The quality of this cello is top notch. 10 out of 10. I expected to find something wrong with it but I didn’t. The finish is perfect. No runs in the clear, no sanding marks, no unfinished areas, no tape marks. All good. The fingerboard and the pegs are ebony. The fingerboard, to my surprise, has a Romberg bevel on it. I’m not sure why they chose to do that, but it works. Unnecessary perhaps, since we seldom use gut strings anymore. The cavity where the bridge makes contact with the Shadow pickup, is perfectly placed so that when you stand up the bridge square and properly oriented, the string length is exactly 695mm measured from the nut to the apex of the bridge. Nice job. I can’t speak for the quality of the electronics. Shadow evidently is a major player in the stringed instrument amplification business. I didn’t buy this cello for the purpose of playing it amplified and out in the wild, but I might do just that, once I learn more about shaping the sound to my liking. For now, I don’t have a reference and just by plugging in your headphones, it doesn’t sound that great by itself. Imagine an electric guitar without any effects whatsoever, just the string vibration amplified. At least add some reverb and a little eq. I’m considering buying a Fender Mustang headphone amp that plugs directly into the Shadow and has onboard effects.As for playing it silent, it’s perfect. This is the reason why I bought this cello. The pegbox is right next to your ear, and you hear everything. I prefer to play it silent instead of using headphones. Which, by the way, will interfere with the C peg sticking out and you’ll be banging your headphones against it. Invest in a decent set of earbuds.Now the not so great stuff. Don’t even bother with the strings that come with the cello. Take them off and invest in new strings. I had a slightly used set of D’Addario Preludes on hand, so I put them on. The A is still sounds tinny and metallic and it’s super sensitive, but that’s typical for the Prelude A. The bridge is too high for proper string clearance, so I carved a new one. Much improved. I also replaced the tailpiece with a Wittner tailpiece. Not that the one that comes with the cello is terrible, but while I had the strings off and needed to adjust the tailpiece position anyhow, I replaced it.One more modification, albeit not entirely necessary, are the tuning pegs. As with most new stringed instruments, particularly with new strings, the pegs slip a little. They’re ebony but not perhaps the greatest pegs out there. I’ll have the peg holes reamed and install Wittner geared pegs.Overall, I’m very happy with this cello. The few modifications I did, make it even better. By no means is it an inexpensive instrument, but at one third of the price of a Yamaha or an NS, it’s totally worth it!