Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this for my 8 year-old niece for Christmas. She's been begging to have a violin for as long as I can remember, and I can guaranty she won't be disappointed with this instrument. There are some things that need to be said in this review though. First of all, I've played guitar for the last 33 years. I began playing when I was ten. By the time I was a teenager, I was not only playing guitar and bass, but I was doing repair work for myself and other people. I know electric guitars and basses inside and out. About the only thing I can't, or won't do with one of these instruments is a re-fret - mainly because I don't have the space or the tools for it. I've been setting up stringed instruments for more than half my life. That being said... I firmly believe a lot of the negative reviews I've read here are written by people who felt the violin should have been in tune and playable right out of the box - which is ludicrous. This is a small, acoustic instrument. Shipping one of these things tuned to pitch would nearly guaranty a broken instrument upon arrival. These are shipped out with the strings slacked. The one I purchased had the bridge in place, but it was by no means in the correct place - directly between the middle of the two f-holes. It couldn't be. With the strings slacked, the slightest bump to the package could dislodge it. I presume the majority of the negative reviews I read were written by people in the United States, where the people are taught by their televisions that everything is easy, nothing requires effort, and when you buy something, it has to work right out of the box - otherwise it's defective. I know, I live in the US. If you're considering buying this, or ANY acoustic stringed instrument through an online retailer like Amazon, you're either going to have to learn some new skills in setting up an acoustic instrument, or take it to someone (reputable) who has the skills the set up an acoustic instrument for you. If you bought one of these instruments in a local music store, the set up would be done in the store prior to sale, and I'm sure the house luthier (instrument repair guy) would give it a "once-over" and a final tuning before you took it home. You're paying for this. It's why this same violin would be twenty or thirty dollars more if you bought it in a local music store. For a guy like me, learning how to set up a whole new instrument was a joy. Here are some quick tips on how you can do this yourself: 1.) The rosin cake that comes with the violin has a glaze over it to keep it from powdering up everything in the case during shipment. You'll need to "get it started". Take an emery board (nail file) or a little bit of sandpaper and sand off that top glaze until the cake starts to get powdery. 2.) The tuning pegs WILL NOT hold a proper tuning on the strings right out of the box! I don't care if you paid fifty grand for a new violin - if it has new pegs and new strings, they WILL slip. Take the strings off one at a time (I started with the G string) and apply your now powdery rosin to each peg - get the ends really good - and also apply some rosin to the holes in the headstock where the peg was. Replace the peg and the string. You'll now notice that there's a stiffness and a tackiness when turning the peg in its holes. This will prevent string slippage. If it's still a little loose, rap the peg head loosely with your knuckles to seat it a little better in the peg holes. Don't pull out a mallet or anything drastic like that - just knock on the peg head as if you were knocking on a door. It should seat it better. Again, even the most expensive violins require these adjustments to stay in tune. Follow these steps for each string, removing only one string at a time. When you tighten each string back up, only get it tight enough to allow the bridge to stand up. Don't try to tune the strings to pitch until you completed this process for all four strings. 3.) When all your peg holes and pegs are rosined up and back in place, make sure those strings have enough tension on them to keep the bridge erect, but not so much that the bridge is immovable. Start turning your pegs, G-string first - tune from low to high. The bridge will move around as you tune, that's fine. Just keep nudging it back into place. You're not tuning yet, you're putting tension on each string to secure the bridge in place. Once you feel you have an even tension (more or less) across all four strings and the bridge is staying where it should (between the very middle of the two f-holes), then you can start tuning the instrument to pitch. 4.) Rosin your bow. Without rosin on the bow, the hairs will just glide across the strings without producing any appreciable vibration - in other words - no note. The rosin creates friction between the two surfaces and causes the string(s) to vibrate. Playing your new violin without rosin is about the same as playing it without strings. 5.) Your new violin will still go out of tune! Yes. Why? Because it was shipped to you with new strings, that's why! I know this from playing guitar for as long as I have. New strings have a certain "breaking in " period. Once the strings settle into their tuning, try to avoid tuning with the pegs and use the fine tuners in the bridge to make minute adjustments to the tuning of your new instrument. Righty tighty, lefty loosen. Tightening the fine tuners will bring the pitch of the string up, loosening the fine tuner will bring it down. During your initial set up, make sure the fine tuners are tightened mid-way - that way you have room to move either up or down in pitch once the strings are broken in. The fine tuners on the instrument I purchased pretty much arrived this way, but it doesn't hurt to check. 6.) One last piece of advice, if you break a string, change them all, don't just change one. It's like tires on a car. It's better to replace all four at once than it is to replace one at a time. Your violin will just sound and respond better if you do. Now that all that stuff is out of the way, I'll conclude this review with an actual review. As far as the construction of the instrument goes - it's okay. It's maple - maple is a good, solid, tone wood - not too expensive, but certainly not plastic, like I've seen for other instruments in this price range. The maple finger board (stained dark to resemble ebony) is okay, again MUCH better than plastic. I'd personally like to see rosewood or pau ferro. It wouldn't be too expensive in violin size to substitute one of these tone woods - either one would have a "slicker" feel than stained maple and still be cost-effective for a beginner's instrument. The stained maple pegs are just fine, they do the job and again, infinitely better than plastic. The tone bar seems to be seated well and in its proper place. I'm happy it's there to begin with. At this price range, it isn't unexpected to not see one at all. I'm not an experienced player by any means, so I don't know much about the accessories, but the included chin rest and shoulder rest seem pretty adequate. Adding the shoulder rest made it a lot more comfortable for me to play - well, squeak out some notes anyway. I'd say, all in all, it's a solid little first instrument. It's not mind-blowing. You get what you pay for, and I think in this case, you might even be getting a little more. The instrument itself, aside from its chin rest and shoulder rest, is all wood and metal - no plastic - which is a wonderful thing. In conclusion, I'd say, put in some TIME. Put in some EFFORT, and you'll have a decent instrument to learn with.