place, because I could clear the strings more easily than Sophie when I tested it out in the store, and because I thought it was just an issue caused by a dinky-sized cello.)

At Sophie's last cello lesson, Mrs. R mentioned that another student had gotten a bridge repair done on the spot at a music store in Golden.

On Monday, Sophie and I had a homeschool orchestra concert in the morning. (I play along with the cellists in the orchestra in order to mentor them.) James took the day off to be the chauffeur. He "happened" to mention that our concert was near Golden.

After the concert, we jaunted over to Golden and stopped a the visitor's center to locate the music store. At the music store, I pointed out the problems with the bridge and also a problem with the bow. The repairman explained that the bow had been rehaired too tightly and agreed that the bridge had been made completely wrong. He asked where we had acquired the cello and when we said "Rockley's Music", he told us that their shop often received botched up stringed instruments from Rockley's. He explained other problems with Sophie's cello and showed us another messed up cello from Rockley's in the shop. We asked if the quality of the cellos sold by Rockley's improved with the larger-sized instruments, but the repairman told us that was not the case.

In other words, we spent too much on the small-sized cello that we purchased and it would be a bad investment to continue trading in the instrument on larger sizes at Rockley's Music. Bad news on the one hand, but on the other, I was glad to learn the truth before making more costly purchases.

The Golden music store, which specializes in stringed instruments, replaced the bridge on Sophie's cello, made other adjustments to the instrument, and reset the frog on the bow to relieve the pressure on the hair, all within the time it took us to run to a grocery store, get gas, and run the van through a car wash.

Sophie and I had another orchestra performance the same evening, and when I tuned her cello, I was amazed at the improved quality of sound that resonated from her cello! Sophie also noticed how much easier that it was to play.

We are thankful that, in God's Providence, we found the best place in the area to fix Sophie's cello.