On Monday, 24 February 2003 at 09:06:21 UTC+11, Beach wrote:
RUN away from that dealer. They are garbage.
There happens to be a luthier in our orchestra, who has 4 cellos and is interested in selling 3 of them so his wife doesn't murder him. Grab one
at cost of materials He will of course sell them with full approval/returnning rights.
They are made of first rate woods, hand carved, by a fine craftsman.
He only needs $1000 for one. They are easily worth 3 x that.
I have nothing to get out of it.
[email protected]
Bob Comarow
David Scarlett wrote:
I've been playing the cello for a few months now using a rental cello,
and am interested in buying my own....
The owner of the music school said "Skylarks" are of reasonable
quality, and I would probably be best off getting one and putting some
good strings on it, and then maybe getting a better bow later on if I
want to improve the sound.
Anyone have any other comments/recommendations?
Thanks.
--
David Scarlett
dscarlett@_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ optusnet.com.au
I notice that a number of comments advise avoiding Skylark cellos based on the quality/reputation of their violins.
I have a Skylark cello and agree with your teacher that it is of reasonable quality. That said, Skylark cellos vary widely and some are much more successful than others. They vary not only in quality (i.e. good vs poor) but in character, some being
sweet-toned or even quite beautiful, dark or bright in tone, buzzy or not &c. &c.. The moral of the story is never buy (or dismiss) a cello based on brand name. Get someone who knows something about it to accompany you to the shop to try out the
instrument. Perhaps your teacher would oblige. It would be worthwhile to, for instance, pay for a lesson and use the time for this.
My Skylark is 3/4 size which I was told by a luthier is the most frequently successful size of this brand. He was also impressed by the way this particular instrument played, judging it almost equal to one of his own for which the asking price was a
multiple of what I had paid (about 5 times - I had not bought the cello from him).
Just one final warning, the top plate of my cello consists of two pieces of wood glued together. As one can imagine this gives rise to widely varying results. In at least twenty years of (moderate) use there has been no sign of the top plate of my
cello dividing. Strings and(particularly) bow make a significant difference. Also, get someone else to listen for wolf tones - but your teacher will know to do this.
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