4/4 Violin hunting

[Kutik73]

We've started hunting for a 4/4 violin for DS. We have visited two luthiers so far and each let us take one home. We can keep one for a week and another for two weeks.

DS likes one in particular and it costs £5500 for the violin alone. I know the price is not always mirrored to the quality of the sounds. It only makes difficult to judge as I don't play any instrument. So I did a bit of research and accidentally found the same violin being sold back in October for £1200-1800. It's auctioned so the exact selling price was not displayed. Looking at the photo, it has the same marks and scars so it's definitely the same violin we have here.

I can see the bridge, chin rest, and tuners has been replaced. But the selling notes stated the condition as excellent so I assume major work wasn't required by the luthier. But I don't know.

Surely luthiers have to make money so I understand it's common practice for them to buy something cheaper and add some work and sell at a higher price. But more than doubling the bought price sound quite a lot, especially it seemed to be in great conditions already.

Should I be careful or can I trust the luthier? I hope he is not pricing unnecessarily high... Any input/advice/sharing experiences would be greatly appreciated!

Ok I just quickly double checked the details. The airline allows to carry on small musical instruments that measure less than 45 linear inches (115 cm). It's quite tight. DS's compact case may just make it (or may not actually..) but no way oblong. But this is this particular airline's policy and I'm sure others would be more generous?

A violin case will be about 83 long.

Sorry to keep going on with this case/flight issue, but just to clarify my worries as I am a worrier. So you think 115cm would be enough for oblong too? DS's case is 78cm long, and adding another side and depth, it comes up just about 114-115cm. So I thought oblong or any other normal violin cases (80+ long) would be out for this particular airline.

But thank to Granny coming back on this, I checked a few articles and regulations and it seems these days most of airlines allow violins to be carried into the plane. So this particular airline may give us more generous allowance in near future.

We had to change our flight at the last minute in the past as the airline we originally booked (I think BA) didn't allow violin. But I actually found an article about BA changed their policy late last year. That's brilliant. As you said, Musicians Union seem to have been working hard on this.

We have travelled fairly regularly on an airline which officially does not allow violin cases in the cabin as they are too long. That said they are usually ok with all sorts of odd shaped things. We always make sure dh carries the violin on his back rather than dd1 - it looks a lot smaller on him than on her 😁. We also make sure as a family we don't have much carry on, then there are usually passengers pushing it much more than we are

it looks a lot smaller on him than on her
I'll copy this tactic this summer!!!

We've never really had a real problem so far, but as I am an incredible worrier I always try to prepare for the worst. I know airlines can be flexible but it depends on the day and the person who deals with it so I cannot feel safe unless it officially states that violin is allowed.

We are having trouble choosing a case. Mainly because I think that if it's not a zipper closing the violin will fall out at some point because DS2 would not check the click mechanism things properly. I'm not worrying unnecessarily, am I!?

Also - I do need to buy one, don't I? If we get the violin from a maker they seem unlikely to sell cases too?

We had to buy a case separately for all the violins we bought (1/2, 3/4 and 4/4). We bought whatever available from the same luthier we bought violin from for 1/2 and 3/4 (both were secondhand). I got this fussy only for 4/4 (but ended up buying the case from the same luthier by accident - we bought a case a way before we decide violin).

Some luthiers offered a free case though. So you may be lucky, depending on where you get the violin from I guess.

I don't see any problem with zipper closing. So if you think click mechanism cases would be a problem, you can look for zippers? DS secures the violin with the magic tape inside the case, then click and lock, so it's less likely to have the violin falling out incident.

Our luthier offered a 'package reduction' on the violin plus bow plus case but we still had to choose and buy the case iyswim

Any bow and case included as part of a package are likely to be very humble ones. I would avoid any case with turn buttons that hold the bow in place; they are a menace, especially the cheap ones. It's easy to catch and break the hair taking the bow out, and putting it back you need to push the hair out of the way before turning the button, risking adding sweat/grease to the bow, which will simply stop it working properly. I pay £60-odd pounds for a rehair now. You can buy a serviceable bow from China for about the same price or less, post free! If you have a case like that, use the back of a finger for that job, it'll be cleaner.
Zippers nowadays are very reliable and long-lasting and as I said before present little danger of damage.

Does anyone know if you can get the hard, coloured cases for small size violins , or only full size? Dd would love one but I can't find any. Saying that we still haven't chosen a violin, so maybe a little premature.

I've seen many colourful hard cases with BAM and Gewa and other cheaper names for 4/4. Never seen for smaller sizes though. I don't think thinking of a case in advance is premature. You need one ready when you finally get a violin. If you buy a case together with a violin it's fine but if you like to buy something other than the particular luthier can offer you need to shop around and get it BEFORE you buy a violin for safe journey home!

Look on EBay SE22. I'm looking at a Zest 3/4 violin case as I write, two colours available at present. £25.99.I am sure there are others on Amazon .

We bought a case in Feb and bought a violin in Apr!

I have ordered a case. Grey. Though DS was briefly tempted by the hot pink one...

That's a huge jump from black!

Apparently pink is OK.

We have a case. :)

Yay! Are you ready to start hunting for the 'content'? X

We have the content next week.

I'll pm you.

NeverEver, I am so so excited for you and your son. Now I am looking forward to hearing from se22 and disorganised!

It's thanks to all the information you provided kutik.

Hi all,we're off up to Woodbridge violins in Suffolk during half term to do some shopping!!

I'm worried that we're putting all our eggs in one basket in a way by only going to one place. Ds would not cope very well with going to lots of shops. When we went to Woodbridge to buy his 3/4,he tried about 6 or 7 violins and went through a process of elimination. We were there most of the day. It was a lovely experience and ds loved it.
The case he wants is the Gewa Air oblong in metallic black. It's over £400 😵!! We would be looking for a violin to take him up to A level standard or so I think. So it won't be his forever violin.

I will update you then.

We still have the violin we borrowed the other week, DD's teacher has been away performing quite a lot this term. Next Friday lunchtime we are off to Stringers to have a look at a couple of other violins. Then when dd is back from Pro Corda she and her teacher will compare all the violins and hopefully come to a decision. Her teacher is an amazing violinist - and I completely trust his opinion.