Buyer's guide for mid-range violins? (1 Viewer)

[Dennis Nicholls]

Well my well-known sense of cheapness got the better of me and I bought the Stringworks Artist from the tendonitis guy on ebay. We'll see what a $390 (marked down from $650)violin set can sound like. I did go over to Cao and was quite frankly amazed how good his model STV-750 violins sounded. They are a real piece of work. Maybe I'll spring for one someday.

 

[Mary M S]

Well my well-known sense of cheapness got the better of me

I think you made a wise choice. If you play with it for the winter then relegate it to the dusty corner, you spent what you should have, to get back to tinkering with strings. If you continue forward ....by the time you decide the limits of its quality (limit you), you will by then be far bettered positioned to know what to (and preferences) to shop for.
Good luck and enjoy, I want a grand right now...much harder to delegate to the dusty corner after a few months if I tire of it!
I really think: you did the right thing.
Now go out and make it sing!!

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I got the folks at Stringworks to tell me the heritage of the "artist" fiddles they sell. First the violin is roughed out in Germany of German woods. Then it is shipped in the white to Sri Lanka for front and back thickness gradation and varnishing. Then it is sent to SW in Wisconsin for setup. Man these things have been all over the world.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

As related above I had the opportunity in 2003 to buy the Stringworks Artist violin and Krausch real Pernambuco bow. I planned to take it up after I retired in 2005. A year or two into retirement money got tight (low interest rates on savings) so starting paid lessons was out of the question. This January I took my violin down from the shelf and had a local luthier tune it up. The bridge had warped so he fitted a new bridge, strings, and a tailpiece with all 4 fine-tuners. Incidentally the new Thomastik "Alphayue" strings for students have received rave reviews and I concur.

Right now I'm in the sub-month period and am using these online lessons https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...2X3cu76U4EJy0K . Hey, I learned to fix Miatas with Mike Miata King's youtube lessons, why not the violin?

Beginning an instrument at age 65 has its issues. Mine is a arthritic right shoulder joint. You have to raise independently the upper arm to bow the different strings, and the joint is stiff around where I need to raise the arm to get to the G string. Sometimes it even "pops" when moving from the D string to the G string. I'm bowing fine on the A and E strings and mostly OK on the D string. I'm considering going to a physical therapist but I know he'll suggest exercise with weights. I got a 5 lb dumbbell at WM and am going to work on that joint.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Yes, I'm aware of that. This was I all could offer here at work. I will sure ask our buddy what he thinks of his Stringworks and his opinion on Cao. Don't count out the Suzuki(Nagoya). It has nothing to do with who I work for either.

I did buy a Suzuki a few years back, but it was a car.