I've finally (after years of nagging) convinced my parents to let me have a go at learning cello.

I'll almost certainly rent one first to get a feel for whether or not I'm going to take to it, but wondered if any shops do a ''rent to buy'' type of sale, where if you decide to buy the instrument you've been renting you get it cheaper? Can anyone recomend a brand/type of cello, and give me an idea of the cost?

I'd have to buy it myself, so sadly I have a budget. Is is possible/realistic to get a reasonable cello for a complete beginner for no more (preferably less) than £1000?

Thanks.

I can't recommend a rental shop, but the answer to your second question is, yes absolutely - there are lots of choices. You can get a beginners outfit for a couple of hundred pounds. You can get a very good "advanced student" type outfit for £500.

Liz

The only shops I have found doing rental in my area will only do rental on new beginner/student outfits. The cost is fairly high - around 20% of the outfit cost per 3 months. They usually let you rent and have 3 months rental off the cost if you then buy the outfit. So if you buy after three months it doesn't cost you anything more than the purchase price. Some will let you upgrade when you buy and still get the three months cost off.

The main benefits are obviously, if you think you may give up after three months then you haven't bought the instrument, and the possibility to upgrade if you are not sure what instrument to go for in the first place. These type of shops will also offer some after sales support, minor adjustments etc which is helpful if nobody in your household has played a string instrument before. But the rental is rather high and rapidly approaches the cost of buying if you extend out to 6 or nine months. The other downside is that these deals are mostly available from shops with nice premises and other overheads which mean that the purchase prices of their instruments are rather higher than are available elsewhere.

I guess I would recommend buying a student/beginner outfit from an online shop like elidatrading as it will be sufficiently cheaper than a flash shop in the centre of town that even if you sell it after 6 months you will not be worse off than if you rented. If you are still keen after a year or two you will be better placed to choose a better instrument knowing what you want.

Thanks for both of your advice.

Would something like this be ok?

I don't have any direct experience of this model but I think it should be fine. I say this because it is quite a well known brand of student cello and it is a bit more expensive than the Stentor Student 2 which is probably one of the most popular student models. So I'm judging the primavera relative to that. You could probably start quite happily on something cheaper but if you are getting a full size you won't be growing out of it, so it's not a problem to splash out a bit

My daughter played a Stentor Student 2 cello (in 1/2 size) and it was fine up to grade 3. It almost took her to grade 5 as purchased but with a set of good strings (Dominant). In the end we did get a luthier (violin/cello maker) to tweak the bridge and soundpost two months before her grade 5 at a cost of £50 which made a big difference.

You may be able to find it cheaper if you shop around I don't know. Liz from elidatrading will know more about primavera as I think she stocks them. That's a hint to pick up the phone I suppose.

Thankyou.

I'm going to contact a few teachers about lessons before I go ahead with buying the instrument I think.

Yes good idea. I wasn't encouraging you to ring up and buy something today. Also check with a teacher whether you really are quite "full size"

Subject to setup - yes.

Liz

The cello I've been loaned for the last few months is a Stentor 2, and while obviously it's not a world beating cello, it's not at all bad. Admittedly my cello experience is small, but it sounds nicer than I'd expect an equivalent violin to

My local shop does an excellent rent to buy scheme. I first rented a really naff viola for £30 for the 3 months, then upgraded to a Stentor Conservatoire for the next 3 months at £35. When I bought it recently, I got £57.50 off the full price, so the whole of the 2nd rental fee plus 75% of that on the first instrument. had I stuck with the same one, I would have 'kept' the last £7.50 as well. Many places will do stuff like this, I'm sure.

It's about £60 per quarter for a Stentor 2 level cello, but you'd probably get the rental fee off buying the instrument later on. If you do get chance at a deal like mine and you have £1000 to spare, I'd consider upgrading to a Conservatoire for the 2nd quarter and then buying. They coast about £800 for the full outfit and, if it's anything like my viola, it won't be a half bad instrument.

Have fun, I'd love to learn cello too.....

Actually that illustrates the issue quite well: £800 is well above the RRP for that outfit, in fact one discount warehouse has them for not much more than half the quoted budget. So the rental shop has upped the price substantially in order to allow them offer generous discounts if you then buy the instrument.

Liz

But shops DO up the price, don't they?? Part of the joys of highly proced city centre locations and all that as well as the normal desire to make a profit!!! Sadly, most folk don't know where discount warehouses are... If you know any local ones....

BTW, what level of Gliga does a Stentor Conservatoire equate to, (roughly, of course)?

Well, some do, some don't, it all depends on location and level of specialism.


I guess I'd say Genial 2.

Liz

When I decided to take up the cello I looked into renting. My local shop was charging £40 for 3 months rental and if you continued to rent you could eventually own the instrument i.e. whatever the rental price was it would be deducted from the actual price of the instrument. I was very tempted by this but in the end I had a look on ebay and managed to grab a bargain cello for £80 delivered which was brand new with bow and case. Having not played any other instrument I don't know how good this is but compared to equivalant price violins that i've played this sounds and feels much more expensive and suites me fine as a beginner instrument.