A Double Bass Disaster!

Chi-chi's double bass was made in Italy in 1631 by the renowned Nicolas Amati, of the famous Amati family of luthiers. 
Its previous owners were Doris Greenish and Francis Bains, who passed the instrument to Chi-chi. The provenance of the instrument and its previous owners over the last three hundred years is not clearly recorded, but it is certain that the instrument had taken a battering well before its most recent accident.

Inside Chi-chi's double bass is a label in Latin which records the instrument's maker and the year it was made. 
 Translation: "Nicolas Amati, Cremona, made in the year 1631"

Heartbroken by the wrecked double bass, Chi-chi zipped up the case so as not to lose even the smallest splinter of wood, and consulted her trusted colleagues at Bridgewood & Neitzert, London specialists in stringed instrument repair. They assessed the damage to the body, and though it was a shocking sight, Gary Bridgewood and his team were convinced it could be rescued and restored to its former glory.

The process of restoration by Bridgewood & Neitzert over the next 9 months was like a long and painful surgery. 
The neck of the instrument and fingerboard were removed, along with the entire front of the instrument's body, so that the internal structure could be revealed. It was important that repairs to the wood were precise and sympathetic to the age of the material, otherwise the sound quality and resonance of this superior instrument would be lost. 

Multiple braces were used to hold the sides of the double bass together. Cracks were filled, sections were reattached and the instrument’s varnish was applied over months of painstaking restoration, until the scars were barely noticeable. 
Remarkably, the instrument now sounds better than it did before the accident!