Dear StringWorks,

I am a 46 year-old physician who studied the cello from grade school through college.  I recently starting playing again about a month ago, following a 25 year hiatus.  I consider myself to be an intermediate-level player.

I learned of StringWorks from the Internet Cello Society (sic) (ICS) discussion boards.  I spoke with Eric and Pat several times over the phone about their instruments.  They were extremely helpful in answering my (many) questions.

This past weekend had the opportunity to visit the StringWorks showroom and play the Maestro, Soloist, and Bartok cellos.  I went their firmly resolved that I would only look and not make any purchase decisions that day. 

Due to my busy schedule, Eric was kind enough to meet me early on a Saturday morning at the store to audition the instruments.  He gave me a tour of their offices and showed me the different lines of instruments.  He was very patient as I played all three instruments, frequently swapping and comparing them.  Following my testing, he played all three instruments so that I could hear them from a distance.    He is a very fine cellist and demonstrated the capabilities of the instruments far better than I could have.

1)      All three – Beautiful exterior fit and finish.  Nicely set-up with high quality pegs, strings, bridges, tailpieces and end-pins.  The sound posts all seemed to be properly positioned.  The wood on all three appeared to be tight grained, indicative of high-quality dense slow-growth wood.  All finger boards were smooth and true.  String heights and tension seemed excellent and made for easy playability in all positions.  I was not able to elicit a “wolf” tone on any of the instruments.  All played well in the thumb positions on all strings, as very capably demonstrated by Eric.

2)      Maestro – Very big sound.  Especially on the G and C strings.  Dramatically better in sound and tone quality that the commercial German cello that I had played for the past 30 years.  (Incidentally, the German cello was recently appraised at a value of $2000.)

3)      Soloist – Also a big sound in the lower registers.  In addition, I found the upper registers somewhat “warmer” and “sweeter” than the Maestro.   Pieces such as the Bach suites had a beautiful resonance.  Slow movements of the Vivaldi sonatas had a sweet lyrical sound.

4)      Bartok – A beautiful instrument to look at.  The antiquing really does create the look of a much older instrument.  Very rich and resonant with complex overtones in all registers.  If only I didn’t have four children to put through college…