So, my fancy electric cello arrived today. Quick unpacking and checking that everything is there and I'm ready to try the instrument! I find the tuning pegs quite hard to use and not very accurate. Could be that I'm just used to guitar and probably the cheapo Harley Benton cello doesn't have too expensive tunings mechanisms either. Either way, I managed to get the cello in tune without too big problems.

 

So, the excitement builds, I take the bow and try the sound.

 

"Squeek"

WTF?

"Squeek"

Hmm.....

"Squeeksqueeksqueek"

 

 

Ok, so apparently I'm doing something wrong. I try to see that my playing position is about correct, the bow hair is tightened enough and there's no packing material killing the sound anywhere.

 

"Squeek"

 

Having no idea about how loud an electric cello should be, I hook it into a guitar amplifier and try it again. I can get a nice volume by plucking the strings but with bow just a whisperlike "Squeek".

 

After watching a few beginner cello videos in YouTube and checking the contents of the package the second time I start to suspect that the lack of rosin might have something to do with what's happening here. So I apply some rosin and try again.

 

"SQUeek"

 

A bit better. After rosining some more and trying out several times in between, I found out that on a brand new bow you have to apply insane amount of rosin, evenly on the whole bows length. Once that was done, I found the sound I was getting out of the cello was surprisingly good actually!

 

I also tried it though Native Instruments Guitar Rig and found that the modelled bass amplifiers seem to work very well with cello. I haven't tried any weird effects or thick distortion yet but the day is still young.