violin advice needed

[Lolly]

Today dd's violin teacher told us that she was in need of a better violin. Time to move up from the starter. Any recommendations?

[Jean in Newcastle]

Stratavarius?! Just kidding. . .!!! I'd call up a music store and just ask them. And I'd ask the violin teacher.

[Amy from WT]

YES!

www.jrjuddviolins.com

WONDERFUL instruments!

All made in the shop, right there.

My husband and I are both musicians. Not string players, but we are musicians by trade, so we know a little something of what we are talking about. I have never been a fan of instrumental rental programs, but we really thought this one was a fantastic value. You pay $24 per month, and besides a dollar or two for insurance, every dollar of that goes towards your eventual purchase of the instrument. Which, at a final cost of about $400, is a pretty nice student instrument. In fact, at one concert, my daughter's teacher's violin had a broken string. He borrowed my daughter's violin to play instead, and was very impressed with its sound - loved it, in fact.

Anyway, the thing that makes this program great is that as your child moves out of one size to another, you simply mail your violin back to the shop and they mail you a brand new one in the correct size, with no change to your payment plan. In other words, you don't start paying all over again on the new violin, you continue paying as if you'd had the new, bigger violin all along!

Check out the website if you're interested. I may have the prices off by a dollar or two, or they may have gone up slightly in the year since we got my daughter's, but I just know we have been absolutely thrilled all around.

And if faith is important to you, Mr. Judd, the owner of the store and maker of many of its violins, is a Christian.

All the best in your search,

[HeatherH]

That would make a difference. We have used www.sharmusic.com for good instruments. When my daughter was ready for a semi-professional model, Carriage House instruments in Boston is very good and had a terrific trade-up plan.

FWIW, I'm not too thrilled with pay-as-you go plans, unless you have no other choice. Usually you end up paying more than you would have outright.

Many companies will send you 1-2 instruments to try. Have your child's teacher play them and give a recommendation.

OH, and DO NOT!!! buy one off of ebay! They will be $9.99 but with $40 shipping, and are worth about the price of a box of toothpicks. The toothpicks will sound better, too ;)

(FYI: My dh and I are musicians - he's an orchestra director - but we both play woodwinds. AND none of our kids are playing violin any more! So maybe you should ignore this post - ha ha!!! :D )

[Lolly]

So this would be it. No trading up sizes. She has only been playing for a little over a year, but has made tremendous progress. Would we be better off just outright purchasing in this case? Her teacher did have some recommendations, but dd can't remember them at all. I'm going to talk to her before the next lesson.

[Riverfront Headmistress]

I use The New Cleveland Group for our violins. I pay $15/month (+2 insurance). The $15 goes directly towards buying the violin. When we need a new size, they ship out a new violin; after I receive it and the new violin is sized, then we ship the old violin back. The sound of all the violins we have received is amazing. My violin teacher, with 50+ years of teaching, is amazed with the quality of our violins.

The company doesn't have a website, but the number is 216-421-3937.

[Cindy in FL.]

We've always gotten our violins from a shop about 1 1/2 hours from our house. It's run by a delightful Dutch couple from South Africa. You can check it out at gainesvilleviolins.com. They do rentals, mail order, etc. and I'm sure they'd be happy to advise you if you e-mail them questions. They're all about helping children get the most out of their musical experience. Jan recently sold one of the violins he made to Joshua Bell. He really knows what he's doing. I've also heard good things about Shar Music, which is online.

Good luck!

Cindy