Buy viola

[pippa289]

Hi, my son plays viola and he will start JD from September. Now he uses a full size violin as 14 inches viola with a cheap student violin bow but I am thinking to get a small viola and a viola bow. He is 11 and he might need a bigger viola in the future, so I don't want to spend too much money for this time.

Do you have any idea which maker or model would be good and where to buy it?

We are in London.

Good quality small Violas are really hard to find! We ended up renting one from Philip Brown Violins in Newbury after a real trawl of luthiers in and around Oxford and London. It's really hard to get a true sound on the C string on smaller size instruments but the one we have from them is pretty good.

I would consider myself quite musical but don't know the difference between a small viola and a violin of same size, is it anything other than the strings?

Thank you very much for your reply and I am sorry to reply to you late. I just came back from holiday.

@doesanybodyhaveamap Thank you very much. I will get in touch with them. I don't know any child who play viola, so the information is very useful. Thank you!

@horseymum I thought the same. But his viola sounds like violin and I am wondering if he can make proper viola sound if he gets a small viola. Anyway, he needs 15 inch viola in the near future.

(He switched from violin, so maybe it is also the reason why his viola sounds like violin)

Also, he practices hard and need bow rehair very often. His current bow is just a cheap student violin bow, so we buy a new one every time when his bow needs rehair. So I think probably it's time to get proper viola bow.

If he’s starting JD it may be worth asking his new teacher’s advice

Violas have different proportions- the ribs are deeper for starters. They do sound quite different. But good small Violas are so hard to find that often younger kids will play on smaller violins re-strung as Violas. Unless they've had other tweaks (soundpost, bass bar) it's not usually very effective and the C string has a horrible woolly sound.

Viola bows are different to violin bows too, but we've had no success in getting small decent bows. Just have to wait for her to grow and use a heavy-ish violin bow in the meantime!!!

@pippa289 you could also try the Benslow Trust. They have a collection of very good quality instruments that then loan (for a small rental to cover expenses) to suitably promising young musicians. Not many small Violas there either, but if you think he may need a 15" soon it's worth getting in touch as there is much more choice then. They will likely invite him along and properly size him to the appropriate instrument.

Some of these instruments are phenomenal and of the sort of value one could only ever dream of owning!!

And small instruments are very hard to resell. Great having them, but they don't last long for each child.

Asking to his new teacher is also one of our option. But it would be good to have more options especially now we have plenty of time to travel around to try some instruments.

@doesanybodyhaveamap thank you for your advise. You sound you are really familiar with viola. DS loves rich and deep viola sound but really struggle to make it and would love to try proper viola.

My son is not prodigy level, so probably he is not eligible to borrow from the trust... but I will try the violin shop which you let me know at first. Renting is a good idea as I know it's difficult to sell instruments.

They don't need to be prodigy level. If he's going to JD he will be eligible 😊

@pippa289 DD plays both violin and viola. She will be moving up to a 14" - I've just reserved one via Philip Brown. We will be trading in her 13". Viola doesn't get so much attention so we haven't gone to Benslow for her viola but will for her full size violin as there is no way we can buy something of the quality she will be able to loan from them.

@doesanybodyhaveamap Your DD sounds very musical and amazing! I also have a DD plays violin. She just moved up to full size violin and we finally bought one after looking for a proper instrument for two years. She is excited and actually I am more excited It took long time to find a suitable instrument because there are too many choices for full size violin but now we are struggling to find a proper small viola because there is not many choices.

Also, of course we prefer to save money for small instruments. It is really great to know that we can borrow small viola from the shop.

Will your DD borrow viola bow from the shop as well?

@pippa289 she will continue to use the heavy 3/4 violin bow she is using for now. When she needs a longer viola bow we willl see what they have, hopefully getting to the sort of size that we can find a proper viola bow of good enough quality by then. It's been tricky!! She is just turned 13 but still small and has only just gone into a 3/4 violin.

@doesanybodyhaveamap Thank you very much for the information. After your advise, we went to a shop in London and they recommend to get full size viola bow for him. He tried 15inch viola and told it would become right size at the end of this year although it depends on how quickly he is growing up. We decided to use current viola (full size violin) for another couple of months and get 15inch through rental scheme. The shop we went to today also offer viola hire but they only have Stentor student outfit and I am not sure if it is good enough for him. So, we may try another couple of shops including Philip Brown and Stringers in London. We may try Stringers at first because it is nearer but definitely will travel to Philip Brown if we don’t like the one at Stringers.

Hopefully we can find a good one until he move up to 15 inch. Thank you for the suggestion to hire instead of buying one.

That's good news! Stringers also have very good rental outfits, they were very helpful when we were looking too. 😃

Also, I would avoid the Stentor... when DD first started viola there was a big mismatch in quality between her violin and the fairy high end hidersine we bought to start her off. She really struggled because it didn't sound nice in her ear compared to her violin.

Stenotors are pretty standard school level stringed instruments.

Stentors even. I'd avoid cheap Chinese ones!

@doesanybodyhaveamap It’s a good news that Stringers also has good outfits for hire! I forgot to mention that today we bought a full size viola bow! It’s a German bow and not expensive at all but made a big difference from his cheap violin bow!

@lotusbell Thank you for your advise. They said “we have Chinese viola outfits ‘Stentor’” So, I t seems that their viola outfits are made in China.

DS used to play Stentor violin since 5 or 6 years old until he switched to viola and it was ok at that time but now he progressed well as a violist and not sure if he still feels ok for Stentor. (Now he uses my modern Italian violin as his viola and it sounds significantly better than his previous Stentor violins) But we will let him try Stentor as well.

Definitely good idea to rent one if you can, I work for a music service and it's the top.option for most parents. Glad you're sorted with the bow now!

The stentor is not going to be a JD level instrument.. much better off hiring something better quality!!

@doesanybodyhaveamap It's good to know. I have DD at JD but had no idea about the standard of instrument.