Just thought I'd share my recent eye-opening experiences, having recently re-started playing after 20-odd years in the wilderness. Apologies if this is all coals to Newcastle I'm three lessons in and just starting thumb position (ow) - learning loads and loving every second of it.

I got to play my teacher's cello for an hour yesterday. What a difference! There were moments there when I thought "yeah, that sounded pretty good"

I'm saving up for a new cello at the moment, but in the meantime she's restrung my "horrible Roumanian plywood job" with an old set of Helicore strings and let me borrow a decent bow (says "Lother Seifert" above the frog), the idea being to make the best of a bad lot ... it's made quite a difference too. The strings are still far too high off the fingerboard, but they're much nicer to play on. Very smooth. Easier to bend. Not so cheesewire-ish

The bow's been the biggest revelation so far. All of a sudden I've got this perfectly balanced lightweight thing to play with - the difference is hard to describe - it's suddenly as if the bow is almost "not there" - I just bow, and it sounds & feels great. Gone are the growls and scratches. Gone are the aches and awkwardness. Suddenly it feels natural to make big sweeping whole bows. Amazing!

I always thought the reason I sounded pretty poor was because I just hadn't learned how to play it properly. It seems that's only half the story after all - the other half is having decent equipment to play with. Again, probaby blindingly obvious to the seasoned cellists here, but to me it's quite an eye-opener. I guess the message is "if you sound rubbish, it could be the instrument after all"

I just looked up on the net how much one of these would cost me for keeps - $1,450. Hmmm. Better start doing the lottery, then

The quality of any instrument - and the bow if it's strings - will always make a difference to the quality of your playing, though a poor player won't sound good whatever the instrument. My teacher always does any demonstrations with my cello and bow, and wow! it's not the same instrument! Neither the cello nor bow is top of the range, but the player is. So don't just assume that it's always the instrument/bow that's at fault before you rush out to buy another one (though in your case, it sounds as if it has a lot to do with it)

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So don't just assume that it's always the instrument/bow that's at fault before you rush out to buy another one

I had always thought I had quite a decent cello - that's what my last teacher told me, anyhow. But both my new teacher and the luthier that I took it to for an estimate to set it up/restring/replace the spike etc said it was a really poor instrument. Bit of a surprise, to say the least!

I was really amazed by the difference between my cello and my teacher's at the weekend - like I said, I actually sounded quite good at times I've still got a ###### of a long way to go before I can play the way I'd like, but it was both surprising and comforting to discover that it's not entirely down to me. The bow I'm borrowing, in particular, has made a huge difference. I'd never have believed that something that simple would make such a difference, but it has...