3/4 Violin Set For Beginners - Hand Carved Acoustic Violins Kit - Fiddle Solid Wood Kit with Hard Case, Bow, Rosin, Shoulder Rest, Bridge and Extra Strings

I bought this violin back in July 2018, Mendini MV300. I am 63 and purchased it for myself. I did not want to spend a lot of money on a more expensive one and find my old body could not hold and bow it properly. I was able to. At first I wasn’t too impressed. I was hearing professional violin sounds in my mind (no, not senility!). I was hearing the tone, not talking playing quality, I wanted in my mind, but the sound from the violin was not it, it was rather scratchy and weird, and empty. I read up and purchased Pirastro Tonica strings for it and used my cello rosin instead of what came with it. Wow, 100% better. I really liked it. Then we, my husband and I, found a viola for sale rather inexpesively, about an hour away, so we went there to have a look. We bought the viola, it suited my purpose. While we were there, we were shown a Windsor violin outfit. It sounded pretty good (for a non-violinist test) and we bought it. I put the Celilio strings I removed from my Mendini onto my Windsor and it immediately improved in tone, but was not anything like the Mendini with the Pirastro Tonicas. Did not expect it to be, but it did sound better than the no name strings that were on it. It was a little brighter and little bit of a hollower sound than the Mendini, basically, not as good, but playable and gave a different sound. I wanted a better violin, and in my mind I am thinking a bright violin. So we went to a violin shop an hour away and purchased a way better quality violin. After I purchased a violin that had a bright tone, I decided that bright was really not what I wanted in a violin. I brightened my cello, but that has a deep sound anyway, so there was a difference that I did not think of. Now, this is the reason I have mentioned all of this and how it applies to my Mendini MV300. I am trading my bright good violin for a mellow dark toned violin next week, at the violin shop I purchased it at. I was curious, though. What was the difference in the sound between the three? I have learned “English Country Garden” and have it memorized. I played it on all three of my violins, and recorded them. I used the same exact bow, the one that came with the Mendini (I like it better than the carbon fiber one I purchased for the more expensive bright violin). After listening to all three, this is what I found: Naturally, the more expensive one had more depth, tone, etc. The Windsor sounded pretty good but was weak. The Mendini with the Pirastro Tonicas sounded very clear, and has as nice sound. It is hollow, though, but it is robust. That is not a complaint. It did NOT cost a lot of money and the wood is not the age and quality of the more expensive violin. This surprised me. It is hard to tell when you are playing it and it is right up against your ears. What I did change on the Mendini is the Celilio Strings, that were on it, to Pirastro Tonicas. I purchased a chinrest at our local music store that is more comfortable to me. It is not a center mount, it is side mount chin rest. I have no idea what brand it is. I also do not use the rosin that came with it, I used my Jade cello/violin/viola rosin (although I now use violin rosin I bought with the more expensive violin). Now, about this Mendini. I actually like this violin. I will be using it for songs that really need a brighter sound, after I get my mellow darker toned violin. I am not going to just put it away because I have a better more expensive one. It plays well. It is very comfortable to hold. It appears to be solidly built, just not the good quality aged wood of the more expensive violins. It is definitely worth the money and is definitely a quality that a student can learn on and them step up from. I really recommend changing the strings before using it for lessons. For some reason, from what I learned, sometimes an instructor will tell students that they need to get a better violin. They do not always realize that maybe the student can’t afford a better one and a whole can of worms is opened when (s)he tells her/his parents the instructor said I need a better violin. CHANGE the strings first! You will not believe the difference. Like I said, I did research and for what I wanted, the Pirastro Tonicas are beautiful! I use a washcloth folded in half for a shoulder rest. I do not use the shoulder rest that came with it. I had purchased a should rest, but found that for me, the washcloth folded in half on my shoulder up by my neck, with the chin rest I purchased, is extremely comfortable. I don’t use the one I purchased. This is different for pretty much everyone, so if there are issues holding it, etc, check out your chun rest and should rest options. This violin is simply wonderful for a beginner, and a little beyond, actually. The look (the least important factor as far as I am concerned). I have read where people are complaining because of the satin finish, not the shiny varnishy finish. It states in the write up and shows in the photos that it is a non-shiny satin finish. I really like it! I think it has charm and is so different from other violins. The bow. I love the bow. I love the weight of the bow. I purchased a carbon fiber bow to go with my more expensive violin that I am trading for a mellow dark tone violin. It is too light for me. Probably after I get lessons and get bow control, the lighter carbon will be nice. Right now, the bow with this violin is simply fantastic. The case: the case is great, but there is one issue, that I just let slide by. There is a slot for two bows. One of the slots is unuseable in my case. The black clip turns to hold the bow in bow in place on one was broken when I got my violin. The top of the clip was lying in the case beside the violin. Thought I could snap it back in, but it was not just unsnapped, it was broken. That is not a deal breaker for me. It does not change my rating or feeling about this violin. It is still worth more than I paid for, in my opinion. Bottom line, if you are a beginner or just want to see if you can actually hold and bow a violin, buy this violin. It is well worth the money and with the string upgrades and getting the shoulder rest and chin rest that fits you, using better rosin, you will have an inexpensive violin (not cheap - there is a difference) that will actually get you quite far into your violin learning. It has a great sound, although hollow due to the wood, and projects great with that string upgrade (that is key). The bow is perfect!

It appears there are some people who have had a bad experience with this violin package. Maybe they have expectations for this violin that are too great for a $60 violin, or maybe they have a legitimate complaint. I can't say for sure which it might be if not both, but for me personally I have had nothing but great things to say about this violin. It arrived in perfect condition. No defects on the violin or any accessories, and it really is what I expected and wanted. It is a acceptable starter instrument. It is not a good instrument. A seasoned violinist will not look at this with admiration. Do not go into this purchase expecting anything more. That being said the one I received was in great shape, and sounds pretty good. I have literally played it for at least an hour a day nearly everyday since August when I bought it. I will say, I am inexperienced I can't say for sure, that the sound seems a tad dull compared to fiddles I listen to in music. It's not a bad sound and maybe it is just something I've done wrong, but it is not as clear or as sweet sounding as I might like (especially the G and D sting). Maybe it's the strings or maybe it's the bow. That being said it is not a major problem, and still sounds pretty good. As others have mentioned you may as well throw out the rosin it comes with when you get it, and make sure you order some rosin with your order if you buy this fiddle. The shoulder rest is pretty iffy also. It works... just barely. Though I would recommend going to a luthier and trying out some shoulder rests to get the right fit if you decide to buy a new one instead of buying one online. The bow is decent. A stray hair or two may be broken when you get it. It's not really a big deal. Just nip em off with nail clippers. You should still have plenty left. Not much else to really say about that. It holds the rosin pretty well. The strings that come with it get the job done. I still am using the second set that came with it. I broke the E string on the first set tuning it when I got it. Whoops. :x So be careful and tune all the strings up at the same time in small increments. This will also prevent the bridge from collapsing on you while tuning it up. The case is solid and looks nice. Holds stuff well? All in all this violin package is really a steal. (In a good way.) I can think of much worse things to spend $60 on and I have something that has and will provide me with literally hours and hours of entertainment mixed with a bit of frustration. Keep in mind that this is no doubt a factory made violin as opposed to a hand crafted one and there are likely going to be some undesirables mixed in there. Maybe you'll get one of them... maybe you won't. I say give it a go however. If you get a bad one just return it, and if you are feeling lucky try again. For me it was worth it completely.

I'm barely learning to play violin, but this is pretty awesome, especially for the price. I'm thankful for this, actually. 1) The violin shoulder rest is troublesome, almost junk. I can't seem to place it properly so that I can hold the violin with just my neck/chin. I plan on going to a violin shop to get some advise and try different ones to get something that works. 2) The bride arch is horrible. The angle from one string to another is not the same for all the strings, when evenly spaced out from each other. It is also not exaggerated enough so that I DON'T hit two strings at once (which I often do). The sound is fine, but I have nothing to compare it to. As I am just learning, the sound seems pretty good to me, so I take it the quality of the bridge (minus the way it's shaped), the bow, the strings, and rosin are good enough for a beginner. I did tighten the bowstring by turning the knob on the bottom of it to make them stiffer. (One string came torn already, and another tore up soon after, but none after that). Make sure you put the strings against the sides of the violin pegbox so that the friction of the string against the wood will keep the pegs from slipping. That said, it stays in tune pretty well; after undoing the strings and re-tightening them properly (against the pegbox) and with any 'new string stretching' quickly done and over with, I only have to tune it a little with the fine tuners.

I have to start by saying that if you are hoping for a good musical instrument that is ready to play right out of the box, then this one is probably not what you want. It can, however, be a reasonable value if you are willing to put some work into it or pay a shop to put some work into it. When this violin arrived, the bridge was already on it and to be able to rosin up the bow and get some sound out of it only took tuning it up. That is probably the good news. The bad news is the bridge was poorly cut. It was neither centered correctly on the instrument nor were the string notches cut in the right places on the bridge. So all the strings were about 1/4 inch off from where they should be. Both the nut and the bridge were too high, so the playing action was awful. The strings that come with it do not sound very nice, and the rosin was broken. When you go to open the rosin, open it carefully and not over the instrument or case, so you won't have to clean the bits of it off those if yours is broken as well. Good points: The case looks nice and seems reasonably well made. The bow is nothing great, but it is playable. The shoulder rest isn't anything great either, but it didn't fall apart and it holds on to the instrument reasonably well, so I'll call it usable enough. The extra bridge looks like it is actually maple, and also usable, if not particularly good. The satin finish actually looks sort of nice in person. Mine is a bit more orange than the pictures shown of the item, but it is not really what I would call a bad color. Weight and balance of the instrument are pretty good, and the neck is nicely thin. The belly does appear to be spruce and the back and neck do appear to be maple. Bad points: Where to start? I already mentioned the bridge being badly done. I needed up needing to re-trim the bridge and set it in the proper place. If you didn't want to learn how to do that, then it could be done at a local luthier or music shop, but the cost to have it set up by a professional could easily run you as much as the instrument cost in the first place. Getting the bridge right will help with the action but it is still high. The nut is just a rectangular block of ebony with some slits cut in it, it is not shaped properly for any sort of violin. The nut also had the string at least 3 mm high, when the string height at the nut should be less than 1 mm. When I was reshaping the nut with files to make it right, I found out another interesting thing. If you are expecting actual rosewood for the fingerboard, you may be in for a disappointment. Under the black paint, the fingerboard on mine was made of some very light coloured wood. I understand that not all rosewood is a dark red, but one of the distinguishing characteristics of rosewood is that it is at least pinkish. This is not rosewood. At least mine wasn't, you may have better luck with that. I decided to strip off the black paint to get a better look at it. Some sort of a hardwood, people who know more about wood types than I do guess it to be a light walnut or perhaps hickory. It has a knot in the middle as well. But since it seems to be at least some sort of hardwood, I decided to just sand it and finish it with a coat of tung oil and it seems to be working ok. The tuning pegs are also painted and slip badly. I scraped the paint off the shafts and roughened the wood a little with some 200 grit sandpaper and now they hold quite reasonably well. Some of the pegs do have a reddish colour under the paint and may be some sort of rosewood. The chinrest is made of some fairly lightweight wood that is almost white. Again, not rosewood. I found the chinrest uncomfortable enough that I left it off and play the violin without it. But to be fair, getting a chinrest that actually fits the player already installed on any violin as it comes from the factory isn't very likely. If you want one that fits, you go to a music store and try some and buy the one you like. There is also a small knot on the back, but the wood grain is tight around it so it isn't about to come loose and fall out or anything, so I don't care about that. If that would bother you as an aesthetic consideration, be warned that these violins may have such flaws. At the price, you are not paying for perfect looking wood. After all that (which was about a weekend's worth of work) and putting on a better set of strings, and playing it with my usual bow rather than the "free" one that came with the violin.. It doesn't actually sound too bad. The blonde fingerboard I ended up with is rather an unusual look, but I like it better than I liked the poorly applied black paint. To summarize, this *can* be a nice little instrument if you are willing to put some work into it or pay someone else to work on it for you. I got mine to where it plays and sounds reasonably decent. The look is unusual and not perfect, but likeable enough in my opinion. However, if you are looking for a violin that will play good and sound nice right out of the box, then this is probably not the one you are looking for. I can even say that after the work I put into it and upgrading the strings, rosin and bow, I rather like it. I had fun working on it, and I feel what I got was worth what was paid. However I will only rate it one star, because the chinrest and fingerboard are NOT rosewood, even under the paint. I understood when I bought it for about 70$ through here that I would not be getting something on a par with a $1000 dollar violin, but I feel this product deserves the low rating for being misrepresented in the description. In good conscience, I also could not recommend this instrument to anyone expecting to play it at a gig the same day it is delivered nor for a beginner looking for an instrument that arrives in a playable enough condition to at least learn on.

I have had this thing for about a month now and I have almost completed the Essential Elements 2000 book 1 I bought to teach myself. I notice that the reviews can be split into two camps, great instrument for the money, and cheap (insert derogatory Chinese factory term here)and or damaged. After reading the reviews, it seems you got two ways this thing can go. Either it arrives in good condition or it arrives damaged. Mine came in good condition, with the bridge still standing. Now a few things about this instrument. I noticed a lot of folks who were having trouble with keeping the instrument in tune. I did too, until I invested in Peg drops. I also had to learn how to restring the instrument via youtube. After that, I can play it hard for several days before I need to tune it again. Oh and I did not use the rosin. I got the standard wood block sensitive rosin and it works great. My bow has lost about 5 horse hairs, and I gotta say that I have been practicing about an hour every day since I got the thing. I have had one of the fine tuners strip out on the A string, but I think it may have been due to user error rather than product defect. I also recommend a electronic tuner like a Snark. You can get them for about 5 dollars on this site and it works for guitar and violin. Shoulder rest is not the best, but it is workable for me. I recommend that you watch a lot of you tube videos on setting up, tuning, and rosining a bow for the first time. It will help you avoid a lot of issues mentioned in these comments. The old adage, "tis a poor musician who blames his instrument" comes to mind when I read some of these post. I will post a video soon showing its sound. Bottom line, for the price, I would have never believed I could be this far along in learning how to play a classic instrument. 11/13 OK a bit of an update. Still a great instrument. I did pick up an instructor and I upgraded the pegs, chin rest and end peg to ebony. This ended my problems with keeping the instrument in tune. (kit was about 15 dollars, and I actually shaved down the pegs with a pocket knife, but I recommend you go to a luthier to get the pegs fitted correctly. I did it by shear dumb luck.

My granddaughters started learning on some child-sized versions of this violin. I play a little piano and clarinet and couldn't resist trying out their violins. I had so much fun with them that I decided to order a full size version. How could you go wrong for $59? Well I don't think you can. My copy (the body) is nicely made. True the fingerboard appears to be painted wood rather than ebony and true the fine tune adjusters don't work extremely well and true that the bridge (both of them that came with the kit) folded nearly in half when the violin was tuned but all that aside, this violin sounds very nice to my untrained ear and for a beginner is easy to play in terms of finger action on the strings. I've read complaints about problems with tuning and pegs slipping. I had that problem with the violin too at first. However, now after two weeks of use the violin's strings have stretched and for the past few days i can pull it out of its case without needing to do a complete retune. As for the bridge, I did have to order a new one. I did not order one from this seller. I spent $15 on an adjustable bridge. That solved the problem and greatly increased the violin's ability to stay in turn. Sound quality was also improved. So I guess with the bridge my new violin cost $74.00. Even at that, it's a great value and perfect if you don't want to invest a lot of money seeing whether you or your kids like playing. The case is great, you get an extra set of strings and as mentioned two bridges. You also get a shoulder rest that is cheaply made but works. I think the complainers are expecting perfection at this price or are impatient with the violin while it settles in being tuned. If you are not expecting a Stradivarius and you spend a little time (and a little extra money) you will realize this is a very good value. Update 2-8-12: I've now had this violin for several months. I'm slowly teaching myself how to play and I'm still terrible. That being said, the violin continues to sound better. As of this date, I've purchased new strings (Dominant and Piastro for the the "E" string.) I have also purchased a new bow because the horse hair kept falling out of the one that came with the kit. With the adjustable bridge, mentioned above, and the new strings and new bow, this is a pretty nice instrument for $69 plus upgrades. I've had several good violinists play it and confirm that it has nice sound and is easy to play. With the new strings and bridge I have had very little problem keeping the violin in tune. I may upgrade to something else in the future, but in its souped up version, this is pretty decent for the money.

I'm not a violinist, or rather I wasn't when I first bought it, I like to think that I'm slowly getting there now. I have background in guitar and piano, and I wanted for the longest time to give it a go with a violin. Obviously I didn't want to spend more than $50 because I just wasn't sure and I didn't want to risk it, I found other similar outfit but few reviews mentioned it didn't come with rosin(pretty much impossible to start bowing without rosining the bow) and there was some issues with the bridge(it was mostly about it lacking the string marks), and I found the youtube review suggesting this one for $70 and I didn't mind adding extra $20. I got extra strings(although, as it is with guitars, buying new strings from d'addario is the next step, personally it's playable with the default strings, but I'll be definitely getting d'addario in some near future, they aren't that expensive), I also got extra bridge(both have string marks/incisions, but it wasn't in the inside pocket but at the foot of the violin, almost confused it with the air freshener packet so carefully analyze the case), I got a rosin(apparently as with strings it's a good idea to buy a better one, again not that expensive), and I got a bow(few hair strands were hanging, but I just tore them off without causing a chain reaction to the rest) and a shoulder rest(which at first seemed too small, but then it turned out it's perfectly ok). All that comes in a nice hard case, apparently hard foam mixed with some other stuff. For the beginners I believe this is an excellent starter violin, and heads up, the tuning is a tough one. I personally spent hours tuning it but only because I was doing it very very very softly(regardless of the fact that I have extra strings and a bridge, but for some reason I just couldn't bring in the firm hand to it), after I relaxed and introduced some strength it went much better. I used android app DaTuner Lite, strings are(from thickest to thinnest): G3, D4, A4, E5. G3 and E5 are hard to stay in tune, D4 more or less, and A4 is quite an amazing one when it comes to staying in tune, could be my lousy playing :) After I figured how to hold the bow and the violin/fingers the strings are staying more in tune(could be the time as well) That said, for extra help with playing and figuring out the notes if you are a guitar player who doesn't know how to read music just tabs you'll kinda have to learn to read music and honestly it's not that difficult(just grab violin or piano for dummies book, they both feature very well explained way to read music with some fun tips and tricks, like FACE ;) ) Also, after going crazy with rosining, if the part between the bridge and the fingerboard turns white/whitish(and it will to varying degree) clean it up before putting the violin away and do that every time after being done with playing, also loosen the bow) For those with foresight, I heard that it's possible to improve this cheap violin to a degree: Bridge can be upgraded and it will improve the sound, to a degree, Strings can be upgraded and it will improve the sound, to a degree, Rosin can be upgraded and it will improve the sound, to a degree and Bow can be upgraded and it will improve the sound, to a degree. Personally, I'm super happy with the purchase and I have yet to do any of the upgrading because I'm still in the process of getting used to the finger positions and holding the bow, but so far I've managed to play a nicely sounding Lord of the Rings theme, some blues riffs, and currently practicing Vivaldi's Spring.(I had it for 11 days, and while day one was frustrating due to tuning problems, every day since I feel as if I had it for far longer for some reason)

*** 3-month Update at the end *** Pros: The violin we received was brand spanking new, as were all the parts (See below for contents). It looks great, and the antiquing looks awesome, well done. My daughter's tutor said it was a perfectly fine instrument for learning and was able to tune it first time no problem. The fine tuners work well. To me (an acoustic guitar player), it sounded great. The construction is good for the price, and I don't believe it will fall apart or break with normal wear. The price was excellent. We opted for private lessons so, if the daughter continues on with the instrument, when we can afford a good violin she will have experience and can appreciate it that much more. Cons: The body feels like laminate, because that is what it basically is. Although everything is much better quality than anticipated, it still feels cheap. Thoughts: This is not a Stradivari, so any expectation for a fine instrument for a bargain price is silly. What it is, is a student/beginner violin that works well in that role. If you aren't sure you or your kid is going to stick to it, this is a very cost effective way to start. If you do stay with it, you will naturally outgrow this starter and seek a better quality one. If not, you won't be out a lot, and may be able to resell for close to (or at) full cost. Contents: Violin Bow Extra strings (one of each) Case Rosin puck in a cloth, all in a case two bridges shoulder support Care of violin instruction paper *** Update *** - After three months my daughter is still playing. Several practices a week and weekly lessons. This is a good instrument and has served well. The only problems we had: 1. The bow had no rosin on it whatsoever. She's had to use the puck before and after every time she plays to work on that (I'm finding that can be normal with new bows). 2. We had a horrible time with the E string not staying in tune, and pulling the other strings out of tune when we tried to fix it. I eventually took a closer look and found the string wasn't sitting in the fine tuner at all, it hadn't been seated correctly before it was shipped to us. After re-stringing the E and double checking the fine tuner, all is well and it is working perfectly. All in all, not really problems, we just didn't know to check these things as it is our first violin. I highly recommend this one to anyone who wants to learn.

It is great, I had a problem with the Mi String its sound was cold, I reduced 1.5mm from the bridge of the side of that string, and now it perfectly 100% match the sound that I hear from 1000$ professional Violin's.

5 stelle perchè il rapporto qualità-prezzo è probabilmente il migliore trovato e si presenta benissimo. Non essendo un esperto dello strumento e della qualità del suono emesso, mi limito al giudizio del violino nella sua presentazione. Consigliatissimo a chi vuole avvicinarsi allo strumento, a chi vuole iniziare senza dover spendere un'eresia.

The bow doesn't work, the strings unwind, and there's a loose bit of dowelling inside the violin. The rosin is in pieces and it was a total waste of money. I wouldn't even give it a 1 star rating.

Esta muy bien el violín, llego en perfectas condiciones y muy bonito.

It's the best 🎻 for beginners and the music emanating from this is at par with other costlier 🎻. Thanks for delivering at the given time and the response by the person at the customer care was a pleasant experience. Thanks a lot.