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.