This weekend, I traveled back home to LA to catch Ben Sollee, the genre-bending singer-songwriter-cellist from Kentucky who picked up the Magnetic Cello last year.

I was there to see my MC V.7.1 #2, the Magnetic Cello that Ben more affectionately calls “Maggie”. Ben switched from his acoustic cello to Maggie for the second half of his song “Electrified“, rounding off the song with high velocity notes that are only possible with magnetic articulation.

After the show but before the crowd left, I jumped on stage (next time I’ll talk to management before pulling this stunt). I explained to those who were interested how the instrument worked, and gave a demo on how it was played. A few fellow Ben fans were brave enough to try out Maggie.

I also had a chance to get feedback on the instrument with Ben. We talked about how the bow currently works and ways string switching could be improved (above), and other changes that could eventually find their way into the instrument. I also learned of the importance of including a good case for the Magnetic Cello. We’ll be adding the option to ship the instruments with hard case included soon.

There are no recordings of the show this weekend (as far as I know), but rumor is that Ben has been working on a video with the instrument. From what I’ve seen, it does, indeed, bend genres.