violin ( I know nothing )

[fluffo]

My 9 year old son has started violin lessons at school, soon I will need to provide him with his own violin as he is now doing as an extra curricular activity.
I know nothing regarding violins and could really use any guidance you guys can provide.
If I buy one and he gives up I want to be able to recoup some of the cost via a resell so I want something of a reasonable standard but baring in mind he could out grow it in the near future.
Any info greatly received.


Please pm me any suggestions or if there are any up for grabs out there please get in touch.

My phone number is 07956 964156 if you prefer.

regards

Mark

[jaydentaku]

What size is he using and what is your budget?

Edited February 11, 2013 by jaydentaku

[pietruszka]

As jaydentaku says. There is a fiddle player in one of my bands, and he teaches to, I can certainly ask him for you.



Dan

[lowdowner]

maybe think about an electric violin as well as a 'traditional' one - i suspect kids may find that cooler and anything that encourages him to keep playing is good *and* you can get him to practice with earphones on which will help him (he won't feel so self conscious) and for you (you won't want to smash his violin to smithereens when you finally lose all patience with the noise despite all your best intentions!

[wateroftyne]

The same applies to violins as it does to basses and guitars: when you do buy one, regardless of wether it's a cheap Chinese thing or something second-hand and decent, take it to a repairer and make sure it's set up correctly. It'll be money well spent.

Where are you based, OP?

[2wheeler]

Buy 2nd hand and you should not lose much when re-selling. The teacher probably is the best connection to other children who are just outgrowing suitable instruments.

£50 should get you a usable outfit (violin, case and bow) but be wary of anything much cheaper.

When my daughter needed to move up to a 3/4 size instrument, I bought one for £400 because I couldn't find a cheaper one that I* liked and I didn't feel I would lose anything between buying and selling. When she moved up to a 4/4 violin, she got my back-up violin

*Yes, it probably should have been her decision but let's face it, it's my money!

[KingBollock]

When I bought a Violin, many, many years ago, I found that the quality of the cheapest of the cheap and the dearest of the cheap wasn't much, so I went with really cheap. Which was a good thing for me, because even though I took to it quite well, my hands soon got too big to play it (I'm a great big fat fatty), which was a shame. The thing I found I couldn't skimp on, though, was the bow.
My Violin only cost £100 (including case and a bow, though I replaced the bow with a better one), so I have the problem you want to avoid, it's not worth selling on. If you can get some good advice, second-hand might well be the way to go, there'll always be someone just giving up.

Edited February 12, 2013 by KingBollock

[Jacqueslemac]

Off topic, sorry, but the violin was the first musical instrument I tried. I found one in the attic and as the teacher who was teaching my sister clarinet also taught violin, I asked if I could have lessons.

The violin turned out to belong to my dad's grandmother (and I doubt it was new when she bought it):


I never got very good at it and gave it up partly because it wasn't electric and I couldn't find any bands I liked with a violin in them (this was the mid-1970s). I decided I wanted to play bass instead (same number of strings, see).

So, back on topic - you may never have to think about resale value!

[oggiesnr]

Second hand Stentor student. Lots of them about and fairly reliable quality wise. You need to check which size his teacher thinks he needs and be prepared to change up as required. Once he gets to full-size and looks like staying with it, then is the time to spend a bit more money.

Steve (who went through it with his son)

[LemonCello]

Gibson made fiddles for a while I found out the other day! Cranes in Cardiff have one for sale - made in the '40's I think.

[Nibody]

Got my daughter a 1/2 Size as she wants to learn (she's 6 and only a dot at that) from ebay 2nd hand for about £25.Have a 3/4 I rescued from a school I used to work at and a full size bought from a workmates of the wifes - that was £40 and is a translucent purple!.

[xgsjx]

Think of it as a small double bass that you stick under your chin & play with a string on a stick.

[deejayen]

I played the fiddle for a year or so after a friend gave me a really cheap (less than £50) one. I knew some other players with the basic Stentor package, and I think theirs were slightly better quality than mine. At the beginning I found it difficult to get a decent tone out of it, and suspected the fiddle may have had everything to do with it! However, it was simply down to me having to learn the ‘feel’ through the bowing elbow. After that I could screech out a tune, and sometimes I’d be quite impressed at what a £50 instrument could do!

I took it to a fiddle builder/repairer to see about a setup as the action was pretty high, but she said it just wasn’t worth it – I think there were some splits in the body. I dropped the bow, and the frog shattered, so went to a fiddle dealer/repairer to buy a new one. I ended up buying one for about £170, and that made a big difference to the way the fiddle played and sounded. I felt it was worth paying that sort of amount over a cheaper one after I tested some, and I could always sell it without loss at a later date. The more expensive bows were better, but my heart wasn’t really in fiddle playing so I didn’t want to go too mad.

I thought about buying a new fiddle, but never did. From what I tried, the ones at £400 weren’t that great an improvement over what I had, and you had to pay quite a bit more for something old which had decent tone and better playability. However, you really need to be past the beginning stages before you can even start to ‘feel’ how the notes develop, and you can respond to the fiddle. It’s the opposite to my recent banjo purchase where I've started with a top grade instrument. With the fiddle there’s probably little point in doing that, as you can’t even enjoy listening to nice open ringing strings – they’ll all sound awful!

So, for a first fiddle I’d probably just go for whatever is available - you just need something with working pegs and a bridge which stays up! If your son wants to continue then it would be worth skipping out the slightly more expensive new ones (around £400) and buying a decent bow and fiddle which he would then be in a better position to appreciate, and which you could easily sell on if he later gave up.

I’m not sure if that’s of any help, but I just thought I’d pass on what I discovered. I’m obviously no expert, but I did go through the learning process!

In the end I gave up the fiddle – as I said, my heart wasn’t in it, although I do pull it out once or twice a year for a quick screech. It’s funny how just a run up and down a couple of scales and my fingers ‘remember’ things almost where they left off! However, the ‘secret’ really is in that bowing elbow!

I’ll add that, in the beginning it was quite frustrating because I’d ask teachers how to get a nice pure note from the fiddle, and they were unable to tell me. Also, in a classroom situation with a number of students screeching away together, I observed that it’s difficult for those with no musical background to take things in their stride. It’s very easy for negative thoughts to creep in, not to mention tears! They think their progress is slow, they struggle to follow the music (either reading or playing by ear), and they think everyone else is doing better than they are. So, a bit of truthful encouragement can go a long way – especially with an instrument like the fiddle which has a fairly steep initial learning curve.

[BigLicks67]

Gliga Gems II gets good reviews from fiddlers. I think they are Romanian made. About £250-£300 new.

[AngelLaHash]

I know that Newark on Trent is said to be the second best violin making school
Students always need money and they should be pretty good by there 3rd year


Myself, I owned a electric cheap violin from eBay (faulty) I wanted to take it a part to find out the workings
Well took off one bit and found out the power wasn't connected, then it worked so gave it away. Locale school.

Edited April 7, 2013 by AngelLaHash