Cecilio4/4 Electric Cello with Ebony Fittings, Professional Silent Electric Cello Kit with Bow, Rosin, Aux Cable and Headphone, Musical Instrument for Beginners, Black Metallic

I read all the reviews about this cello and went ahead with my purchase to try it out myself. I've got 19 years playing cello and needed my own "rough/bumming around" cello for going to bars or practicing. Let me break this down....--- The quality this has is actually insanely impressive, and I mean that different ways/reasons. The body is sturdy, the neck and pegs are strong wood [rosewood, spruce, standard] but to have the feel of a $1300 cello in a $300 purchase, great feat. The sound, holy heck the sound. Just what i had hoped for. Living from homes to apartments, neighbors to consider with the full bodied instruments. The sound in this thing is just superb. It does not carry the bass like a full body would, but do not take that as "there will be little to no sound" the sound is great for apartment living/small spaces.--- The bridge OF COURSE does NOT come pre-installed. I had read a comment or two about how mad the customer was that had to install the bridge... OK.... Take one look at any stringed instrument and ask "would you ship it that way?" No. No you wouldn't. On that note, the strings came already set and pegged for any beginner to have little to no struggle with. Keep the tuners {the silver twirlies near the bridge} loose and not the pegs; you'll unravel a string and have to feed it through again. This is a given at any time with the instrument so you'll want things tight after you've set. Slip the bridge under the strings and place on the rubber pad provided, then just suspend the loose strings on the bridge. The fatter space on the bridge is left for the G string, or the fattest string. Otherwise noted the logo, "Cecilio" should face AWAY from you. When you've placed the bridge, you'll have to switch between tightening the tuners and placing the pegs. You'll slip a string occasionally, it'll just happen. Wood and friction, humidity and temperature, things will happen, so just try and palm/push the wooden pegs [where the strings wrap around] to press the pegs into the cello a little harder/further. This will more/less help to keep the pegs in place and prevent slippage. Go to youtube, tune a cello and tighten it up by turning tuners or pressing pegs. It'll take tiiiimmmmeeeeee. Don't force the cello. Work it into tune. Do it right? You'll have strings that possibly last a decade and a cello that stays most often in tune. It'll jus sit there, set and ready to play.--- The Bow. Cheap and not cheap at all. Very impressed by the quality they've sent along. Shorter, heavier, though a great bow to work the form and muscles of the hands and wrist [for beginners]. Others will most likely have this bow as only a back up or maybe practice.--- If you have never rosined a bow before..... Here's some pointers: Do NOT touch the bow hair directly, do not let others or anyone touch the bow hair directly. Your oily greasy fingers will tarnish and deplete the sound and ability of the bow. Do NOT over tighten the bow. Here's a good way to avoid doing just that: If you have a moment of "Gee, I wonder if this is too tight" it probably is, so loosen it. You should be able to tap or bounce the wooden part of the bow on your palm and see *some* movement or "slack" in the bow hairs. Be sure to loosen after use. This is your chance to play around and after no time at all you'll feel/hear the difference with your playing of tight or loose bows.----- To rosin, remove the entire bit of rosin from container, should have a hole underneath to help pop out and should be covered in cloth; again stressing the "do not touch the rosin or bow with your bare fingers" routine. ****TAKE A PAIR OF SCISSORS*** or say a screwdriver, anything sharpish and hatch the rosin. Just "#" sort of thing, just scrape right onto the rosin. Yes, the rosin is pretty as it is, Yes I mean it to just tear right into the pretty rosin. It is a type of activation and helps spread and cover the bow. Then just rosin the bow. Go all across the hairs, go by preference. Go multiple layers. Through my years I've done the sides and in between [the wood and the hairs] to rosin a new bow. Then thru time you'll just apply as needed or pending on your amount of play time, before each play.--My Overall,If I knew I could have gotten this instrument sooner in life I would have. If I had this as a kid I can't tell you where I would be now. I had auditioned for many spots and a lot of my practice was prohibited by apartment living. Impossible to play anything on a rented loud full body cello in an apartment. If you have kids, if you have someone interested at all, definitely if you have interested kids, find some way. If you're concerned, there are SO many more options for rentals than you can guess. Try that out for size, hear the loud bass and see if the kid actually gets into it. Then I would say, don't hesitate with this instrument. This is a phenomenal deal for any age or use.

The craftsmanship is amazing and the sound is beautiful! When I first ordered it, it arrived with the bridge broken, but I talked to support who responded immediately and issued a replacement to be delivered. Overall great instrument, great quality, and great service!

Look, first off, full disclosure - I'm not Yo Yo Ma. This shouldn't be a surprise given I'm reviewing a sub $500 instrument, but I probably can't tell the difference between a $2000 cello and a $30,000 cello. I'm fairly new to bowed instruments. I rented a cello from a very good strings shop up here in Seattle area, for about a year and according to them the "Student Cello" was about a $2k setup with soft case, bow, etc.That said, I have been playing other things with strings for 25 years (electric and acoustic guitar, mandolin, uke, bass, harp) and I am a pretty good judge of quality and playability. I have done a lot of my own setup and modification work on instruments over the years. I got tired of shelling out a monthly fee for a cello that I play about 6 or 8 times a month, so I went looking to buy something. My use case for this is simply to test out some parts I'm writing using some string libraries in my DAW, and I wanted to figure out for some of the chords and transitions if they were humanly possible, or whether or not a given part might require 2 cellos or more. I wasn't that interested in tone, all I wanted was something that will play, stay in tune, and not require special handling like humidification or specific temperature requirements like many full acoustic cellos do.So far this fits the bill. It was inexpensive, at least as cello kits go, and while I was a little worried about friction tuners on an inexpensive instrument, so far it seems to be holding up nicely. I didn't have to make any bridge modifications, although it did not come with instructions for how to set the bridge so you will have to go online for guidance there if you have never done this before. Also worth mentioning, if you are new to the bow thing, getting a brand new bow rosined up for the first time can take some time.The positives: No strange buzzes, hardware is not too flimsy, it comes with almost everything you need including rosin, case, cheap headphones, bow, strings, a 1/8" to 1/4" cord for your amp, and a polishing rag. Only things that were missing for me were batteries for the preamp, and instructions for the bridge setup and positioning. Plays just like the rental did, and sounds fine. Being able to amp it means you can fool with the tone a bit to get the sound you want. For extra kicks, run it through some guitar effects. I have a Boss GT-10 megapedal, and had a blast goofing around with it on some of the odder pedal patches. not super useful for my intended purpose, but a fun way to spend an afternoon.The negatives: Cheap finish, with a few paint runs. The built in preamp with the volume knob and tone knob feels a bit flimsy on the knobs and switches. 1/8" output jack where 1/4" is standard in the music business. You have to use the cord that came with it instead of a decent guitar cable. No auto power off, so you are sure to forget to flip the switch on the preamp and run the batteries down at some point. All my other guitars with active circuitry have a feature where when you unplug the cable from the guitar it shuts off the preamp in case you forget. A simple switched jack could solve this.Summary: Overall, happy with this purchase. It isn't perfect, but it serves my needs quite well, and there are no major show stoppers with the unit I got. I may take apart the preamp at some point and add a switched 1/4" jack somewhere if I need an afternoon project, but I'll give it a solid 4 stars and I feel like I got my money's worth.