Cecilio CECO-4BK Ebony Electric Silent Metallic Black Cello in Style 4, Size 4/4 (Full Size)

I live in an apartment and got this piece to aid in practicing. I am an experienced cellist. I highly recommend this as a fabulous addition to your instrument collection.Here are some things I recommend to any buyers... first off, don't expect to play the same day it arrives. Be patient and your instrument will reward you.1. Have someone handy carefully oil and maneuver the fine tuners with the strings off.2. re-string the instrument. Mine came with the wrong strings on the corresponding pegs. Obviously it wasn't meant for ready play right out of the box. This is a manufactured item but you need to treat it like a crafted item to get the most out of it. I allowed mine to rest for almost two days, slowly tightening/tuning the strings. I debated purchasing new strings but I'm glad I didn't. See my explanation below. **Putting the bridge up was no problem.3. oil and tighten all the movable parts (support pull outs). Eventually you will want to re-do the screws and washers. This is definitely the part of the instrument that will wear out over time and excessive use. Keep a little screwdriver in the case as they do need tightening from time to time.4. ROSIN that bow! And use a GOOD rosin. It doesn't seem to matter much that the strings and bow hair are cheap, but decent rosin makes a huge difference. If you spend less than $10 online for your rosin you probably are not spending enough. It will be closer to $20 retail. I recommend JADE. And drown your bow in it. The test, run your nail across the base of the strings (by the frog) after applying rosin. You should see a sizeable white cloud float off your bow. Remember not to touch the hair of your bow or the playable area of your strings. The oil from your hands will deteriorate both over time. Use a soft dry cloth to remove rosin build up from strings between practice sessions.5. Invest in headphones. Lets face it, you saved money by going with the Cecilio versus Yamaha models. You can afford to put a little extra into some phones. I spent as much on phones and a small amp as I did on my electric cello. What a joy to listen to though, it's worth making it happen.My experience is that the strings and bow don't have a huge impact on the sound as they would on an acoustic cello. That is actually great news. You get a lot more sound quality and freedom from settings on your amp. Additionally, bow pressure & technique is also not as important. Another nice benefit. The tonality is consistent all the way up the neck. Not always so and not always easy on an acoustic. I feel this is a GREAT option for an intermediate player for this reason. Or someone who wants to play and doesn't have the luxury of honing their skill with hours of practice. The electric is VERY forgiving. :) ** Not a great practice option for someone looking to improve on technique as it really will not have the same requirements. You will think you're much improved... and then go back to your acoustic and be disappointed.I used the electric in the studio recently for some scratch tracks and it was perfect! We did use a much more quality cord for recording and it extended further out the back due to the adapter. During that session I damaged the box on the back. (stepped on a cord and bent the inside... be careful you don't do the same when using adapters) I called cecilio and I was able to get a replacement box for only $25. I'm not sure how difficult it was to install as my husband is quite handy. I believe he had to solder in order to install the replacement.All in all, I'm very please with this item and because it's my secondary, very glad I chose it over higher priced cellos. It is definitely sufficient. I've used mine for practice, performance through a PA system, and in the studio.

The media could not be loaded. For $400 I would think it would be medium standard quality that you can use for awhile.Good things about this cello.You can change the tone of the cello and also the volume pretty well depending on the quality of the amp you hook it up to.There are some bad qualities however. When you first get the cello the strings are already attached to the fine tuners not th pegs. It comes with no directions at all and also the pegs are mostly lose and some are off completely. This might be bad for beginners who don't have any experience with putting the bridge on the cello and tuning it correctly. Also the cello itself doesn't come with a tuner so you need to find one online or buy one yourself. Once you do get the cello assembled it's hard to get the pegs to stay where they are because of the tension from the strings. Also the place where you put the bridge allows the bridge to slide around a little which caused the bridge to pop out of the slot and fly out while I was assembling the cello. Since these are friction pegs the tension of the string is too much at first so it took me an hour just to tune the cello even close to standard tuning. Once all the pegs have gotten use to the strings it's a pretty good cello from the amp sound. The headphones are cheap so I recommend throwing them away once you get them. Also the 3rd time I used the cello the A string was grinding on the top part of the neck and it looked like the metal coating of the string was falling apart. When I tried tuning it back the string snapped.This is cosmetic but I don't understand why the back handle not fully painted. It looks like someone forgot to paint rest of the cello so it's one color. Also a lot of scratches.We really wanted to like this cello so it would be portable to use everywhere but will return this one because too many issues out of the box.

Tuning pegs backwards, bow is a viola bow, not a cello bow; doesn't have a proper quarter inch input for a normal cable. Initial strings very poor quality.