Harley Benton HBCE 990WH Electric Cello

I've been wanting to take up Cello for quite some time but have never had the space or capital to actually make a purchase. I decided to take the plunge and go for the HB e-Cello (in white).

It arrived promptly, packaged well with plenty of bubble wrap. I was slightly nervous when unboxing. It comes in a disassembled state, strings are attached but loose and under the fingerboard. The thigh/back rests come in a pocket on the front of the "gig bag". Removing the headstock (box?) was a little tricky with the shape. The bag itself is a bit flimsy (I've got another case coming which'll mean I won't need to disassemble every time I want to travel with it).

Setup is straight forwards, couple of screw pins keep the rests in place, strings are easy to tune/fine tune and tuning pegs stay put. Comes with a bow but no rosin.

The onboard preamp appears to be decent enough, I was expecting issues with this but as far as I can tell there's no unwanted hisses or additional noise. There's an aux input for silent practice and a 1/4" jack headphone/amp output with a switch to go between the two (db cut). Also slide EQ/Volume which appears to be quite responsive.

So far I've been able to make some very cello like noises!

Overall I'm very impressed with it and would recommend to a beginner looking to pick up Cello for a fantastic price point.

I’m a 40 year old beginner, but I’ve been playing guitar and fretless bass for quite a while. I decided to dip my toe in electric cello and am so glad I did. While the absolute quality of the instrument isn’t the best out there it’s certainly not bad by any means. I’ve plugged it into my spark go and through my little 50W marshal, it sounds great clean and distorted with a bit of reverb to help fill out the sound. It’s by no means a top end instrument but it’s definitely not a fisher price toy either. I’d say it absolutely ideal for any beginner or even a more experienced player that doesn’t feel like paying a grand for something to do a bit of quiet practice on. Could you use it on stage 100% you could..
Now for the not so good stuff, there’s no major gripe with this at all and at the price it really is just nitpicking. The worst part is the strings, yeah I know you can’t expect any quality strings at this price point. So budget a set of D’addario’s or something if you aren’t an absolute beginner.
The screw on contact points are a little flimsy but they are plastic and have to have a certain amount of flexibility to not be brittle so in my opinion it can be forgiven in this area.
The bow seems ok, ish. Again it’ll do the job but definitely could do with a better balanced item. Again for the cost of the setup I can’t complain.
The gig bag is functional and of reasonable quality, I’ve seen better and a lot worse. I haven’t tried the rosin as I just used my son’s so can’t really comment on that.
All in all it is exceptionally good value for money and I really rate it high. The only reason I don’t give it 5 stars everywhere is the strings and bow really. I shouldn’t really mark it down for them as they are easily replaceable and for most, will be replaced fairly quickly.
So yeah, if you are in the market for a genuinely reasonable priced electric cello that does the job just fine and is punching well above its weight with everything you need to get started and then some don’t give it a miss

I bought this cello for silent practice at home. Actually I didn’t expect very much for such low price but it is quite good. I like that keyboard and bridge are same like on classical cello. The sound was not so good with original strings. I changed them to helicore strings and now it is much better. Also it is better to use processor on the stage. It makes sound more deep and clean and also you can make different effects and that all works really cool. After using this cello about one year I can say that quality is very good. I didn’t have any problem with it during this time