How to choose a violin

How to choose a violin

You need an acoustic or electric violin with a bow ? The italians and french violins from famous luthiers are relatively expensive but the price is the work done and if you have the opportunity to go to Cremona, Italy (site of the famous violin maker Stradivari), go visit the museum Stradivarius violins and exposure in “Palazzo communale”. You will see the work necessary to create a violin and you'll also see works by other world-famous violin makers (Amati, Guarneri).

To begin, there are violins industrial manufacturing sold with a bow, rosin and case in very affordable prices, often from china you can easy find them for example on “Ebay”. It will in most cases necessary to adjust or correct some things like pegs who slip. The bridge is not always well adjusted and the strings are often of poor quality.

You can rent it but in this case i recommend to take out an insurance policy against accident and theft. You can also buy a used violin but do this very carefully because you can easily trust in the seller that the violin was made by renowned violin maker. Just like in painting masters there are lots of copies. This means it is easy to stick in the violin a false label of a known maker.

Naturally i suggest that you should try your future violin before purchasing it, even if you are not experimented. Listen to the sound when you play with the same bow on each string, so you can compare the most important thing, the sound produced.

Verify that you can bow a string without touching two strings. If it too hard for you, this means that the violin is not properly set up for you and you should consider choosing the other violin or you could fix it by bring it to a luthier (violin maker), but this could be less expensive to change your choice.

A good idea is to ask advice from a violin player or a violin maker, he will be pleased to advise you and help you choose a violin playable. If you want an electric violin, the choice will be easier because there are fewer problems than an acoustic instrument. The raw sound of the electric violin is not always like you expected, but it can be changed using electronic effects boxes. The first advantage of the electric violin is that it can work with a very low volume. So you can work without disturbing your neighbours, for example.

Some advices before beginning

It is not necessary to buy a very expensive violin because you will hesitate to bring it with you when you go away. Don't forget this : you must have your violin not too far from you everywhere you go, this will be one of the secrets of the success of your learning.

When you shall have played some months, you will be more experimented to choose more accurately the instrument that suits you.

Keep the instrument always near from you and ready to play out of his suitcase. Pulling off the violin form his suitcase is wasting time.

Four fine tuners on the tailpiece can help you when you have to tune the violin.

There are many sizes of violins : 4/4 (also called Full size), 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/10, 1/16.

Length of adult Violin 

  

4/4 (full size) for adult,  355 mm violin size body in mm