Cecilio 4/4 Full Size Cello, Beginner Cello 4/4, Acoustic Cello Set with Portable Bag, Bow, Rosin, Stand, String Musical Instruments for School Orchestras, Performances

This is a review of the CCO-600 I received but as I received both the CCO-500 (returned) and CCO-600 I will include information comparing the two, as I found comparisons hard to find when I was looking at reviews for these instruments. We are retired and purchased the Cecilio CCO-600 for my wife, who is just beginning to learn to play the cello. It is a beautiful looking and beautiful sounding instrument. We originally purchased a CCO-500 which had some non-shipping related damage and, after speaking to KKMusic (who offered to replace the 500 with another), decided to purchase the 600. The 500 was beautiful also and great sounding to our ears but the 600 had a fuller sound with more projection - I could feel the C string's vibration in my body from a short distance away. Customer service at KKMusic was responsive and friendly. I had a cello teacher look at and play both the 500 and 600. While he was impressed with CCO-500 for the price and thought it beautifully made he said the CCO-600 was much better, calling the 500 a "student cello" in comparison. The 500 had a shiny heavy finish which looks pretty and the wood used for the top, sides, and the bottom is lovely. The "flaming" is painted with tea stain, unlike the real flaming on the 600, but well done. The tone of the cello was resonant and deep. The wood used in the 600 was obviously hand-picked, with the spruce top having close grains in the center and widening towards the sides. The maple sides and backs are gorgeous with their flaming (real flaming where you can observe the shift from dark to light to dark when you move the instrument in the light) and the oil finish does nothing to obscure the beauty of the instrument. On both cellos, there were minor imperfections due to the hand carving and perhaps handling after the cello was made - the 600 has a sliver of one of the corners of the bout that has been glued back on, but you have to look close to discover it. The 500 did have a serious 3 1/2" deep scratch along with the bridge being cut a bit too short, which is why we returned it. As mentioned in the item listing both cellos had the bridge down and tied with a ribbon to the neck. I found them easy to install after watching a video by Linda West (https://www.lindawest.com/setting-up-a-bridge-on-a-cello-a/108.htm) - there is both a video and step-by-step pictures and descriptions on the page. Both cello's sounding peg was upright and in place. Both cellos, one shipped by USPS and one by UPS, arrived without undue damage to the boxes or contents. There seems to be some inconsistency in the packing process: The CCO-500 barely had any packing material, just some wadded up heavy plastic and nothing else. There was no additional protection in the hard (cardboard?) case with the cello and the bow was in one of the bow holders in the case. The CCO-600 had the box lined with 1/2" thick pieces of styrofoam, then a combination of bubble wrap and air pillows. The fiberglass case itself was encased in a sleeve and inside the case was more bubble wrap protecting the cello. The cello bow was separately wrapped in bubble wrap and placed in the box outside of the case. We did spend $20 at a music store to have the footing of the bridge for the 600 sanded and fitted properly as it did not fit completely flat to the body of the cello. For $20 I figured it was worth having a professional do the job. The 500's bridge footing fitted perfectly once I set it up. I suspect the 600 might not have gone through a complete set-up process in Cecilio's California site before being sent out. The nuts holding the fine tuners to the bridge were loose and the cello's strings looked to be put in haphazardly; I need to unwind and rewind so they didn't cross themselves in the pegbox. The 500's strings were wound perfectly and the fine tuner was tightly affixed to the tailpiece. These items weren't a problem and easily remedied. I would recommend purchasing the cello through Amazon, as you won't be charged anything if returning the instrument (at least through Prime). KKMusic on their site states there is a $69 charge for cello returns, plus the customer handles return postage. The KKMusic site does offer a couple of other knick-knacks for the same price. You might want to check out both sites as I see the price of CCO-600 on Amazon is now $999.99 and on KKMusic is $899.99 - the price I paid on Amazon a few days ago. The fiberglass (or ABS) case that came with my 600 included a built-in handle on the head of the case for hauling around if you're dragging the case using the wheels. I noticed this handle in the Cecilio video but not on the pictures here at Amazon or at KKMusic. The case is fairly heavy, somewhat a chore for my 5' 3" wife to haul in and out of the car. The hard case for the 500 feels like heavy cardboard covered in simulated leather vinyl with a plush red interior. The interior material seems to be the same with both the 600 and 500 hard cases. When talking with Customer Service at KKMusic (which is the distribution arm of Cecilio - same physical address in California) the rep told me, after checking with someone else, the wood used in the Cecilio cellos was aged from 3 to 5 years. The 600 description states the wood is aged at least 7 years, so her information may have been for the models under the 600. There wasn't anyone that could give me a definitive answer even though I ended speaking to a supervisor for 20 minutes - she offered to contact the people that would know, but that would still just be someone's word. The 600 certainly uses a better grade of wood all around, but of course, there is no way to tell actual aging of wood used in any instrument. We are very pleased with the fit and finish of the 600 we received - I went over the instrument inch-by-inch, using a magnifying glass at times. I think a begining student would be happy with either cello. I went with the step-up so we wouldn't be looking for something better in a few years.

Im a self-taught adult beginner - I spent months scouring the internet for advice and recommendations regarding getting the best bang for my buck for a starter cello. This company kept popping up on every list I found for reccommended beginner cellos. I made sure to buy the version with real ebony fittings (versus the lower numbered models available), as that seemed to be a better investment and where I prioritized my spending for. So I took the dive and got it and I'm very impressed. First off - I was anxious due to other reviews and pictures of folks recieving their cellos scratched/dinged up. Mine was not - it came in pristine condition. Second - you're buying a bundle package and its not expensive. There's a reason for that 🤣 you cant expect top quality without spending top dollar on certain items....instruments are one of those items lol. The rosin is not good (my instrument produced a sound that was 10 times better just by buying a quality DARK rosin). The bow could stand with an upgrade, same with the strings. You'll also need to buy a cello stopper so your instrument isn't sliding around when trying to play it. And the instrument ARRIVES WITH THE BRIDGE DOWN - the company is very clear about this, so the reviews dinging it for arriving without the bridge up perplexed me. (There are YouTube videos that instruct you on how to install the bridge properly). I recently took the instrument to a luthier and got their input - I was pleased to hear that they found it to be exactly what I wanted; an instrument that will be enjoyable to learn on because it does sound nice and is pretty nicely constructed and will carry me into intermediate levels. At that point I'll invest more heavily in a better instrument if my passion continues. The manufacturing errors was the necks varnish was filed down some to fit the ebony fretboard 🤷 it took a professional to pount that out to me, so I'm not worried about it. Tweaks can be, should be, made to bring out the potential sound quality of the instrument (adjusting the bridge, knot, and string height for example). That said though, the cello stand is NICE, as is the hard carrying case and the bones of the instrument. Third - I UNDERSTAND that the options of renting from a string store would have been/would be a better deal than buying this instrument. You get a better quality instrument and the renting would/could be cheaper. But, for me, this was a more feasible option given my city doesnt have a store that rents out cellos (the closest one is over an hour away) and given the COVID situation, I had no idea when such stores would reopen or even exist when this passes. I'd recommend this purchase and I'm very pleased with it.

Beautiful for a beginner cellist!

It comes prepped for shipping, so the strings are attached, but loose. Having already owned a violin, I had a better idea how to set it up, but still needed to look up which direction the bridge sits online. It's a $240 cello.. I assume it doesn't sound perfect, but I think it sounds really good for the price. The case is soft, but the stand makes up for it.

Missing parts

Sofar this seems like a great product for the price. It was simple to set up (with help from youtube) and an iphone app got it tuned quickly. As other reviews have said, the rosin is bad, i was putting it on the bow for 10 minutes and could barely get any sound - bought an $8 rosin at a local store and it worked great.

Wow je l'adore