Huge upgrade and Tailpiece question
I originally got a pretty cheap cello off the marketplace, a Cecilio 100. It was the classic “to see if I’ll like it” idea and mentality, and being in this sub helped a lot. As someone who had no prior info on the cello at all, it was discouraging at first to think I had gotten something so terrible (can’t complain for how much I paid).
It did give me the courage to mess it with more though, and while I performed some blasphemous things to that cello to get to a decent playing state (the C string was 15mm and A was at 10mm, I’m a scientist so I spiraled into research papers and everything) it helped me become more familiar with things to look out for.
I’ve been playing consistently for three months now, a couple hours a day and I’ve truly enjoyed the experience even on such a difficult cello to work on.
However, yesterday I decided to purchase my new cello after a week of trying it out. I didn’t even have to touch the bow to the strings before I felt the quality difference in them. All I had to do was press down on the fret and see how much easier that action already was.
Playing it is much easier, though I did have to fix some of my ‘pressure’ because it took so much effort to play the lower quality instrument. I can’t imagine how many more bad habits I could have picked up if I continued to use it.
And while I’m still slightly convinced that even a cheaper instrument can have its uses, I understand why a quality one is so often pushed for now.
On that note, how do we feel about tailpieces that have carved designs on them, and does anyone have experience with using these?