It look good but found some scratches on the cello return for refund

I have quite a bit of experience with string instruments and I should have known better than to purchase one online. With the COVID-19 crisis and closure of almost every shop near me, there were few alternatives. I was looking for an affordable everyday “practice instrument” as I’m quite paranoid about daily usage of the older, more valuable cello that I use for performing. I simply needed a workhorse for home use—something to mess around with. (For me, it’s the same reason yiu don’t drive a Ferrari to the grocery store when you have a ride that’s far more practical.)Upon receiving the package, the issues were alarmingly similar to the others I see in the reviews here, suggesting that the issue may be due to poor craftsmanship or storage rather than just careless shipping.First, upon opening the hard case, the cello had two large cracks in the top. One was a gash beginning on the tail-end of the treble hole. Since this was in a hard case, it suggests that the instrument wasn’t properly stored or shipped with decent humidity or temperature control. The varnish had also peeled off from that crack, suggesting that this crack may have been present for some time, possibly before shipping.The other, more concerning crack was about 7–8 inches running under the foot of the bridge on the treble side, right over the sound post. This is a serious defect, which renders the instrument unplayable, or else you risk the pressure of the sound post causing the crack to grow, until the instrument caves in on itself over time.There was another smaller crack starting from the bass hole toward the tail. Again, this signifies insufficient humidity or temperature control.The bow was rolling around loose in the cardboard box, not inside the case. The metal stand was also floating around loose in the box, and it’s a wonder how the stand did not damage the bow. The bow also came unraveled. I tried applying rosin to the bow. It was infuriating to see hairs steadily “peel” off with each gentle pass of the rosin.I quickly packed the bow up in its bag, placed it in its case CORRECTLY, and carefully repackaged the entire set to be sent back for a refund.Such a shame. Customer service is pleasant enough to deal with, and hopefully we can work out some arrangement that makes me feel comfortable updating my review. Until then, this was utterly disappointing.

Good instrument for the price. Arrived in good condition with sound post intact. Probably, not for a beginner as some set up is required - bridge, and rosin needs sanding to deliver residue to the bow for it to catch the strings properly. As a violist who always fancied a cello this was a great purchase. Lots of accessories and the sound is very good.

C’est un bon violoncelle pour débutants. J’ai dû faire certains ajustements (changer pour de meilleures cordes, un meilleur archet et de la colophane foncée) et certaines réparations par un luthier (changement de la pique puisque la vis s’est brisée au bout de quelques mois). Ces améliorations sont de quelques centaines de dollars. Le luthier m’a dit que mon violoncelle était bien réalisé et qu’il sonnait assez bien pour un instrument de cette gamme de prix, mais que ce n’était pas toujours le cas puisqu’il a vu souvent des instruments comme celui là avec beaucoup plus de réparations à faire pour les rendre simplement jouables. Bref, selon lui, il y a le meilleur comme le pire dans ces instruments et il semble que j’ai eu un assez bon instrument pour débuter. Je lui met 4 étoiles en raison des améliorations que j’ai dû lui apporter. Il arrive démonté sans que le chevalet soit installé. Bel étui rigide pratique avec quelques défauts de fabrication mineurs. Beau support utile pour exposer son instrument.Update :2020-02-10Encore un bel instrument. Pas de nouvelles modifications à faire sauf des renforts de couture pour l’étui qui commençait à briser en raison de mes déplacements pour mes cours hebdomadaires. Ma prof de violoncelle le trouve bien pour débuter. Je suis satisfaite de l’achat.

I was on the fence about purchasing a cello online. I do not know how to play the cello and I only really wanted one to fool around with. I have been playing the violin for several years and own a Romanian, factory-made violin coupled with an old, very nice, German bow. I add this preface to give some context to my review of the CCO-300.I know a lot of people have commented on their Cecilio cellos arriving damaged. The box mine came in was torn open at the top. Thankfully the hard case the cello shipped in protected it and it arrived un-damaged. Your experience may differ but on that front, everything was OK for me.Setting up the cello wasn't too hard, mostly because the sound post hadn't fallen over. I cannot comment on whether it is placed correctly or not, but it seems like it's sort of in the right place. Placing the bridge was fairly painless. It clearly had some preliminary setup done given that it was notched for the strings. The bridge itself looks quite solid, but I have to believe it's one of least expensive you can get. The bridge feet are reasonably well fitted to the cello body, but they need some attention from a luthier who can properly cut/sand it to more closely match the contour of the cello. This is important and should be done. I'm not convinced the string action is completely correct as moving up the fingerboard puts the D string below the G and A, making it unplayable. Again, I think the bridge needs to be properly cut and setup by a luthier.The overall finish of the cello looks pretty nice, but as you get closer you can see where the short cuts were made. The fingerboard is not ebony (that's fine, it's not advertised as ebony), it's painted black...and looking underneath you can see that they didn't bother to paint the underside of the fingerboard. Black paint intrudes onto the neck of the violin which a little surprising, it suggests that they didn't pre-paint the fingerboard before putting it onto the neck. That doesn't make any sense to me, but whatever. The finish is quite heavy and covers up any wood blemishes that may exist. The tailpiece is wood and where it's mounted to the cello body the paint and finish gets quite sloppy.The alignment of the fingerboard to the neck is not as clean as it could be. The nut appears to have been setup OK and as near as I can tell, the strings are sitting at the appropriate height. It seems like the projection angle of the fingerboard is OK relative to the body of the cello.Overall, the appearance of the cello is fairly nice. Again, the heavy varnish/lacquer finish is designed to cover up any flaws as well as hide the wood grain, or lack thereof. There is no flaming on the back of the cello. For the price, it's what I would expect or perhaps a bit better.I suspect this is a fine student/beginner cello. But honestly, if one of my kids were to take up the cello I'd probably rent a higher quality instrument from a local shop from the very start. Because I wanted to own one, the price point of $360 (cello, bow, hard case, soft case, stand) was fine for me. It actually looks quite nice sitting on the stand.The bow is complete crap. It's clearly warped, though not profoundly so. The hair is not fully bleached and the construction is poor. I ended up sanding down the inside of the frog because it was finished to a point which was quite uncomfortable for my thumb. It feels incredibly heavy compared to my violin bow, no surprise there, but I'd be willing to bet that a fine cello bow is going to be lighter than the one Cecilio is providing.How does the cello sound? It's hard for me to say having no cello experience. The C and G strings have a fairly nice, deep tone. Though I've noticed that as I bow them, I get some weird vibrations that I think may be emanating from the tailpiece. The D and A strings sound tinny. I do not know if this is a function of the strings (possible), my inexperience at correctly bowing the cello (quite possible), the newness of the cello (maybe, it would need to be played in over the course of several months), or the inexpensive build of the instrument (also quite possible). I'm leaning towards the instrument because the C and G don't sound too bad. While I admittedly don't know how to properly bow the cello, I think my few years on the violin translate well enough to know my bowing is not totally wrong.Moving up the fingerboard really brings out the tinny, whiny sound on the D and A string. It sounds akin to Chinese student violins I've heard...that lack of resonance and warmth. I strongly suspect in the hands of a good cello player, it can be made to sound fairly nice if the following things happen:- proper bridge fitting and setup- proper placement of the sound post- better strings- better bowFor what I paid, I think I got about what I expected. A cello that looks nice until you start to look closely and sounds ok enough if you accept that you only spent a quarter of what you probably should expect to spend for a entry level cello for an advancing student. At some point I'll make some actual effort to learn to play it and not just saw on the strings for some fun diversion. I think it fits that bill just fine.My recommendation if you buy it is to take it to a luthier to set up correctly. Don't be completely surprised if they're less than thrilled about trying to work on an Amazon cello. Also be prepared to swap strings. A reputable luthier will probably charge you between $100 and $300 for a set of strings plus re-shaping the bridge, maybe a little work on the nut, and adjusting or fitting a proper sound post.Overall, for the money, it's a pretty good deal. Though I think it's probably somewhat dependent on luck of the draw. I suspect there's a LOT of variability in each cello coming out of those Chinese factories...some are OK some are terrible.

Very low quality. Glue are out , bridge is too low causing strings are too close to the figure board, bow is too heavy.

The Bow was twisted the bridge needed to be replaced. The strings did not clear the finger board. The strings were not good quality had to be replaced, turned your fingers black every time I used them.

After a week--and not heavy use, mind you--the freaking stick + string thing broke. Pardon my language I do not use this, it's for my sister.The horse stick string thing just straight up came undone. I wanted to return it, but I remembered my dad's too rich for his own good and he paid for it so I dont' really care.

Very good value. Expect to visit a luthier to make some minor adjustments. On mine, the fingerboard wasn’t planed exactly right, which caused the two lowest strings to rattle. It was easily remedied by replacing the bridge. I’ve played on a $1400 cello and a $700 cello before, and this Cecilio sounds much closer to the $1400 one after that fix and some better strings. The hard case is a must! I highly recommend it as a beginner’s cello, but be aware there’s a bit of a gamble.

EDIT: I received not one, but TWO damaged cellos in a row. The first cello had a crack near one of the F holes that I was willing to forgive since it was smaller. I returned it and ordered a replacement. The second cello came with a HUGE crack that I noticed immediately, clearly these instruments aren't being looked at before shipping. Both cracks ran all the way through the wood, they weren't just varnish scraped, and both times the cello case and shipping box were undamaged. I don't recommend purchasing from this company, they're obviously selling used instruments. If you do decide to purchase, please make sure you go over your instrument with a fine tooth comb before deciding to keep it.Original review left before receiving the second cello:I'm very happy with this cello overall! My son just started a beginner orchestra program at his school. I don't know anything about cellos, but his teacher has asked a few other students to purchase better instruments because the ones they brought in originally weren't high enough quality. When my son brought his to school, she said that it was a fine cello for a beginner, so that's good enough for me!The hard case was a major selling point for me since he's going to be lugging it back and forth a lot. When I looked for hard cases elsewhere on Amazon, they started at almost 200 bucks and that's without an instrument, so paying 300 for the whole package seemed like a steal! The case feels very sturdy, I think it would have to take a pretty major beating before any harm would come to the instrument. I also want to note that I saw a few reviewers say that the bridge wasn't set up when they got their cello, but mine came with the bridge already installed and padded with Styrofoam during shipping. I could not be happier with this package overall!So why only four stars? Unfortunately, I had to return it. It came with a crack near the right F hole (see picture) and since the instrument was shipped in its hard case and there was no damage to the shipping container, the damage had to occur before it was shipped. It wasn't an extremely obvious crack, I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't been scrutinizing it after it arrived. Mistakes happen so I'm not too upset about the crack having been missed. I was expecting some hassle over returning something this expensive, but UPS came to my door to pick up the box and that was the end of it. Hassle free, just like any other return on Amazon.

Shipped before Christmas, great looking Cello, easy to tune, great sound,Amazon does it again,Thank you

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Overall we are happy with this cello but, it is not without a few problems that had to be corrected right out of the box - before it could be played.Got this for Christmas 2010 for our daughter who is in her third year of orchestra. It arrived quickly and without damage; all the required parts were included (hard & soft cases, extra strings, rosen, stand, etc). Once opened we found that the bridge was not the correct one for this particular cello model; it was too short and allowed the strings to rest on areas that they shouldn't. It did not lift the strings high enough that they could be plucked. (I am not a cello expert so please forgive the lack of technical terms.) She took it to her teacher and he recommended a local lady that he knows to make repairs/adjustments. We took it to this great little old lady; she told us the Cecilio brand is relatively new and sometimes their quality control isn't what it should be. But, she said overall they are good for beginners/intermediate without having to spend a bunch of money. Then she fixed it right up. She made a completely new bridge and adjusted the tone-bar. She deepened the grooves where the stings lay and lubed all the areas that need it. And she only charged us $54.00! I figure the total cost of buying and fixing is reasonable since our daughter is very, very happy with it now that she can play it.In defense of the manufacturer and seller: we never went to them to issue a claim/complaint. Since we had waited past the typical Amazon 30 day time-limit for musical instruments I just didn't feel like messing with it. The seller may very well have made an appropriate adjustment had we asked them to. Beside, if we had said something to them we might never have met the repair lady; and that was worth it! She was just fantastic.Just know that if you order this cello it may not be ready to play right out of the box and that might be a deal breaker for some.