Red Willow Ruggieri

Back: Red Willow
Top: Italian Spruce
Neck: Plain Maple

Antiqued oil varnish

Body length: 738 (29 inches)
Bouts: 356, 240, 440
Ribs: 113 – 117
String length: 694

Red willow is another very light wood in the poplar family, anticipating a nice warm tone, I bumped up the archings to firm up the sound. The result is a strong but warm and clear sounding cello.

The willow has some small knots but few other visual features, to make it interesting I played up the tool marks, but tried to go light on the scratches and varnish wear. The purfling is beechwood which I first used on a Tononi copy and really liked, It cuts very crisply and has a nice fleck in the white.