D'Luca Featherweight Cello Protective Hard Case 1/4

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Price: $169.95    

Product Feature

• featherweight cello case
• lightweight mobility for your instrument

Product Description

This featherweight cello case with Wheels offers incredible protection and lightweight mobility for your instrument. Beautiful interior and thick durable side back and top construction to keep your cello safe. Fits most European and Suzuki cello sizes.

D'Luca Featherweight Cello Protective Hard Case 1/4 Review

The 1/4 cello we recently got is my daughter's first cello, and we are soon going to start her with Suzuki lessons. The cello we got came with a soft, unstructured case (a gig bag), but I wanted something more secure for the cello, so I ordered this case. I didn't realize that there are two different "standard" sizes for cellos: the European standard size and the Suzuki standard size. A European standard size 1/4 cello has a *body* length of 23". A Suzuki standard size 1/4 cello has a *body* length of 20". Of course, there can be some variation in body length. For instance, my daughter's cello has a body length of 21". Even though the description of this case says that it "Fits most European and Suzuki cello sizes," I believe that it would only fit a European sized 1/4 cello because it sure didn't fit our 21" (body length) cello, so there's no way it would fit a 20". The main body space of the case measures 24".

That being said, there aren't many choices if you want a lightweight hard case for a 1/4 cello. I think I've seen one other, but I have no expectation that it would fit any better than this case does, so I decided to modify this case to make it fit our Suzuki 1/4 cello rather than deal with the hassle of paying for shipping to send it back and then getting another case that might not fit any better.

I've uploaded a bunch of pictures so you can take a look at the modifications I'm going to talk about. The main problem with the case is that--well, it's too big, that's the problem--but this manifests as a problem with the head of the cello fitting into the head space of the case. It doesn't, and it doesn't because the part of the case that is supposed to fit into the C bouts of the cello is too big/long. I decided to shorten this part of the case, thereby allowing the head to move up and fit into the head space.

Shortening this part of the case wasn't difficult. The entire case is made out of styrofoam with some cheap velvet covering it on the inside. I used an exacto knife to cut the velvet on the seams. I then pealed it back and revealed the styrofoam underneath. I again used the exacto knife to cut out the styrofoam until I got enough of it removed so that the cello would move up high enough that the cello head would fit properly in the head space. I removed about 1.5" in length from the bottom of this C bout section. To cover up the now exposed styrofoam, I used some pale pink ultrasuede that I happened to have on hand, but you could use anything--even some paper from a paper grocery bag would do the trick. Gluing onto the styrofoam was a bit tricky. I couldn't get regular Elmer's glue to work because the hacked styrofoam was so bumpy and flaky, so I ended up using Shoe Goo. (See pictures.)

As I said, the result was that the head of the cello fit in the head space. The other result was that there was now a lot of space between the bottom of the case and the bottom of the cello. I used some fabric I had, rolled it up and sewed it with a quick whip stitch so that it would stay in the roll, and then put the rolled fabric into the space between the bottom of the cello and the bottom of the case to keep the cello from bouncing around too much in the case. At last, though, the cello was fitting and secure in the case. (See pictures.)

There are a couple of other annoying things about the case. For one, the strap at the bottom of the case that connects the base of the case to the lid of the case to keep it from over-opening (I guess? Most instrument cases have this feature, so it must be important), was WAY too short, like about 2" - 3" too short. The lid would not stay open AT ALL. I had to jam my elbow at it and try to slide the cello out with one hand. Even though it's a 1/4 size cello, it's still not tiny and using both hands is how I would prefer to take it out (and put it in) the case, so this was a problem. I decided to cut this strap so the lid would stay open. I ended up adding in 2" - 3" to the strap with some gros ribbon I had so that it's still there doing whatever it's supposed to do.

The another thing that is annoying about the case is that the music pocket on the back of the case is 1/2" too small to hold the Suzuki book (which is the standard size of music books, by the way). What is the point of having a music pocket if it is too small to hold music books? Sometimes the case is too small, like for a 1/4 size violin, let's say. But there's no such excuse with this case. It's more than wide enough to accommodate an adequately sized music pocket.

My one last complaint about the case is that it's not really padded in any way. Like I said above, it's cheap velvet directly over styrofoam--and styrofoam is not cushiony. If there was the faux fur lining that is in my guitar case, for instance, that would be something, but this is not that. I assume the cello will be fine, but I wish the interior were nicer.

Okay! I've complained about the case A LOT! But hopefully it will do the job for the length of time that my daughter is playing this size cello. And it is extremely lightweight, so that is good. It looks nice from the outside.

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