• This topic has 14 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 9 years ago by aP.
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  • Anyone's children playing the violin? some advice needed
  • Selled
    Free Member

    Interested to know how much other people pay for violins for their children.

    My 11 year old daughter had been playing for a couple of years and now she needs a full size violin. Her teacher is telling us that if we do not but a violin from the violin specialist we are being stupid and it will sound terrible. This will cost us 2000 euro.

    I went to a music shop who told me this is ridiculous and recommended one for 450 Euros. I agree with the shop, she could give up next year, who knows!

    Anyway, anyone else got any experience here? Neither my wife or myself played musical instruments and therefore can only make an assumption.

    How much did other people pay? Did they sound OK?

    Denno17
    Free Member

    My daughter has been playing for a few years herself (12 now). When she had outgrown her 3/4 violin her teacher and I had a chat and went to a specialist shop that had violins up to £20000.

    My daughters cost me £400, I had a budget of £500 and my daughters teacher tried quite a few to that value and told me which ones sounded the best and my daughter picked 1 from the 4 best sounding violins that were in that price bracket.

    I think your daughters teacher is a bit blinkered.

    sweaman2
    Free Member

    No experience of violins but in my opinion an expensive musical instrument played badly will sound worse than a cheap instrument played well….

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    Selled
    Free Member

    Thanks Denno, exactly my thoughts but as mentioned no experience on this.

    Yak
    Full Member

    Good grief – we just bought an ex hire one in decent condition for £75.
    1/8th though. Hoping to go through the sizes in a similar fashion and sell them off as they are outgrown.

    kcal
    Full Member

    We’ve been – lucky really. Daughter – now aged 15 – has been playing violin for several years, and doing quite well. I now can’t recall what she had in the early years – some second hand violin from another pupil of her teacher I think – she ended up with a Chinese violin sourced from a local violin dealer – which has been OK – it’s always felt an odd shape for her playing style as it’s evolved.

    She went to a big music dealer in Edinburgh last year, and was all set to end up with another second hand one, which had been restored – did sound nice, but it still needed quite a bit of work. Cost of that was around £800. She actually took it away to trial for a week, but in the end we – I – returned it..

    Have settled on another violin for our very local dealer – not cheap but it suits her very well, she’s at grade 8 level so unlikely to ditch it any time soon. Worth checking insurance policy as well…

    CHB
    Full Member

    Sorry for the marginal hijack, but I have a lightly used 3/4 bought from Banks in York a couple of years ago if anyone needs one for a sensible price. {hijack over).

    winston
    Free Member

    I would be very interested in the 3/4

    where are you in UK?

    CHB
    Full Member

    Hi Winston, am in Leeds. Have emailed you from profile email. 🙂

    deejayen
    Free Member

    I’m a guitarist, and a friend gave me a £50 fiddle a few years ago. I made it past the screeching stage, and went to classes, and was getting on okay. However, my heart was never really in it, so I decided to stop playing after a couple of years. So, I’m not an expert, but…

    When I was playing I heard plenty of people (some professional) playing fiddles in a lot of different price ranges, and I also tried a few myself. The more expensive ones often are better, but I was surprised at how even my cheapo one could sound okay. If upgrading I would probably have bought an old one for around £800 which, from what I remember, is where things started to sound really nice.

    It seems like your daughter will be a pretty good player, so she’ll be able to tell what is nice to play and what sounds good to her. However, it’s also worth having the dealer play the different violins so that she can hear what they sound like when someone else is playing.

    I ended up buying a more expensive bow. Again, I tried a few different ones at various prices, and settled on an old one which worked for me. I can’t remember how much it cost, but I have a very vague notion that it might have been around £200. It made a really big difference – possibly more noticeable than spending a similar amount on a new violin.

    I’m up near Inverness, and one of the guys I went to see had a decent workshop and a good selection of fiddles and bows in a relaxed demo room (in his croft). I presume an Edinburgh dealer might be charging top dollar for a restored fiddle, so it might be worth traveling to see what you can pick up for a certain budget.

    deejayen
    Free Member

    I just wanted to add that an expensive instrument set up badly can sound worse and be less pleasing to play than a cheaper instrument set up really well.

    bruk
    Full Member

    One advantage of buying at a decent level is that they don’t depreciate a lot. They can be resold for often similar to what they cost originally.

    leffeboy
    Full Member

    Sounds blinkered, especially for only 2years playing. The downside of only spending 450 is that you may need to buy again in another 4 years but by that point you know it’s going to stick. From the experience of myself and other friends with children that play an instrument of some sort it can take a few years before they decide if they like it or not, 2 years usually isn’t enough.

    kcal
    Full Member

    @deejayen – yes, Edinburgh dealer and shop to go with it would be a bit pricey, I reckoned that was the case. Daughter did get a case – and a bow, as it happens – there, but not the violin in the end. As say, local guy (retired really but still deals a bit) was much more straightforward to deal with and he was definitely – as a very decent violin player himself – we reckoned he was just keen to get a decent violin for a decent player.

    We’re in Elgin as it happens, not so far along the coast…

    aP
    Free Member

    Personally I’d buy a reasonable but affordable violin and then wait and see.
    Admittedly I played using my great grandfathers’ 1810 violin with a Dodd bow at 11, but then it was there to be used….

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