Cecilio Solidwood Viola CVA-500, 16-Inch, Antique Finish

I’ve been playing the violin for 30 years or so and wanted to pick up a viola to play in a baroque trio. I have an expensive fiddle and was worried that a viola at this price point would have a crappy sound and none of the “quality of life” features like decent pegs that move smoothly and don’t slip, fine tuners on at least 3 strings, decent chin rest etc. Well … I was worried for nothing. The sound on the 16″ CVA-500 is absolutely amazing: Deep, rich and mellow. The ebony pegs are just fine and the strings were wound beautifully (and the string holes are in the right places so there is no overlap of different strings in the pegbox, which isn’t always the case). I often play the fiddle with a practice mute halfway on to make the sound less strident and keep the tinitus at bay. That’s not necessary with this instrument. You might not fill the concert hall as a soloist but it’s plenty loud enough for orchestra or ensemble or session playing and doesn’t make my ears ring or sound like I am murdering a cat. Granted, if I wanted it louder I could put Dominants on it (it comes with Preludes). The bridge is perfectly arched and spaced making it easy to play both single strings and double stops. It sounds great with classical music and just as good with Celtic or bluegrass. I can’t say enough good things about this instrument – I’ve been annoying my family and friends with new viola recordings of tunes I used to play on the fiddle. I don’t want to go back!
If I had one complaint it would be about the case. I mean; it’s basically a styrofoam shipping container with glued-on crushed velour, black rip-stop and some zippers. I have no doubt that it will keep the instrument safe enough and temperature insulated but I will probably buy a different case. It’s not worthy of such a beautiful thing. On the other hand, a decent case usually costs about as much as this whole package so it would be unrealistic to get a good case AND a well-built viola with quality components at this price. (not to mention the chin rest, rosin and two bows which I didn’t use — because I have others — and the tuner which works great).

tl;dr: buy this, save yourself a heap of $, and prepare to be blown away by the sound. You won’t be disappointed, and you might never play the violin again.

This is an amazing viola considering how cheap it is! I am not a professional musician, but I did dabble with the violin and piano for a short while, and I spent a lot of time with my Conservatory friends at Oberlin. I feel I know good music when I hear it, and this viola produces some really nice tones for it’s price range. I bought it for my 9 year old daughter because she picked it as the instrument she wanted to learn for her free music lessons at school. I looked into renting one, and it would have costed us around $30/month to rent a $600 viola. Only 60% of that rental money would go toward purchasing the viola. Since I would like my daughter to stick with this instrument for at least a year, it would have costed me more to just rent an instrument than to buy this one. Plus, there was no guarantee that my daughter would stick with it for more than a year, so I would end up spending all that money for nothing.

After doing tons of research online (and despite the dire warnings in the music teacher’s note home against buying instruments online) I picked this 14″ Cecilio viola as the best candidate for my budget and current needs. The viola arrived on time and in good shape. It came with all the pieces shown in the picture and mentioned in the description. I love that it came with the D’Addario strings already on it and somewhat tightened so I didn’t have to work too hard to carefully stretch the strings while tuning it and playing with it over the next few days after I received the instrument. The case is a standard, canvas-like covering over a foam core with cream-colored velveteen fabric on the inside. It’s just big enough for the viola with 2 slots for bows, and a small compartment at the end for the extra bridge, rosin, tuner, some extra strings, and a rubber mute (Gotta have one of those! 😉 heh, heh!). There is barely space for the shoulder rest, but I wasn’t thrilled with how it rests right on the tuning pegs and neck. There is a small pocket on the outside of the case, but it is barely big enough to fit my daughter’s music book without zipping it entirely shut. I was skeptical about the tuner, but after testing it with several other tuners I have, it was consistent with all of the decent ones, so I let my daughter practice tuning her viola with it. The rosin isn’t anything fancy, but I’ve encountered worse. I say it’s good enough to start with, but would recommend getting a nicer block as soon as possible. The extra bridge is also meh, but again, that is easily replaceable with a nicer one should I feel the need to do so. The bow is surprisingly decent. It has a nice curve to it – not too curved, not too straight – and the hairs are not falling out all over the place. It also has a nice weight to it. I feel it may be a smidge heavy for my daughter, but she seems to like it and plays well enough with it.

Now, the viola itself. I must admit, I was surprised at the color when I first opened it. It seemed much more orangey than I anticipated. I was thinking it was going to be a medium reddish-brown, but it is more of a dark pumpkin orange-brown. It’s not a color I associate with classy string instruments, but that’s a minor detail for a student instrument. The back does appear to be flamed, so it does have that nice striped/flamed pattern on it. The tuning pegs were all a bit loose, but a little rosin on them tightened them up just fine. The chinrest is a fairly low-profile off-centered one and works well enough with my daughter’s small neck. The tailpiece is sturdy with 4 metal fine tuners already mounted on it. I would have preferred built-in fine tuners, but that is also something that can be changed out later if I want to. I can’t easily tell if the purflings really are inlaid like they said they are in the description, but there are spots here and there that make me think they are.

Initial setup of the instrument involved a bit of fussing with it. I would not say it was ready to play straight out of the box, but there was nothing wrong with it that I couldn’t do myself. I did have to straighten and center the bridge a bit, and I mentioned having to rosin the pegs. That involved loosening and taking each string off, rubbing the peg along the rosin a few times, then putting the peg and string back on. Tedious, but not impossible or hard. Tuning this instrument is easy. The pegs are easy to turn, and the fine tuners help. The D’Addario strings keep in tune beautifully, so I’m glad I paid a bit extra for them.

Finally, how does this viola sound? It sounds beautiful! Nice, deep, mellow tones that I associate with the viola come out of this instrument – even when my daughter first started bowing on it. 😉 heh, heh! There is a good resonance that I can feel when I play it. It sounds so pretty that even my husband doesn’t mind hearing our daughter scratching away on it, and we haven’t had to use the mute yet. Just for fun, I restrung one of my spare violins as a viola (I read online that some people do that as a substitute for a 14″ viola), and compared the sound. There is no comparison. The real viola is so much more deep and resonant than the violin-strung-as-a-viola.

Now, I know this doesn’t even begin to touch a professional viola’s sound and quality, but I bought this for my 9 year old daughter. She only needs something that can produce decent tones, and this viola amply fills that need. Even her music teacher was surprised at the quality of the instrument despite it being bought online. My daughter says he often uses her instrument to demonstrate something during class, so I assume he’s okay with it. She’s been playing on it for a little over 3 months, now, and is still going on strong. I will update this review later if there is more to add.