List Price: $899.99
Sale Price: $346.77
Today's Bonus: 61% Off
- Size 4/4 electric cello with hand-carved maple wood & red mahogany metallic varnish in style 3 (full size)
- Ebony fingerboard, pegs and tailpiece with mother of pearl inlay and 4 detachable fine tuners
- Powered by a 9V Alkaline battery (included)
- Includes: well padded lightweight soft-case, bow, rosin, aux cable, & headphones
- 1 Year Warranty Against Manufacturer's Defects
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Hello everyone! I will start by saying I am a classically trained cellist and have been playing for 11 years now. About 2 years ago, I started dabbling into the world of amplifying a cello and using effects. When I started this journey, I used a Fishman C-100 cello pickup on my acoustic instrument. (I would strongly recommend this pickup for anyone wanting to keep the acoustic instrument for use of amplification. Be sure to buy an acoustic preamp like an L.R. Baggs.)For all you beginners, I must stress that you invest in an acoustic cello. This cello is not the type to learn on or anything like that. I can see how the silent and cheap aspect is appealing, but this instrument truly shines as one meant for amplification and effects.
Now, onto my review.
I received the cello in the mail just as any other package I have received from Amazon. It comes in a fairly large box, was much lighter than expected, and was well packaged for delivery. Do not worry about having this instrument shipped to you.
Upon opening the box, I pulled out the plastic bag that contained a basic set of headphones, the 9V battery necessary to power the instrument, and a 1/8" to 1/4" (male to male) adapter. All good so far.
Next was the gig bag with cello. The bag is your basic soft case that a beginning cellist would have received with his/her student acoustic cello. Not great, but not bad at all. Probably not going to find a hard case for this cello. So I pulled out the bow, and it's, as expected, a basic student bow. The wight was surprising light, but be prepared to rosin in for a good while. Too bad they don't make the rosin spray anymore. Luckily, a cake of rosin and dust rag come in the bag. No worries so far.
Now, the instrument itself. I opened the gig bag and was so excited to see the instrument. Upon grabbing it, you will notice it's not flimsy at all and the paint job is done very well. No blemishes, dings, or marks...and I got a white one, so if there was damage, I would notice. As expected, the bridge was not installed (thank goodness). You will find your bridge in the same small pocket on the front of the bag that had the rosin and rag. Also note that the strings will already be attached, but tightened down. Now, there have been a lot of complaints about this cello from the reviews I have read, but with a firm understanding of the mechanics of a cello, you should be playing this thing in 10-15 minutes. I will provide you a few steps I think would be helpful. ( I did not find any manual or setup guide with the cello )Do not be in a rush to get this thing assembled. Take your time and think.
1. Loosen your fine tuners and make sure they move smoothly. There have been complaints about them not budging. Mine worked fine, but to make them even more smoother, I sprayed a tiny amount of WD-40 on the tuners and the fully tighten and loosened them. Works like a charm. Note: If you hear a rattling, you have either loosened your tuners too much or you need to tighten the little nut at the base of each tuner. No tools required.
2. Loosen up your pegs at the scroll. Mine were jammed in a bit, so make sure you pull out and loosen to free up the peg. Some reviews say the pegs don't stick, but peg oil fixes that up. Now, I like to wire my strings in my own fashion, so I removed the strings and wound them the way I like them. (If you have no idea how to wire a cello string, there are videos and topics all over the internet. They did not take care to wire the strings on the peg in any good fashion, but no damage done. Now, once your pegs are loosened, make sure they rotate smoothly in the peg box. I imagine that a bit of sandpaper to the peg box holes would fix up any roughness, but I did not have a problem operating the pegs.
3. Loosen your strings just enough to fit the bridge onto the cello. For all you experienced cellists, rejoice that there are no worries with a sound post or proper fitting of legs and location on the body of the instrument. It fits perfectly on the pickup. No nudging or aligning with the fingerboard. You should have no problems placing the bridge. VERY IMPORTANT: Your bridge will probably be way too high unless you like your upper register to have a 1/2" gap between the strings and fingerboard. I haven't done so yet, but simply make marks on the face of your bridge where the string notches are and the sand or file down your bridge to you desired height. Make sure, of course, to keep the arch of the bridge the same as it aligns with the fingerboard. (One side should be lower than the other!)
4. Once your happy with your bridge, tighten your pegs and tune away. As any experienced cellist would know, your strings will stretch for the first week or so. You will have to re-tune the cello often until the strings are broken in. Now, as you noticed the price, you will not get any great strings. Any acoustic cello strings will do. You obviously don't have to worry about matching your strings with the body and character of your cello. Your cello has no body! I replaced the given strings with a basic set of Heliocore's and they work great.
5. Once your tuned up and ready to play, have fun with it. Please make sure your bow is well rosined. It will take a while to get it good and ready.
This cello works great as a silent practice cello, but note that you will have to get used to it as it's a substantially different feel from an acoustic. This is why you should learn on the acoustic! You will first notice that it's awkward to hold, but you will get comfortable with it. Also, it's probably going freak you out how little sound comes out of without it being plugged in.
Now, for my favorite part: The amp and pedal board. On the back our cello, there will be a black box with what you need to amplify. First, make sure your battery is in and your cello turns on. There's an on/off switch with a red light to let you know when it's on. (Turn your cello off or you will kill the battery ....kind of a weird new habit you'll have to get into.) Next, take your 1/4 to 1/8 cable and plug your 1/8" end into the "line out" jack. You can then either plug the 1/4" end into an amp or pedal board. When you plug it into an amp. the cello will, well....kind of sound like a cello. Kind of. Depends on your amp and the settings it has.
If you plan on using this cello for awesome effects and such, here's my pedal lineup for you to see how I shape my sounds.
Cello --> EB Jr. Volume Pedal --> Cry Baby Wah --> Lyon Distortion --> BOSS PH-3 Phase Shifter --> Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble --> Boss Compression/Sustainer --> BOSS Equalizer --> RV-5 Digital Reverb --> Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler --> Bass Amp (USE A BASS AMP!)
If you want to retain the natural smooth cello sound, the pedals you will need are an equalizer and a compression sustainer. I would say teh reverb is optional, but it really does give a great sound for that cello tone. Have fun with your pedals and do research before you purchase. I like BOSS pedals as you can tell, but that's just me.
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Overall, I think this cello was a great buy and I am more than satisfied. With a little maintenance and care, this cello was up and running and sounds great. A must buy for anyone looking to try some awesome effects on a cello. Your cello can be a heavy metal guitar or Bach Prelude cello with the hit of a switch. I hope this was helpful and please feel free to contact me with nay questions you may have about the cello or let me know if this was helpful. I'd love to help!My oldest son started playing the cello when he was 8 years old. He stuck with it and developed into a State Level Cellist by 8th grade. He has been asking for an electric cello ever since. We set goals, really high goals because what we found at the time was $800.00 or more. Going into his 11th grade year, he mentioned that he found an electric cello and asked if we would pay half if he saved up.
He has been playing for 9 years and is a teaching assistant for level 1 and level 2 cello classes so he knows his instrument. I would not think this is a starter instrument, even though the price is low. We put the order in and within 30 minutes of receiving it, he had it put together and tuned. We did not have the problems other reviewers did with the fine tuners nor the pegs/peg box.
Our son has been playing it just as often as his acoustic cello. So it has doubled his practice time.
Final verdict: Highly recommended, but this is not a starter instrument.Since money's tight right now and I've always wanted an electric, I figured I'd try one of these cheap electrics instead of renting a student level acoustic. Mostly was looking for something to play until I can save up enough for a decent replacement. I set my expectations pretty low for this, but was pleasantly surprised, especially once I saw Steven Sharp Nelson (of The Piano Guys) playing what looked like the five string version of this. Only had it a day so far, but have a few hours of playing in. Overall, I'd recommend it so long as you know what you're getting into:
The Ugly: The nut and fingerboard are truly awful. This was nearly the gamebreaker for me, but I do need something to play so I figured I'd give it a shot. The curve in the fingerboard is nearly symmetrical so the feel is very different from what I'm used to and string changes take just enough extra concentration that it can throw you off on fast runs. This can be mitigated somewhat with the bridge fitting but it definitely will take some getting used to. The nut is about half the height it should be so the strings are practically touching the fingerboard up there, leading to some buzz. I'll probably build it up this weekend and may plane down the treble side of the fingerboard a bit, but I really wanted to play it NOW. ;) Since this cello's fingerboard is just some kind of wood painted black, I'm not sure that it's hard enough to withstand much playing. Time will tell I may end up just cannibalizing the fingerboard and nut from my old cello.
The Bad: The strings are junk. Budget an extra $50-$100 for a new set. I restrung it with a set of D'Addario Preludes (~$50) decent student strings since I wasn't sure how much I wanted to invest in this if it turned out to be a total bust. Fortunately, it is not. When these go, I'll put some better ones on.
All the negative reviews about the fine tuners are totally justified for some reason, they crimped them shut around the strings. Use a fine bladed screwdriver to pry them open it helps if you remove them from the tailpiece first. Just unscrew the tuner knob and the nut, then the tuner body should come right out. Lay it on its side and that will help a lot. Upgrade these when you can. In the meantime, a drop of oil will smooth them out.
I tried the bow that came with it just to see how it was...it'll do if you don't have a good bow already, but you'll probably want to upgrade this at some point as well. I found it a little sluggish and unresponsive. Then again, it's part of a $300 cello package. You can easily spend several times that on a bow.
Something that falls in the "I probably just need to get used to" bucket is the shape. It looks nice, but the first time I tried playing it I had a little trouble getting situated. Since it's missing half the body, it really made me aware of some of the landmarks I normally use to keep the cello in the proper position that I wasn't aware of until they were gone. The bout also feels to me like they have it curved the wrong way. I'd probably get one of the models with at least a full bottom half if I were to do it again.
The Good: In spite of its shortcomings, it actually is a lot of fun to play once you get the feel of it. Playing Bach through an effects pedal is truly sublime! I was a little worried about the frequency response of the piezo pickup, but the preamp is decent enough that your technique and the amp you run it through will likely make more of a difference in the sound than anything. It's not great, but it'll do for my daily practice and the occasional gig. If I could afford to be really anal about the sound, I probably would not be looking at a $300 cello, you know?
I know some reviewers have had problems with their pegs, but I got lucky the action is smooth and they grip well. Only complaint is that the D peg was cut a little short. Probably going to replace them with Perfection Pegs or machine heads at some point, but more because of personal preference and I have the parts lying around than out of necessity (I also have a bad habit of voiding warranties...). Setup is simple if you're handy with tools. If you're not, a luthier should be able to fit the bridge (lowers the action and curves the profile of the strings to match that of the fingerboard) and shape the nut, but just be prepared for a lecture about buying cheap Chinese cellos. ;) If you're comfortable doing it yourself, you probably already have the tools you need and can find the information on how to do it online.
Unboxing to playing took me just under an hour, including swapping out the fine tuners, cursing the state of the fingerboard and debating whether to send it back, deciding that it wouldn't be that bad once the bridge was fitted, measuring and shaping the bridge (took the bulk of the time), shaping the nut (didn't have a whole lot to work with, so just cleaned up the groove edges a little), and changing the strings. If you're looking for an electric cello on a budget, this is about as cheap as you can get into one and it's certainly playable out of the box. I'd buy it again, but probably one of the more traditional-ish body shapes.Background, I'm a beginner cello player, self taught but I had a year of violin and double bass in college. I made a project of a terrible eBay violin almost a decade ago and in the process learned to do a lot of my own repairs (replaced everything but the body and had a tolerable instrument at the end. Sadly, this is relevant to this review). Straight up: if you are not comfortable restringing your own instrumentthis is not the instrument for you. Luckily it's not terribly difficult to learn to do via the Internet. This is a beginners instrument.
I purchased a Cecilio cello (acoustic, not the lowest qualitybut only one step up) several months ago and have really enjoyed it, so when I wanted to make an electric cello purchase it wasn't a hard decision to go with another Cecilio purchase. Things to know:
The good
1) It's pretty. The black is a metallic black with a tiny amount of sparkle to it.
2) There's a fold out chest bar that helps simulate the feel of a full instrument.
The bad
1) The strings are questionable at best. I've had no problems with my acoustic cello's strings (they are color coded by string compared to a simple red for all four strings on this cello so I am working under the assumption this instrument has different quality strings), but the A string snapped on this cello after less than a week of minimal playing. Get a cheap starter set of strings to have on hand or you may spend a couple of days waiting for replacements.
2) The fine tuners are even more questionable. I could barely remove the broken A string (took pliers) and could not replace it with the spare string I had on hand because the prongs were crimped together. Compared to my acousticdifferent tuners, lower quality. Very sad. Replacing those as well.
3) The pegs refused to hold. Constant slipping. I couldn't get all four strings tuned at one time out of the box. I have peg drops on hand, but if this is your first stringed instrument you might not. With peg drops I could get it to hold a tune for 5-10 minutes and was looking at possible reasons why it still was having trouble (my acoustic cello holds within a half tone for days) when my A string snapped. Hoping it was made worse by bad strings because I'd really rather not have to replace the pegs too. (Update: replaced strings, now holds tune just fine. Pegs are fine but the strings are terrible. Replace them asap!)
4) The headphones are junk, but if you expected high quality headphones you're looking in the wrong price range. This was not an issue for me at all and it works great with headphones I already had.
Cost to get the cello working is 40$ for the replacement fine tuners, 40$ for replacement strings, 8$ for peg drops, and a week and change of fiddling with it to try to get it to work decently. The good news: even with 90$ in repairs and providing my own headset, it's the cheapest electric cello I've found. Since I want a cello I can practice when people are sleepingit's not a terrible deal. I'm not upset with the purchase because I knew going in that it could be bad. I wasn't expecting it to be quite this much work, but I don't mind the work.
The bad newsthe acoustic cello I bought that's done righttolerable beginner strings, fine tuners that aren't crimped, pegs that hold a tunecosts less than this cello after repairs and came with a hard side case, an extra set of strings, and didn't require any start up care. If you can only take one home as a beginner, go with the acoustic set up. It's the better instrument by far.
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