hi,
i`ve only been playing for a few years...i figured it was about time to finally buy my own cello but i`m looking to buy one on ebay...does anyone have any tips? i`d greatly appreciate it. email me with any advice. thanks in advance.

I recently bought a 1/2 size cello for £100 on Ebay. I would be tempted in future to pay a little bit more and get a primavera or decently set up chinese or gliga laminated cello from Elida Trading (UK). The cello I bought was a stentor student, which is a real cello but doesn`t sound particularly nice. The guy selling it was decent and honest - he didn`t say anything misleading, and it was only £100, but the quality of the instrument is "you get what you pay for". The fingerboard and bridge wood was so soft that the A string had cut a groove into both, which I have "stuffed" with a sliver of shoe leather. The strings were so horrible that I bought replacement dominant strings for £69, but it still sounds like a Stentor student. The bow was cracked at the frog and so straggly that I decided to splash out on a new one; about £50 at cost price(ish). The bag was so depressingly tatty and thin, that I treated myself to a new padded bag (can`t remember how much that was). When you count train tickets to go and pick the thing up, it cost me approaching £300 and its still a Stentor student. The guy who sold it to me said his daughter had started on it and given up. Frankly I don`t blame her. My daughter has a 1/8 Primavera which I bought for £300 (although I think they are usually about £380) and although it`s a beginner`s instrument it`s a nicer sound, looks nice, no problems.

I should add - I don`t know how keen you are or how much you`ve got to spend. If you can afford it and if you`re going to want to upgrade to a nicer instrument within a few years, you might do better to go straight for a nice instrument now. I suspect Gliga "genial" can`t quite compete on cost with Primavera at the good student instrument level, but if you can afford a Gliga Gems II instument or even a Gama II, they are real quality instruments to match much more expensive german or french models. Unfortunately because they are cellos, they are still not cheap (A gems II outfit in UK with bow and bag is £1000 from Elida trading. The US outlet is Violinslover where the low dollar makes it a bit more competitive.)

sorry! a final point having just read my own posting! For some reason Violinslover advertise their instruments cheaper on ebay than they do on their website!