A few years back i rescued an old cello from a house clearance, a bunch of thickos were clearing a house & as i drove past in the pouring rain saw it sticking out the top of their trailer. I pulled over 100 yards down the road & ran back just in time to see the guys throw a washing machine in on top of it smashing it badly.
I rescued it for a couple of quid & Its pretty much all there.
I had it appraised by a good luthier & it turned out to be a German trade instrument from around 1850, value if playable about £800, Cost to rebuild it to that condition about £3500. Aah well.
So the plan is to have a go at it myself, nothing to lose really & an interesting learning curve!
When i get round to it i will put some photos up. It may be a while!
The sad thing is that one of the clearance guys said there were three more in the loft, i gave them my number but they never got back to me. I suspect they just got skipped.