Anyone know anything about cellos?

[Puddleglum]

My wife wants a cello and I don’t know anything about them. She’s pretty small so she’d probably want a 3/4 size. Can you give me any clue as to where to begin researching brands, etc? I’d hate to get her a pretty piece of junk!

Thanks in advance.

[Mandobart]

Are there any music stores that sell or rent orchestral strings near you? One of the great things about bowed instruments is they are regularly available to rent.

That's how I started on double bass - I rented one for $75/month to try out. I really enjoyed it and bought a '46 Kay a few months later

Does she already play? If not a better gift (in my opinion) would be lessons with a rental cello. She may decide she wants to upgrade after she has some hours of playing under her fingers.

Good cellos make great guitars look cheap. A good new Chinese Eastman or Shen will start at around $1500 or $2000. A US built Upton will be 2 to 3 times that.

The best bang for the buck will be used. Are there any high schools with orchestra programs in your area? The orchestra director may know about students upgrading to newer instruments and might be selling their old ones.

Don't assume anything about what size she'll need. That's for her to work out with her teacher. I started violin at 10 on a full size instrument.

[frankmcr]

I know that a cello can sound amazingly beautiful.

I assume that, just as with violins, a really good cello bow will cost as much as a really good cello.

[Puddleglum]

Originally Posted by Mandobart

Are there any music stores that sell or rent orchestral strings near you? One of the great things about bowed instruments is they are regularly available to rent.

That's how I started on double bass - I rented one for $75/month to try out. I really enjoyed it and bought a '46 Kay a few months later

Does she already play? If not a better gift (in my opinion) would be lessons with a rental cello. She may decide she wants to upgrade after she has some hours of playing under her fingers.

Good cellos make great guitars look cheap. A good new Chinese Eastman or Shen will start at around $1500 or $2000. A US built Upton will be 2 to 3 times that.

The best bang for the buck will be used. Are there any high schools with orchestra programs in your area? The orchestra director may know about students upgrading to newer instruments and might be selling their old ones.

Don't assume anything about what size she'll need. That's for her to work out with her teacher. I started violin at 10 on a full size instrument.

Good info and food for thought. Thank you!

[keith.rogers]

Echoing the earlier post - having her find a teacher to assess the size she should have would be best. And, a rental to start would be ideal if that's possible.

Both kids went through the sizes of violins, and our son stuck with it, and, again, good instruments are not cheap - easy to get into into 5 figures before you can blink an eye. But, it takes some time to really be able to get the sound out of any bowed instrument, so if you can find a good string shop to work with, too, that's ideal since trading in where you bought is (or was) a fairly common business practice. Of course, if you live where there are active youth orchestras, there may be a used market you can tap into, but orchestral strings are pretty rare on the local Craigslist, and we have lots of kids playing in orchestras around here. Also, the fractional size instruments can be hard to sell if you need to up-size later, so acquiring through a local shop is better because the shipping cost on a cello is going to be eye-popping.

[rule18]

My wife is a professional cellist, and private teacher. We know that best way to find a good, properly sized instrument is to find a cello teacher and ask for help with sizing (and recommendation for a decent rental place). It's unlikely that your wife will need a 3/4", my wife is 5'3" and plays a full size instrument. Someone had previously mentioned bow quality, that is certainly a factor. You'd want to try multiple cellos with multiple bows, some combinations are more pleasing than others.

[Puddleglum]

I found someone locally that ran a youth orchestra that shut down. All the instruments are being sold so I’ll get to choose from quite a few usable cellos. I’m going to check them out this evening. Fingers crossed that there’s something good in my price range.

[catt]

Cool - that could be a good source. Hopefully they will be able to assess a set-up; set-up very important in cello. Let us know what you come away with.

*I was looking for a cello upgrade, and while i'm looking...some guitars and stuff happened, but i'm always kind of "looking"..

[Puddleglum]

Unfortunately I cannot post pics here, but I ended up buying one of this fellow's cellos. It's a full-size unlabeled instrument. Full gloss (except on the back of the neck) and it even has some nice flame maple on the sides and back (lam no doubt). No label inside so I'm sure it was mass-produced in China, Sri Lanka, or somewhere like that (I've seen quite a few "student" cellos online that were made in Sri Lanka).

The guy had six to choose from and this one had a better bridge with steel fine-tuners, and better pegs. I don't know anything about cellos but I do know acoustic instruments and this one seems like it'll be fine to learn on. It seems pretty solid and well-made for what it is.

I drove a good ways to meet the guy so he knocked off some money and I ended up with the cello, a bag, a tuner, a bow (not a great one, but still), and an extra set of no-name strings for $420. I couldn't be happier!

[rule18]

Congrats on finding a cello you (and your wife) are pleased with. BTW, the lack of label inside doesn't always indicate anything. My wife's "good" cello, a 155 year old Kennedy, has no label inside.

[Puddleglum]

Originally Posted by rule18

Congrats on finding a cello you (and your wife) are pleased with. BTW, the lack of label inside doesn't always indicate anything. My wife's "good" cello, a 155 year old Kennedy, has no label inside.

That's good info. It's actually kind of cool to just not know where it came from and be able to fully enjoy it on its own.

Even though this one is gloss, it doesn't look like those super-cheap violins that look dipped and coated in glaze. This cello looks like it has a thinner gloss. I liked the look of his matte-finished cellos a lot better, but they all had much cheaper components, which I know can cause a lot of problems and cost me a lot of money later to get replaced, etc.

I talked on the phone at length this week to the owner of a local string shop that sells violins, cellos, etc. He told me don't worry about the bow being cheap, or even the instrument being cheap if it's setup well enough to play on. He said it takes so long to develop and appreciate good tone that none of that stuff matters on the outset. I can see that. I still remember back when I'd pick up a guitar and consider it "nice" because the "strings were easier to push down," etc. Tone and technique are a long, long road.

Anyway, I feel pretty lucky/blessed to have found this fellow at the very time I was in the market. There were several cellos locally on FB marketplace, but it was really fortunate to find someone with several to choose from. I mean, what are the odds of that?

My wife won't see the cello till Xmas morning. She will be really surprised!

[Br1ck]

I've been down the cello path with my daughter. My wife ran a youth symphony organization, and my daughter was playing a school grade instrument. Really a POS cello. One day a lady called saying she had a cello her daughter used to play that had sat in a closet for thirty years. It was a half six which is what my daughter was playing at the time. When we goy it checked out it turned out to be worth $1500. This was thirty years ago, and was a serious student grade instrument. Later on, we needed a full sized cello a cello teacher sold us for $12,000 because she wanted my daughter to have it. Hundred bucks a month and no interest. When she went to conservatory, it was the cheapest instrument, but always took top three in a blind test.

I tell this to give you an an view into this world. If you went to a violin shop, likely you'd find the cheapest instrument they deemed worthy to be $1500-2000. The instruments sold to schools are maybe half. Go the rental route until you know if it sticks, for buying one is not for the feint of heart. If you get a teacher, it's common to get guidance. A bow should be a third the cost of the instrument.

My daughter's adult students generally start with $5000 invested. This in a well healed suburb of Silicon Valley.

Now if you want to play bass in a bluegrass band $1500 will do it. Plenty of internet sites to shop.

My other daughter plays viola. She bought a $25,000 viola a couple of years ago.

[Mandobart]

Originally Posted by Br1ck

Now if you want to play bass in a bluegrass band $1500 will do it. Plenty of internet sites to shop.

In my experience, not really. Today $1500 is pretty much the bare minimum you should expect to pay for a decent used plywood bass. Realistically it's going to cost around $2,000 USD.

There are lots of violin, viola, cello and bass shaped objects out there.

[Puddleglum]

Originally Posted by Br1ck

I've been down the cello path with my daughter. My wife ran a youth symphony organization, and my daughter was playing a school grade instrument. Really a POS cello. One day a lady called saying she had a cello her daughter used to play that had sat in a closet for thirty years. It was a half six which is what my daughter was playing at the time. When we goy it checked out it turned out to be worth $1500. This was thirty years ago, and was a serious student grade instrument. Later on, we needed a full sized cello a cello teacher sold us for $12,000 because she wanted my daughter to have it. Hundred bucks a month and no interest. When she went to conservatory, it was the cheapest instrument, but always took top three in a blind test.

I tell this to give you an an view into this world. If you went to a violin shop, likely you'd find the cheapest instrument they deemed worthy to be $1500-2000. The instruments sold to schools are maybe half. Go the rental route until you know if it sticks, for buying one is not for the feint of heart. If you get a teacher, it's common to get guidance. A bow should be a third the cost of the instrument.

My daughter's adult students generally start with $5000 invested. This in a well healed suburb of Silicon Valley.

Now if you want to play bass in a bluegrass band $1500 will do it. Plenty of internet sites to shop.

My other daughter plays viola. She bought a $25,000 viola a couple of years ago.

Yeah, the classical instrument world is a true subculture for sure. I'd probably never give $25k for any kind of instrument, though I understand why they cost so much. The local string shop had some starting at around $1600, but I was encouraged to buy a certain brand on Amazon as one option and bring it to him for setup. Interestingly enough, that same brand was the very one I was strongly encouraged to NOT buy when I spoke to the music school in Dallas. And so it goes on forums, YouTube, etc. Lots of varying opinions. I'm just hoping we got an instrument good enough for my wife to learn a few pieces on. At almost 50, she's in no danger of becoming the next Yo-Yo Ma.

[catt]

The instruments supplied to grade schools, and all that are sold inexpensively online, are all MIC/asia factory. None of these are solid wood, nor even solid-spruce top. The major impediment of these, for the beginning student, is they are not set-up. The primary impediment for a student is trying to learn on an instrument that is not set up.

These factory MIC instruments are often servicable instruments - meaning, they can be set-up properly and suitable for learning. Some of them sound pretty decent. I have several of these - acquired inexpensively after the student quits. They all needed set-up, which i do myself. My main player is the best of these, and is adequate for the amount of playing i do - given i play many other instruments. If i didnt have so much going on, i would procure a more expensive cello.

The Romanian and Asian solid-wood cellos in the 3K $ range currently available in my locale do not sound 3K $ better than my main cello, although they are much prettier - better woods, etc. For playing cello suites in the morning, Scottish tunes and such, i'm not going to upgrade until i come across an instrument that really speaks. When i want more volume i just slap on a piezo contact pick-up (and run it through my effects chain - but thats another story).

If your wife is brand new to cello, a cheap asian instrument will be fine to learn on if it is set up properly. I should also mention another impediment, in that a decent set of strings is required, and costs upwards of $250.

*i played BG bass for many years on inexpensive asian, romanian or old kay basses. Adequate for folk music.