the naming of cellos...

Meet my new-to-me cello:


A 2003 Y Chen Soloist with Larsen and Spirocore strings. It’s more of a deep honey color than the picture gives it credit for.

I got it from Gailes’ Violin Shop in College Park. I’ve been renting a cello from them for about a year now. When I mentioned to one of the staff that I would like to buy one, she set up an appointment for me to look at their selection.

I’ve never been in a room full of cellos. They were lined up along three walls. It’s amazing how luthiers can take one instrument and vary it so widely – everything from varnish color to subtle changes in the body shape and finishing.

I told the staff person what my price range was, and she pulled out eight cellos. She also pulled out four different bows for me to try. Then she told me to take as long as I liked, shut the door, and left me to it.

A couple of the cellos didn’t even have labels in them, so no way to tell their origins or age, although I’m sure people more experienced than I could make an educated guess. The others were by Doetsch, Chen, Wilhelm, Jay Haide, Forcheim, and Schumacher.

I tried them all – the same pieces with the same bow on each cello. I was surprised at how much my ear has developed in a year because I could actually detect distinct differences in sound, and I have a better sense now of what musicians mean when they say an instrument’s tone sounds warm or bright or focused or dull. Therefore, I was able to eliminate several from the running right away because playing them just left me shrugging with a “meh,” and moving on to another one.

I was especially interested in trying the Jay Haide because I know several cellists who have them, and they all love the sounds they can get from Jay Haides. However, I was disappointed in this particular one. It sounded muffled, like it was talking with its mouth overly full and covered with a napkin and a hand. I tried all four bows on it and got the same result. I realize this was only one cello by this luthier duo, so I make no judgements on the quality of their instruments overall.

After about an hour trying out the eight cellos, I narrowed it down to two – the Doetsch and the Chen. They both had a sound that really caught my attention, even with my extremely limited playing ability.

This shop lets you take an instrument out on loan for a week to try it out and get to know it before buying. I assumed I’d be taking one out and bringing it back in a week and then taking the other one out, but in fact, they let me take both at once, along with two bows. It’s an odd (and paranoic) feeling to be toting around quite a few thousand dollars’ worth of cello and bow, I can tell you.

It’s also rather cumbersome to get two cellos and their respective cases into a car and then out again and hauled up four flights of stairs, not to mention taken back down said stairs and put back into said car to go to my weekly lesson and present them to my teacher.

The extra exercise was worth it, though, because my teacher is head of the music program at the local community college, which has some nice recital halls that he has access to. We carted my prospects into one of the halls, and he made me get on stage and try them out while he sat in the back of the hall and listened. Then we switched places, and he played them while I sat at the back of the hall. It’s one thing to play a cello and hear the sound as it projects away from you. It’s something else to face the cello and hear the sound coming at you.

The Chen sounded wonderfully clear and full, while the Doetsch, which had a nice tone when it was heard from the player’s point of view, sounded very far away from the listener’s point of view, as though the volume had been turned way down. So that got me leaning toward the Chen, especially when my teacher played a bit of the Elgar on it (one of my favorite pieces). The Chen could definitely handle that piece, while the Doetsch just didn’t seem to have enough power and projection to do it justice.

My cello teacher said the Doetsch was a perfectly respectable cello with a sweet tone, but if that tone can’t be heard well, especially when played by a timid beginner such as yours truly, it could make learning and improving all the more difficult, if not downright frustrating, which might make me give it up entirely. “I think the Chen could teach you a lot and build up your playing confidence,” he said, “especially with a better bow. That cello has focus that wants bringing out.”

I spent several more days playing them both before making a final decision. I started to really get a sense that the Chen was for me because I couldn’t stop playing it. My rental cello had developed a sharp and annoying whine lately, especially on the A string. It was so disheartening to hear during practice that I was practicing less so I could avoid having to listen to it, and I was starting to think it was my playing that was annoying and whiny. The Chen doesn’t whine at all, not even on the A string, so I quickly got back up to my usual amount of practice time.

I got to haul them down the stairs and wrestle them into the car yet again to take them back to the shop. I turned in the Doetsch and asked to have the bridge cut down on the Chen. The ganglion cyst on my left wrist was not happy with my renewed enthusiasm for cello practice this week. I’ve found that having strings slightly closer to the fingerboard (via a lower bridge) eliminates quite a bit of left wrist pain. Then I handed over a check and packed up the new-to-me Chen-with-lowered-bridge into my minty green cello case and took it home.

As for the bows, both were an improvement on the one I have, but neither came forward as an OMG, THIS ONE! winner. And my cello teacher suggested holding off on upgrading the bow until I get to know this cello better anyway. In other words, one variable at a time. My current bow sounds all right on it, but I’ll be saving up for a better one – maybe that will be my Christmas present to myself. Anyway, my teacher promised to bring his $4K bow to this week’s lesson so I can try it on my new-to-me cello.

I really thought the cello-buying process would take longer, so I’m a bit dazed that it happened so fast. I’ve heard about professional-level musicians who try out hundreds of instruments before choosing one to buy. Of course, I’m not a professional-level musician and likely never will be (I’ll happily settle for competent amateur), so perhaps being able to pick from eight was good thing. And this is probably the first and last time that I’ll be able to spend my work bonus/tax refund money on something like this rather than making an extra mortgage payment/paying off bills/adding to the savings account.

Jeez! I guess this means I'm a committed (albeit not very good) cellist, huh?

Now, I think this cello needs a name. Any ideas?