Here's Rebec Mark1 Mod1 (Pavel's Rebec)

Here is some information on the first of the rebecs that I built - the one that Pavel convinced me to do.  I have since done a pretty thorough rebuild on the instrument - putting a new, higher fingerboard on it, a new bridge, trimming and lowering the tuning head, thinning the soundboard, and carving a wren on the peghead between the pegs.  It now sounds as good as, if not better than, my instrument.

Here is a sound file recorded at random at Kris Kinder






This is the rebec and it's bow.  I did a more traditional c-hole soundhole design on this instrument, it was a fitting way to do it.  The instrument sounds good and resonates well with this soundhole design.


Another view - the back of the rebec.  This body came out of the same board as my rebec, though the shape is slightly different, determined by the grain of the piece, it is the same as mine in basic dimension  A small piece of water buffalo horn was added at the base of the instrument as a saddle instead of the ebony used on my instrument, to take the pressure of the tailgut and keep it from cutting into the spruce soundboard.





Side view of the rebec and bow.  The tailpiece is made of padaul, the pegs are made of purpleheart, and the fingerboard is maple.  The bridge is walnut.  The nut is antler. 














Here is a view of the soundboard, soundholes, tailpiece, and bridge.  I installed precision fine-tuners on this tailpiece, at the request of Pavel.














The peghead and purpleheart pegs, along with the nut .  This peghead is the wyvern-tail shape shown in many of the artistic renderings of the middle ages.
Here is Pav with the instrument.  This has become the regular instrument for Pav, and he plays it a lot, and sounds good on it.  With the modifications I am going to make on it (reworking the fingerboard, lowering the tuning head, and more drastically curving the bridge) it should be an even better sounding instrument than mine.








 





Both instruments with the one bow I have made so far.  A handsome pair if I do say so myself.





Another shot of the sisters together.  They are both fine instruments, and far exceeded my expectations (I am still just floored that they even work, let alone as well as they do.)  I have a few more to make in the next week or so, and at least one of these will be shown as construction sequence shots for those interested. 






 





Kaz