What Kind of Fiddle Can You Get for a C-Note?
Finding a good one is not impossible, but raising the budget to $150 makes
things much easier
An array of barriers to entry separate the elite world of classical music from the unwashed masses. Some of these barriers, such as the complexity and difficulty of much of the music, are entirely legitimate. Others, such as an obsession with expensive instruments, are questionable. More popular genres of music, though much less rarefied, still tend to foster an obsession with expensive instruments. Surely it is human nature to lust for that which is expensive. It is common for musicians, regardless of genre, to believe in a direct relationship between price and quality of sound (whatever that might mean). Moreover, it is not unusual to hear musicians claim that inexpensive instruments are virtually unplayable and thus should be kept out of the hands of beginners lest they become discouraged or (especially in classical circles) develop bad habits. While this claim may be accurate in some cases, modern technology has made good-playing cheap instruments readily available. Finding one may require some care, but buying from large, web-based discounters of good reputation is a fairly safe approach.
In the realm of mandolins, I have played a variety of expensive Gibsons, all of the major prestigious brands, as well as no-name instruments and instruments produced in the factories of low-wage countries for mass markets. As long as the instrument is basically well-made and free of defects or serious damage, sound and playability are mainly a function of instrument setup, especially bridge design and placement, nut density and cutting, action, pick thickness and material, and type of strings. In the future I plan to write an essay on mandolin setup and tweaks. But the bottom line is this: a $100 Mexican-made Lone Star mandolin, with some attention to setup, can sound as lovely as a $2,000 vintage Gibson. And a $200 Johnson, Kentucky or other Chinese-made factory mandolin can be as good a bluegrass banger as instruments costing 10 or 20 times more. Again, some attention to setup is usually required, perhaps $50 worth of work if someone else does it.
Unlike mandolins, the most expensive of which approach $100,000 (for a Loar-signed F-5) as of 2008, the price of vintage violins can be astronomical. My experience playing high-end violins is zero, though I have often sampled fiddles at festivals that cost their owners anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand. My own personal upper limit for spending on a fiddle is $150, not counting improvements that I might make at my workbench such as cleaning, a new bridge, and often new pegs or other tuning devices.
Now, to the point of this essay: Is it possible to buy a decent-sounding, playable, trouble-free, fiddle for $100 or less? My answer is yes. Here I will take up only the violin, but the same general point could be made for the mandolin or guitar—and probably many other instruments. The music itself may be a barrier to entry insofar as one must spend many hours practicing the basics, but the cost of an instrument need not be a barrier. This essay takes the form of a partial rebuttal of a recent article: Lutherie Editor Erin Shrader's “Sounds Like a Hundred Bucks” in the June/July 2008 issue of Strings (pp. 61-64). In the course of examining some of Shrader’s claims, I try to provide useful ideas for anyone looking for a very inexpensive fiddle.
If you are swayed by authority, then you may as well stop reading now. I am a run-of-the mill fiddler, not a violinist. I have never taken a formal lesson and learned to play the fiddle by picking it up and sawing on it for an hour or more each day, though I had the benefit of almost 20 years of mandolin playing under my belt when I started. I make minor repairs and upgrades to my instruments and those of friends who trust me. I lack the tools and experience for major repairs. When something needs to be done that I cannot do, I take my instruments to a local repairman who does superb work. I know approximately how much certain tasks cost based on his fees. Installing new pegs, for example would cost between $25 - $50 for labor depending on the difficulty—e.g., the need for bushings in worn holes. As for parts, a nice set of new pegs would cost about $10 from one of the many retailers on eBay. In short, I know from direct experience what I am talking about in this essay, but I am an outsider to the rarefied world of classical music and have zero formal credentials.
The basic scenario in the Shrader article is that, armed with the company credit card, she set out to buy the best fiddle she could for $100 or less. Naturally, there are some humorous items in the piece. For example, Shrader provides samples of outrageous or funny claims such as a $69 instrument allegedly handmade by a master luthier or (in the same ad) a fiddle made of “real wood.” While amusing, these items are distractions from what should be the main issue: Is it possible to buy a decent $100 fiddle, and, if so, where and how?
I think that Shrader’s conclusions in the final section of the article are reasonable, especially for those without any ability to modify or tweak an instrument on their own. Here, Shrader explains the advantages of renting. For those who insist on buying something at the very low end, she recommends considering the following work to enhance playability: better strings (and, if that helps, then) new or better-fit pegs and lowering of the action by cutting down the bridge. Indeed, these three items are all typical, minor setup steps that should be doable within $60-65 ($8-10 for a set of generic perlon-core strings; $35 for the pegs on new instrument; $20 for the bridge—most cost efficient if all the work is done at the same time). But of course, doing these things would make a $100 fiddle into a $165 fiddle in terms of cost to the end user.
Indeed, in the last sentence, Shrader refers to a "decent-quality beginner instrument" without going into details. The implication here and throughout the article is that such an instrument would cost several hundreds of dollars. In reality, however, although the $80-$100 level almost always entails an element of gambling, spending $150 - $160 for the next model up in a line of Chinese-made violins will almost always buy a problem-free instrument that needs no further modification.
But is it possible to get a decent-sounding and properly set up fiddle for very close to $100 or perhaps even less? Probably so, but it would require good shopping skills.
Shrader begins her quest for the $100 fiddle by stating some conditions for her purchase, the most important of which is a money-back guarantee. Perfectly reasonable. The next move, however, seems to me where she goes off course. Shrader mentions that “such online retailers as Sam Ash, Music 123, and Musician’s Friend” are reputable companies offering violin outfits (fiddle, case, and bow) for $99. Indeed, these places are reputable retailers. So why not buy from them? There is a one-sentence explanation: “Deterred by negative customer feedback on the quality, I move on to other sites” (p. 62). What? No specifics? Let us take a closer look.
Taking the Florea Recital II Violin Outfit (typically $99 with free shipping) as the example, as of 9-9-08, there was one customer review on Music 123, and it was 4 out of 5 stars. It is entitled “Great Deal” and reads:
I'm a professional electric bass player and composer and bought this to fool around on (along with a couple other cheap instruments). For the price, this is fantastic - a violin, a case, a bow, rosin...you can't beat it. It is cheap quality and you can smell the cheap glue (Elmer's probably...) - you get what you pay for. But if you don't want to spend a lot of money, this is it. <pdf of site>
Of course, those of us who work with wood know that Elmer’s glue works just fine, creating a bond that is usually tighter than the wood itself after it dries. But, back to the point, I guess Music 123 was not the source of negative reviews. What about Musician’s Friend? The average score from all reviews is 3.5 of 5, with 4 for “value.” Only two reviews are visible (perhaps they hide the less enthusiastic ones). Both praise the Florea as a great beginners instrument, though one reviewer is a mandolin player who doesn't seem to know much about violins. The other is a fiddler, who says:
I bought this as my first violin, and I am surprised with the sound. It can feel a little cheap made, but the overall tonal quality more than makes up for that. You'll definitely want to replace the strings and chinrest. Overall a great instrument! <pdf of site>
The mandolin playing reviewer complained about the pegs, though he probably has no way to know whether this instrument’s pegs are especially poor or whether it is just pegs in general that are the problem. Pegs are, after all, an absurd way to tune strings (more on that later). But surely this quibble is not the negative feedback that deterred Shrader.
What about Sam Ash? That company does not carry the Florea, but it does have a Cremona-branded model for $99. There were no reviews if it. <pdf of site>
I wonder why Shrader did not go to The String Center, a Division of Woodwind and Brasswind? It is a reputable company with specialized knowledge in stringed instruments, an excellent selection, and rock bottom prices. There are three customer reviews of the Florea Recital II Violin Outfit, all positive 5 out of 5s. One, by a music teacher, recommends peg drops but is cognizant of the ultra low price. The most detailed review reads:
When I first got this violin, the price was so low, I didn't know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. Once I got enough rosin on the bow (Using an emery board on the block is quicker & more helpful), the fun really began. The bow has a nice feel to it. The violin itself has a very treble-ish sound that goes rather well with jazz, blues & traditional fiddle music. Think of a gypsy violinist. That's the type of sound this makes. I love it. If you don't want quite so much treble, a rubber mute on the bridge tones it down. Adjusting the mute's height will also adjust the amount of treble, as well as volume. It doesn't come with shoulder rest, so you'll want to add it onto the purchase. I'm 52 years old, and have played guitar for over 40 years, so to me playing the violin is a kick anyway (just recently heard the music of Grapelli, Venuti, South, Smith, & Ponty which was my inspiration). Let me put it to you this way. If I was a youngster that had a desire to learn the violin, and I found this as one of my gifts, I would be thrilled. It is built well enough to learn on, and priced low enough not to break the bank. <pdf of site>
No “negative customer feedback” here. Well, of course, one would be unlikely to find much bad press about products for sale on a retailer’s own web site. Using Google, I searched in various ways for more reviews but came up only with the retailers’ own sites. Later in the article Shrader mentions searching “parent and violin chat forums” and “chat forums” (p. 63). Perhaps it was these forums that contained the deterrence. If so, however, it would nice to see the names or URLs of a specific example or two. For mandolins, there is www.mandolincafe.com. Here, people who have enough time on their hands to spend chatting about mandolins instead of playing them routinely excoriate any instrument with a low price tag in the chat threads. Such critiques many seem more objective than retailer's sites, but the the chat community tends to have its own set of biases. I searched for something similar for violins with little success (one possible site, but it required a formal membership). I wish Shrader had cited her sources (or at least a reasonable subset of them), and I remain unconvinced by her one-sentence dismissal of the offerings of the large discount retailers.
In my view, if you want to buy a decent $100 fiddle, you need look no further than major web-based discount retailers such as (but not limited to) the ones mentioned here. And at some of these sites there are more $99 choices than the Florea fiddle, but for consistency I have focused on that one. The truth is that thanks to advances in computerized carving machines and other technological advances combined with economies of scale and the ease of global trade, it is quite possible to buy a good fiddle for $100 or less. Before continuing with Shrader’s shopping efforts, let us pause for a video of precisely such a fiddle.
The fiddle in the video originated as factory overstock or a scratch and dent type of special. The owner bought the instrument, case, and bow about a year and a half ago, all for $60. She was alerted to this opportunity by a friend. The violin is cosmetically just fine. I don’t know the circumstances but at some point the bridge broke and someone at a music festival quickly put in a replacement. Later, I took sand paper and better fitted and shaped that replacement bridge. I also positioned it so that the notes would align with the "frets" of the fingerboard overlay. The pegs are originals. They are almost certainly not ebony because the holes for the strings look reddish inside. Nevertheless, they turn very easily without any peg drops and have done fine for the past year and a half. The case is magnificent—probably worth $60 all by itself. The bow is cheap but works perfectly fine. It is strung with cheap steel-core stings, three of which are originals from the factory in China.
I recently played the fiddle in the video in a small, rather intense jam session. For much of the time I was the main fiddler. The less-than-$100 "student violin" performed without a problem and was never drowned out by the other instruments. A video clip from that session would be perfect right here.
Now, let us resume Shrader’s quest. Having inexplicably brushed off what would probably be the very best places to get a $100 fiddle, she ended up buying one on eBay. eBay is excellent for some purposes. One of my favorite fiddles is an old low-end Suzuki I picked up there for $71. It required some minor repairs that took me about an hour or two and about $30 of parts. <Here it is.> It is possible, though increasingly difficult, to find good deals on used fiddles at eBay, and it is also a good place for certain parts. It is probably not the best place to buy a new fiddle, although with care one might be able to succeed in getting something decent. But the large, reputable, discount retailers mentioned above are probably the safest and easiest outlet.
Shrader ended up buying a $100 fiddle branded “Rothenburg.” It apparently got good reviews on the “chat forums,” and the promise of good looks played some role (as they nearly always do): “The photo of the back—flamed maple with a transparent, pleasing shaded red-gold varnish—seals the deal” (p. 63). It arrives in good mechanical condition, albeit with less eye candy than in the eBay photo. The pegs are difficult to turn and the strings won’t stay in tune (I assume this evaluation is based on letting the strings stretch for a day or so). The sound is “strident,” wolf tones lurk, the action is too high, and the string spacing uneven. Things don’t look good. At this point in the story I was thinking that it needs a new bridge at least. Indeed, most cheap fiddles would benefit from a new bridge, and my preferred bridge source is a place called Mucho Fino Violins. I know, the name sounds odd, but the price to quality ratio for violin parts is excellent. The best bridges are about $6, and they are sweet.
Back to the story. An expert examines the fiddle, and the news is not good. He recommends various pricey improvements, with the bottom-line result as follows: “The total bill for the upgrades—new bridge, post, pegs, resurfacing the existing fingerboard, and buying new strings—will cost about $400.” Ouch—Of course “Ouch!” is precisely the desired reaction from this example. Indeed, even these modifications would not really work, since the strings would wear grooves in the soft wood of the fingerboard. It turned out the pegs and fingerboard were falsely advertised. They were not ebony but some kind of soft wood painted black. It sounds like quite a shopping disaster.
At this point in the article, the prices for upgrades are exaggerated. Perlon-core strings can be had for $8-10 (e.g., at Mucho Fino or Woodwind and Brasswind), not the $40-50 listed in the article. A new fingerboard costs about $20 (example) and could be installed for about $50 of labor—a far cry from the $400 stated in the article. And so forth. Indeed, this $400 figure seems almost to be more akin to a literary trope than to on-the-ground reality. In the same issue of Strings, Heather K. Scott pulls a $400 figure out of the air as a warning to those who would try and purchase an ultra-inexpensive instrument. Indeed, the editorial staff of the magazine doubled her words on this point by featuring the passage: "A $100 fiddle with $400 worth of work is still a $100 fiddle with minimal resale value once you've outgrown it" (p. 58). Certainly I agree that putting $400 into a $100 fiddle is absurd. Indeed it is so absurd that I can't imagine this $400 figure corresponding to reality. Sure, there are no doubt some high-priced luthiers out there who could run up a bill that high, but folks in the $100 fiddle market won't be dealing with them (or shouldn't be). And don't even think about buying a $100 fiddle for resale value. Buy it to play, and if you do step up some day, keep the cheap fiddle around for trips to the beach, camping, or other such venues--or to give to someone who needs it.
Even at reasonable prices for upgrades, however, Shrader's fiddle sounds like a bad buy. I would stick with the Florea Recital II Violin Outfit or some other widely-sold brand handled by several of the large discount retailers. There's a degree of safety in those kind of numbers. And bumping the price ceiling up to $150 would open up a vast range of possibilities. More on that below.
So the Strings article consists, essentially, of one example of a bad deal on a $100 fiddle, and it never does take a clear stance on whether obtaining a decent $100 fiddle is possible. The implication of both Shrader's article and others in the same issue is that indeed such a thing is impossible. I am sure most readers found the whole exercise an amusing diversion. Perhaps a few found it to be a valuable cautionary tale. (I doubt, however, that many readers of Strings would even consider buying an inexpensive instrument, and I suspect that many would not be amused to hear that a decent fiddle can be had for very low prices.) Some readers might also have learned a few things about the functions of the various parts of a violin in the process. These things are all well and good. But in the end, I don’t agree with the implied message that one needs to spend several hundreds of dollars to get a decent violin. Somewhere between $100 - $160 should be enough.
It would truly be a valuable service if Strings were systematically and seriously to review the major offerings in the $100 - $200 range. It would be nice to see the knowledge and talent of Shrader and others focused more on helping people find decent low-priced instruments than in casting doubt that such a thing is even possible.
So far, my major recommendation for novice buyers to find a decent inexpensive instrument has been to focus shopping efforts on the large discount retailers. What else would I recommend? Let us consider the issue of pegs. When people did complain about the Florea Recital II in reviews, it was almost always the pegs they did not like.
When I first took up the fiddle at age 40, I wondered why on earth fiddlers and violinists used these crude devices to increase or lower the tension of their strings. Several years ago I asked dozens of fiddlers why gears would not be better and got all manner of bizarre answers (e.g., any contact between metal and the wood of the violin will upset its harmonic balance). Only two responses made any sense. One is that using something other than pegs would lower the instrument's value, and indeed it will—given the prevailing prejudices in the hidebound violin and fiddle world. The other reason is that geared tuners are heavier than pegs. Indeed they are, though a manufacturer could rather easily make a set that weigh the same. Indeed, one already does (Perfection Planetary Pegs), albeit for a $75 or so price tag, plus the cost of installation. While the weight issue is real, it is exaggerated. Fiddlers and others who play mainly in the first position need not worry about the tiny amount of extra weight it at all. And the benefit of using geared tuners is amazing ease, precision, and stability of tuning.
The bottom line: rigid adherence to friction pegs is mainly the result of tradition and hidebound ways of thinking. Moreover, that even just tuning the violin is terribly difficult serves, along with financial cost, as yet another barrier to entry. I'm sure that I'm not the first to suggest that the difficulty of mastering the music is surely enough of a barrier without needlessly erecting others.
Although it is not terribly hard to get used to using friction pegs, many a string has been broken by a careless slip of the a peg, even among players with many years of experience. There is also the very real danger that one or more strings will fall when pegs come loose during a performance. I have seen it happen to stage performers on two occasions and several times in less formal settings. A recent review of a performance by a prominent young violinist includes this sentence: "Unfortunately, her performance was marred in the Allegretto second movement--where she really got going--by her E-string unwinding at the peg, requiring her to stop and retune" (Mai Kawabata, "Star Time," Strings, October 2008, p. 83). And this was no $100 fiddle! Such problems are an inevitable result of slavishly adhering to 17th-century technology.
So consider gears. A set of very good slot-head guitar tuners can be had for about $15. Depending on their size (smaller is better here), the tuners might be a little awkward to line up on the headstock, but think creatively. Pull the pegs out, insert the tuners, secure them with the screws provided, and you have a rationalized headstock with no more tuning problems. But horror of horrors, your fiddle will lose value. Yes, perhaps your $100 fiddle--which you couldn’t sell used anyway for the full $100--will be worth $70. Who cares? Buy a $100 fiddle to play, not to sell. And gears will make it very playable.
<Here are examples of gears on fiddles>
But what about playing in the higher positions? I doubt that the slight extra weight would truly make much difference, but I am not a violinist and cannot speak from personal experience here (except for grabbing a high note on the e-string occasionally, fiddlers almost always play in the first position). So to be absolutely safe you might want to stick with pegs if indeed your playing involves the higher positions. In that case, buying a $150 fiddle (i.e., one step up from the $100 model) from one of the large discount retailers makes more sense. Indeed, the main difference would be better-quality, better-fitted pegs. And if the pegs don't turn well, you could easily return an instrument bought from such a source. Of course, the pegs in a $100 fiddle might work just fine, too, even if they are not ebony. That is the case in the fiddle I play in the video.
But what will people say?! This is no small issue for a child, and nearly everyone connected with music circles will speak ill of a non-conforming violin. So, in that case, sticking with pegs surely makes sense for socio-psychological reasons. If a child starts with a cheap fiddle and sticks with it, upgrading to Perfection Planetary Pegs might make financial sense. I have them in a couple of my fiddles, and they work precisely as advertised.
What about the bridge? Installing a new, high-quality (i.e., hard) bridge will often improve sound and playability. The bridge itself will cost between $5 -$15, and with some sand paper I can install one in about 30 minutes if I focus on it or an hour at a leisurely pace. It is a rather easy operation, but there are some important matters to consider and a modicum woodworking skill is involved. If you can’t do it, a pro should be able to install a bridge for about $20-$30 of labor.
Acquiring a good-sounding $100 fiddle is possible. The possibility becomes more likely for those who can perform basic setup and tweaking of a violin themselves. If you have to take your violin to a shop even to change a string, then moving your price ceiling up to $150 makes very good sense. In other words, go to a large discount retailer and find the $100 fiddles and then move up one or two models from there. Typically the extra few dollars buy you a better setup, better pegs, and sometimes even some eye candy in the form of figured wood on the back (figure, by the way, has nothing to do with the acoustic qualities of wood--it just looks nice).
Owing to modern technology and a globalized economy, acquiring a nice, playable violin or other instrument no longer need to be an expensive proposition. Happy fiddling!