Hi I thought I’d start off with some thoughts on what you should look for when looking to buy a first beginners’ violin. The first thing to realise is that violins can be found for almost nothing and most advice you will come across is that you should steer clear of very cheap violins as you can spend much more on trying to put them right than than if you just spent a bit more in the first place. Generally this is a good rule, but even some of the more expensive violins still could do with more work to get them to play right.

So what’s bad about cheap violins?

Mostly the bridge on the violin is almost never set up properly, the feet should be cut to fit the top of the instrument and the whole bridge should be shaped to allow the strings to be at the right height. This is such a common fault and can make a violin virtually unplayable.

As you can see, a good bridge fits the curved front of the violin perfectly

The tuning pegs are often not fitted properly and this can result in the pegs constantly slipping out of tune.

Compare this violin to the one below: notice how the tuning peg doesn’t fit all the way through

Here the peg has been fitted properly

Some instruments have not enough wood carved out of them when they’re made resulting in being uncomfortably heavy and sounding ‘dead’.

And of course cheap wire strings can make a horrible strained ‘scratchy’ sound which is really not helpful for a beginner and especially not for children!

Sometimes even the wood used can be not properly seasoned and actually warps over time resulting in things like misshapen fingerboards and yet more playing problems.

Are there any brands that are better buys?

Unfortunately most student violins are built down to a price and there is often some adjustments and improvements that need to be made but some brands are noticeably better.

One of the most consistently good student violin brands is Stentor, many schools use these as standard and 1000s of them are in use and often available 2nd hand in good condition.

I am always keen to help with an instrument purchase, I generally have instruments of all sizes available to rent or buy and anything for sale will have been set up by a qualified luthier. Do feel free to call or email me for any buying advice, Thanks for reading,

George