Hello Jenny,

I play standing up and wearing my cello on a strap in the style of a guitar. I have electric guitars that are heavier than either my acoustic or my electric cello.

Being classically trained this is totally useless information. The cellists with The Electric Light Orchestra, or more recently Apocalyptica just stand behind their instruments, their endpins do seem longer than any of mine.

The easy way to play an electric cello standing is with a harness. A bit over the top is the breastplate cello used by one of my favourite mobile cellists Marston Smith;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhHwqZRq-IA&feature=related

and a more conventional harness worn by Jenn Adams;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyl2t-TFxH8&feature=related

hope that helps.
Tony.

There is always this way:

http://www.pgoelz.com/ndcf2006/image89.html

Hook a peg behind your neck..... it works better than it looks ;)

Paul Goelz
Rochester Hills, MI USA
paul at pgoelz dot com
www.pgoelz.com

After studying and trying out the available standup cellos, I developed a more comfortable wearable cello for playing standing up. I showed some 5 string units at the recent NDCF 08 festival. I now am finishing twelve more four-string units, along with a 70 watt amp (goes on the back) for marching band use. If you are near the Northern Virginia or DC area please stop by my shop.

I am not advertising these quite yet, and have just redone the circuit board for mass production, but can price a wearable standing use cello very competitively (less than other e-cellos) if the buyer is an early adopter educator or musician who plays or will play in public. My goal is to have $1000 or sub $1000 cellos for everyday-everyman use along with higher cost $3000 cellos that have been finished with many layers of nitrocellulose and wet sanded. The low cost cellos have the same pickups and built in preamps/headphone amp but have a slightly simpler waist mount.
I started out with the same harness that Jenn Adams uses but didnt like the quality or sideways movement of that harness. I recently placed one of my 5 string cellos (with my own waist mount) with Marston Smith. If you are in S California, I can show you what I have since I visit there a lot.
If you would like to try my standup cello, please stop by or send me an email.
best wishes
Marvin

Marvin Motsenbocker PhD JD
Motsenbocker Fine Instruments
Fredericksburg Va 22406

Hi, this is an interesting topic, expecially about that strap hold cello.

I have a "traditional" cello, and i dont have a problem standing up. It just takes some practise, as everything does with the cello, and later you notice that playing standing up feels as natural as playing sitting. It should not matter if you have a traditional or electric cello. Also , the benefit of the traditional cello is on the sound front. My Yamaha electric cello didnt produce nearly as good sound as my traditional cello with a good mic pre-amp pick-up (Try Barcus Berry).

Anyway, new developments on this field are warmly welcome, and the strap thing really is an interesting development, thank you for sharing info about it.

Elias