"Got It On Ebay"
I hear from people saying they, “got it on ebay,” or some other online portal, and now they are calling a violin shop because the teacher told them that the instrument is unplayable. The prices are often low, but they are so poorly made, that the money spent on them was completely wasted.
There are two general areas of interest when you are purchasing a student instrument. The first is whether the basic box is constructed properly, and the second is whether all of what is called "set-up work" is done to within a reasonable standard of playability. The basic box can be great and the set-up work horrible, in which case new set-up work is called for.
Set-up includes a hand-fitted bridge, soundpost, nut, pegs, properly dressed fingerboard, well functioning tailpiece with tuners built in, and decent strings. This amounts to about $400 worth of work and parts! So it is impossible to buy an instrument that will do the player any good for $100! Let me tell you that there are almost no exceptions to this. Most of the cheap ebay instruments are not constructed well to begin with, and so it is a waste of money to even bother putting the money into set-up.
People tell me that the player is “just a beginner,” which is heartbreaking to hear! The beginner needs a minimally well adjusted instrument to even have any idea of what the experience is going to be like. Giving a beginner one of these instruments is like giving them a pen to write with that has little ink left in it!
Additionally, the cases that come with these instruments fall apart in a short period of time, and the bows often don’t work, or work very poorly.
When someone brings me an inexpensive online special, my first question is often, “can you send it back?” That would be my first recommendation with almost every one of these that see. In the cases where the instrument is worth setting up, an example of the approximate costs for violin set-up are as follows (student instruments only - professional set-up is much more):
Bridge: $100
Soundpost: $80
Nut adjusted: $20
New Wittner Tailpiece installed: $35
Decent medium level strings installed: $$45
Your instrument could also need tuning pegs, and likely needs the fingerboard dressed as well! Almost none of this is worth doing on these types of instruments, because you are throwing good money after bad.
For some reason people have the mistaken idea that mail-order is cheaper. Such is not the case with violins, and in fact a decent instrument from one of the specialty bowed instrument mail-order companies will often cost you more and not be set up as well as what you can buy from me!
It is in the details and the fine adjustments that an instrument can go from barely adequate to excellent, and that requires time and most importantly, the caring skills of an expert.
What makes a bowed instrument work well cannot easily be compared by the inexperienced person. They all look alike to some extent, and you can’t compare features, brands, or models like you do with other purchases, such as computer, car, stereo, etc.
In the end it comes down to trusting the shop that you work with, and unfortunately there are a lot of unscrupulous people selling instruments who are taking advantage of people, and these include many of the music stores where set-up is hardly addressed, most of the mail order companies where the low cost provider gets the business, and definitely ebay where everything sold gets commoditized. Violins are not commodity items, and when they are sold that way, the low cost providers can only provide you with junk.
If you are bringing me a mail order instrument that does not work, and you have read this, then you already have an idea what I will say. My first suggestion will always be to send it back for a refund or a correction (this same advice holds true for instruments newly purchased from other violin shops as well.) Sometimes I can do the minimal adjusting that people are asking for (usually the request is for bridge adjustments), and sometimes I just can’t because the instrument or fitting is so bad that any work on it at all risks creating other problems!
I am not an instrument snob! I have great compassion for people who are wanting to give their children, or themselves the experience of playing a bowed instrument. I will do the best that I can to give the player the best that they can appreciate, while still repecting your budget.
There are two general areas of interest when you are purchasing a student instrument. The first is whether the basic box is constructed properly, and the second is whether all of what is called "set-up work" is done to within a reasonable standard of playability. The basic box can be great and the set-up work horrible, in which case new set-up work is called for.
Set-up includes a hand-fitted bridge, soundpost, nut, pegs, properly dressed fingerboard, well functioning tailpiece with tuners built in, and decent strings. This amounts to about $400 worth of work and parts! So it is impossible to buy an instrument that will do the player any good for $100! Let me tell you that there are almost no exceptions to this. Most of the cheap ebay instruments are not constructed well to begin with, and so it is a waste of money to even bother putting the money into set-up.
People tell me that the player is “just a beginner,” which is heartbreaking to hear! The beginner needs a minimally well adjusted instrument to even have any idea of what the experience is going to be like. Giving a beginner one of these instruments is like giving them a pen to write with that has little ink left in it!
Additionally, the cases that come with these instruments fall apart in a short period of time, and the bows often don’t work, or work very poorly.
When someone brings me an inexpensive online special, my first question is often, “can you send it back?” That would be my first recommendation with almost every one of these that see. In the cases where the instrument is worth setting up, an example of the approximate costs for violin set-up are as follows (student instruments only - professional set-up is much more):
Bridge: $100
Soundpost: $80
Nut adjusted: $20
New Wittner Tailpiece installed: $35
Decent medium level strings installed: $$45
Your instrument could also need tuning pegs, and likely needs the fingerboard dressed as well! Almost none of this is worth doing on these types of instruments, because you are throwing good money after bad.
For some reason people have the mistaken idea that mail-order is cheaper. Such is not the case with violins, and in fact a decent instrument from one of the specialty bowed instrument mail-order companies will often cost you more and not be set up as well as what you can buy from me!
It is in the details and the fine adjustments that an instrument can go from barely adequate to excellent, and that requires time and most importantly, the caring skills of an expert.
What makes a bowed instrument work well cannot easily be compared by the inexperienced person. They all look alike to some extent, and you can’t compare features, brands, or models like you do with other purchases, such as computer, car, stereo, etc.
In the end it comes down to trusting the shop that you work with, and unfortunately there are a lot of unscrupulous people selling instruments who are taking advantage of people, and these include many of the music stores where set-up is hardly addressed, most of the mail order companies where the low cost provider gets the business, and definitely ebay where everything sold gets commoditized. Violins are not commodity items, and when they are sold that way, the low cost providers can only provide you with junk.
If you are bringing me a mail order instrument that does not work, and you have read this, then you already have an idea what I will say. My first suggestion will always be to send it back for a refund or a correction (this same advice holds true for instruments newly purchased from other violin shops as well.) Sometimes I can do the minimal adjusting that people are asking for (usually the request is for bridge adjustments), and sometimes I just can’t because the instrument or fitting is so bad that any work on it at all risks creating other problems!
I am not an instrument snob! I have great compassion for people who are wanting to give their children, or themselves the experience of playing a bowed instrument. I will do the best that I can to give the player the best that they can appreciate, while still repecting your budget.