I was looking on eBay for a starter cello. The cheapest ones I could find were from Mendini Music. The one that I am especially interested in is in the link below.

So my question is, does anyone have any experience with this company? Or if not, does the description sound promising?

Link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/EBONY-Solid-Wood-HIGHLY-FLAMED-4-4-Cello-2Sets-Strings_W0QQitemZ7371080493QQcategoryZ10178QQcmdZViewItem

I haven`t delt with this company, or this brand of cello, but I`ll be glad to throw in my unsolisited 2cents. So here goes.

On a side note, if it`s a penny for your thought, and you put in you 2 cents, what happens to the other penny???

This is a pretty general description of nearly every cello made. Everything that they describe is the standard for wooden cellos. The only true way to make a decision about an instrument is to try it out. Now, after saying all of that, IMHO you get what you pay for. If this is a temporary (less than one year) it could be viewed as an investment, and a future donation to the local pulic school. I had a student cello for about 4 months befor I decided to get an advanced student/elementary professional cello. By far not the best available, but far from the worse.

Good luck.

It sounds kind of fishy, a $1450 Cello selling for Less than $300. It costs practically that much to make the cello HAAAAAAAAAAAA!

I bought one of these cellos. This is a great deal for a new sudent cello and much better than renting. Comes as advertised with a nice hard case, made in china like everything. LKB7790@aol.com

they best cello`s go for in my experince is the old one`s brillant sound. I had a say 2 year old cello, it got broke at school, the neck got broke off and i bought a cello of ebay too because i need a quick replacement and i bought a old hungrian cello about 60 years of age. It had a few knocks but the sound it brillant. And it`s made of proper wood and not the injected wood that you get now with new cello`s. So my advice is go for a old cello. hope this helps

cello player,

I agree. The older it gets the better it sounds. My $450 cello is over 150 years old and it sounds great , good as a new $10,000 cello that I played. My cello has pine back and sides with a Spruce front. My guess is that if the sorry cheaply made $300ish cellos even last 50 years they will sound a lot better.

Some people think that the reason why 300 year old violins sound soo good is because of the varnish they used. But that is a load of bull, it`s that the wood and varnish aged and dried and also started to collect dry Mold. Both my 150 year old cello and old violin smell moldy. Dont get me wrong, if you put laminated stuff on it instead, it will sound worst that if you even put on a cheap varnish.

-Oh, and school cellos are often mistreated and break. I think they do buy cheap cellos for that actual fact.

sean,
just read your reply, im glad you agree and the older cello`s i don`t think i would go for something quiet that old maybe around the 60, 70 years old mark. Because great sound and better wood altogether. In the end they last longer because the wood isn`t injected with a substince like the new ones you get today. I agree it probabley will get mooldy but if you don`t get a quiet so old one and maybe it it a light rub with a cloth i don`t know maybe it might stop that from happenening. I don`t just a thought.

For one thing, all I knew was that my cello was very old later on I went to a guy that told me that it was made in the 1850`s. Oh and the cello get`s moldy over time, it`s not something you can control I guess, it just happens.

totally, you never know when things like that will happened. Like you`ll never know when your going to break a bone till you do. then you cetainitly know.