Violin advice

[Mudball]

This is a strange Q, but stranger questions have been answered on this forum. Nipper plays the violin. He is doing grade 5 or 6. I have zero clue on violins or any instruments . He has been doing it for a few years but he is no Mozart.

We have been buying cheap violins from local music shops as he outgrows them. But now he is tall enough to have a full size one.

Apparently there is a big difference in quality of violins. Music shop has £200 to £4K ones. Speaking to school music teacher, It has become increasingly hard to find good quality violins at a suitable price. Most music shops have closed, many violin dealers have retired and have not been replaced by a younger generation and the internet, has made the market really difficult.

School has found a local guy who imports from China and tunes it.. about 1k. German ones in shops start around 1.5k. It is a lot of money. Anyone gone thru this conundrum.

Any violin experts in the house?

 

[Bunkermagnet]

This is a strange Q, but stranger questions have been answered on this forum. Nipper plays the violin. He is doing grade 5 or 6. I have zero clue on violins or any instruments . He has been doing it for a few years but he is no Mozart.

We have been buying cheap violins from local music shops as he outgrows them. But now he is tall enough to have a full size one.

Apparently there is a big difference in quality of violins. Music shop has £200 to £4K ones. Speaking to school music teacher, It has become increasingly hard to find good quality violins at a suitable price. Most music shops have closed, many violin dealers have retired and have not been replaced by a younger generation and the internet, has made the market really difficult.

School has found a local guy who imports from China and tunes it.. about 1k. German ones in shops start around 1.5k. It is a lot of money. Anyone gone thru this conundrum.

Any violin experts in the house?

I would try and find a string specialist. As with all musical instruments that are made, tone and quality of tone will vary along with the quality standard and price.

 

[PhilTheFragger]

We had the same issue about 15 years ago, ended up buying quite expensive ones, but when they finished with them the resale value was pants

If Junior is going to play properly, im talking proper orchestra plus, then its worth getting a good one, otherwise, cheap n cheerful,

 

[Mudball]

We had the same issue about 15 years ago, ended up buying quite expensive ones, but when they finished with them the resale value was pants

If Junior is going to play properly, im talking proper orchestra plus, then its worth getting a good one, otherwise, cheap n cheerful,

Well he is my son.. I doubt he will be any good. He is at an age that he is going to be distracted. His music teacher says he should audition for national youth orchestra.. I think it is a wind up to do some 1-1 classes

 

[Pin-seeker]

I know nothing about violins
But if the resale value is pants like Fragger said,why not buy 2nd hand?

 

[Mudball]

I know nothing about violins
But if the resale value is pants like Fragger said,why not buy 2nd hand?

I have DMed @PhilTheFragger for his old violin.. in exchange for some Bitcoin and GMInfractionCoin … will let you know if he bites..

 

[bobmac]

Ask your son to chip in his pocket money to get a half decent one, if he agrees he's keen, if he doesn't don't fiddle around...cheap and cheerful

 

[PhilTheFragger]

I have DMed @PhilTheFragger for his old violin.. in exchange for some Bitcoin and GMInfractionCoin … will let you know if he bites..

Sold on years ago, but 10/10 for chancing your luck

 

[GG26]

Bought my daughter a violin around 8-9 years ago from a music shop that was closing down. I paid £130, but was reduced from around £280. The violin teacher advised that it was better than what most learn on and would probably last her until she played to a fairly high level. She is currently working on Grade 6 and it’s perfectly fine for that.

If you can find one for around £350 to £400 - worth ringing around music shops - then I suspect that would probably be good enough until Grade 8.

 

[Pin-seeker]

Might be worth asking the Liverpool fans on here if they’ve got a spare

 

[Mandofred]

If you can find a decent violin shop that will let you try of bunch of them.....that's a plus. The action of the strings, fret board, bridge etc make a huge difference. Cheap violins tend to have cheap strings which are bad sounding and tough on the fingers. The best one I had was "only" worth a couple thousand, but I had more serious people try to buy it off me because it was just lovely to play/sound. I hurt my back playing too much so I sold everything after a few years of them sitting around not getting used. Violin is a VERY risky instrument for a young person.....very un-cool. Decent guitars can be cheap and a lot cooler.

 

[larmen]

There is a violin maker (Olaf) on YouTube who takes those cheap violins apart and explains why they sound the way they do, and what you can reasonably do to improve them, and what someone like him can do, and even that has limits.
It’s just a question to ‘what do you actually want’ with it.

 

[williamalex1]

Ask her music teacher, he may have an old Strat lying about lol

 

[Tashyboy]

What I know about violins can be written on the back of a fag packet. However there are quite a few for sale on Facebook market place inc Hinderstines. Google says they are a good company. My problem would be not knowing what is a good or bad un.

 

[Neilds]

Ask her music teacher, he may have an old Strat lying about lol

Think you mean Strad (for Stradivarius) - a Strat is a guitar

 

[Imurg]

My advice, when it comes to violins, is to just stop.
Now
Just stop and save the World from the sound of strangling cats....

 

[Mudball]

There is a violin maker (Olaf) on YouTube who takes those cheap violins apart and explains why they sound the way they do, and what you can reasonably do to improve them, and what someone like him can do, and even that has limits.
It’s just a question to ‘what do you actually want’ with it.

Found this one v interesting… my knowledge has quadrupled >>