500 vs 1,000 vs 10,000 dollar violin... Comparing Different Types of Instruments 

Good luck with your journey

Wonderful! Have fun. I also have 2 other videos... one on how to try out instruments and one on what to look out for when buying.

Good luck. See you after ten years :D

I’m getting my new violin on Tuesday!!! I am so excited, the most I can afford on one right now was $750 usd I used his guides before getting it :D

@@samayling9855 this is very good I am a beginner and I bought one (I am a kid so I had no choice to buy an expensive one) worth 2,300 egp (I am egyptian) and 2,300 egp is around 137 USD Good luck

You can always buy from him online. That's what I did :D :D It's been great!

meet twoset?

Angel Singh Tomar Yh I will probably😂 me and my friend were thinking to do some busking as well, but I don’t think I will make much. I’ll probably get paid to shut up😂😂

@@mulburncheesefits2201 hahahaa loll XD

@@mulburncheesefits2201 that strategy could work too 😀

Ugly dogs are good boys as well!!

Is it also really hard to produce a decent sound on flute? We also take a few years for violin.

I had such an experience going from heavily discounted B-brand carbon cross-country skis and then trying on top level ones as used by the professional racers. I became a vastly better skier, technically, more balanced, just switching over. No transition period. Skis you can't usually try before buying sadly, and there are individual differences between pairs, they are all made unequally and matched to a match by testing (at best). They come out they way they come out.

Chinese violins are good firewood. However, I had a Japanese made violin from before WW2 and it was excellent.

SAME! My first instrument was even less than $100 USD. I was in middle school orchestra, I played my friends violin, and GOD I envied her. Her violin was around $2,000 I believe, and I was blown away by how damn beautiful it sounded even when played by my mediocre-playing ass! I loved it. I upgraded to a $200 violin in my first year of highschool... Sounded so cold, so metallic. Then I upgraded to a $500 Krutz violin and I love the sound. Even so, I wish I could afford an even better quality instrument, even if my current one is the best quality I have. Maybe one day...:)

I should also mention that the first two violins I got were from Amazon 8) it probably DID NOT help my case.

What about a Cecilio cvn 500 for a first violin

Great to hear! Makes playing so much more fun!

Yes because that's just as important but people spend a lot of money on the instrument but don't budget for a quality bow.

Nancy Milawski Yep! A bow is a much cheaper, but important upgrade.

@@nancymilawski1048 personally I would upgrade the bow and strings before upgrading the instrument if the action feels good ... the difference is way bigger than a new instrument with the same bow and strings usually. Often people also get new bow and strings with a new instrument so they never realize they could have just upgraded those two things.

Are included bows not adequate on beginner instruments in the 200-500$ range? Thx!

Haha at least it's something!

Yeah apparently my violin is only worth 200 in France. I guess that is true... in Korea it is about a 50% increase in price from USA.

Tom Moxon - hi Tom, understood. I find that if an instrument (any I play) is too valuable, I can’t practice to death on it or take it out of the house! due to fear 😮 It just has to have a good setup, feel and sound ok and I’m happy.😉

@@shipsahoy1793 I identify with this! Been thinking about trying my hand at violin for some time now. What instrument did you end up on? Price range? Thx! (I'm hoping well under 1k just to test the waters)

@@Li-yt7zh well things have changed in the last few years. I had an inexpensive Romanian violin that I got used for close to $200, but then I had to put another $200 into it, and then it was pretty good. Unfortunately, it was stolen, and I thought I wasn’t gonna be able to get some thing that good again a few years ago, at least for the same kind of money, but I hooked up with the Kennedy Violins company out west after some looking, and they set me up with an Antonio Giuliani Etude for under $300. Just a beginner violin, but not bad at all on components and setup. Ditched the steel core strings in favor of nylon core though. Also had to upgrade the bow after a spell. Still haven’t needed to upgrade yet. I am learning more intermediate stuff at this point. It’s been a couple years. I also got a very affordable Cecilio CVA-500 viola from Fiddlershop before they went under, and that one is amazing with Thomastik Alphayues. I wouldn’t start out spending a lot of money because there’s a lot to experience and learn, and you could consider the few hundred you spend getting started as the education necessary for a better sense in selecting and choosing the more expensive stuff you may eventually want to go for, once you find that you are willing and want to “stick with” manipulating the strings. (See what I did there ?! 🥳)

@@shipsahoy1793 Lol, Thank you for that detailed account! I,m also hoping to start off on something fully assembled / set up, a used diamond in the rough in the 2-300$ range. Been reading comments and seeing in videos that strings are an important upgrade to consider along with bow, but i was hoping to do what you described - spend 200$ to learn what to look for in a future instrument, while still getting a fair sense of the basics. For context, I would be a total beginner without access to in-person lessons or a luthier, relying on the internet to start. Do you think i could adequately set up an instrument shipped with the bridge and strings unassembled? I'm quite handy and determined. Or, is a lot of experience necessary for setup? (I would mull over local classifieds in that case) Thanks for your replies!! :D

@@Li-yt7zh Well you need to learn how to deal with that stuff on your own anyway, even as a beginning player, so if you can get a violin with a properly carved bridge, and you don’t have to worry about carving it yourself, that’s really the biggest problem solved for the novice, except for sound post issues. I suggest dealing with a place like Fiddlershop, to make your experience as painless as possible.Also, changing strings shouldn’t pose much difficulty if you follow a viable procedure and your violin doesn’t have any peg or pegbox issues. It’s those few important things mentioned here that make it important to deal with a competent reputable shop.

It would be nice. But hard to tell without having it in person i would guess. Probably would have to send pics of the different parts.

@@Sorestlor If you're listening to recording to guess the price, then also it'll be hard to judge unless it's recorded on a thousand dollar mic.

What makes the most difference is the performer in terms of sound but I think a short clip from the person showing the violin( without showing the tag of course) and playing a G Major scale would work just to have some fun ( also use Ling Ling insurance that it’s not appraisal 😂) similar to the TwoSet reaction videos. You could even invite them over and have some fun with it.

It couldn't be an accurate appraisal but he could comment on the bridge, varnish, finish and maybe other stuff like that. It would also be cool as a guess the price type thing.

Yes please do this!! I would also love to participate!!

Thank you! Wonderful to hear.

How? I have no Olaf here.

Keep it! :)

Where did you purchase it?

That's true. My friend bought a VV violin, and brought it to Europe with him. He had it serviced somewhere there, the luthier found it good.

Gian Obierna what about mg strings are they good as well?

Totally agree, that’d be fun

And what day will that be?

@@cedleonard123 About a month ago now. 2,200 worth of work and it's brand new. It turned out to be 100 years younger than I thought, but still a tremendous instrument. Made by Charles Resuche.

@@elonmust7470 Good to hear.

Hi, I researched Gliga instruments and it can go either way... I don't sell them because I have found other instruments that have a much clearer sound and are better value... But then every now and then a client brings one in that sounds good... They really are a mixed bag.

I am not a violinist but bassist ... but I have seen my daughters to grow from small VSO instruments with good setup to intermediate level instruments these days (around US $2000) ... ... The VSO are good just to understand that the child have something in his/her hands. Take into consideration that sometimes they will go to the floor or they just will kick them on a wall or whatever, because the children still have no idea how to "live" with the instrument. And replacing some parts and the strings will make them a little playable, but they won´t have a better sound that a bug no matter what type of magic you perform on them. They are just created with very low quality materials and that is the main point (in my mind) about these things, space knowledge. Olaf is 100% right on the price ranges. After looking around I found a better US $350 instrument that helped them to improve quickly ... but they have a clear roof you can´t go beyond. Then the institution where they study loan some 40 years around Suzuki marvelous machines that have been in the hands of many children and with the right setup and good strings (Tonica are really good ones, comparable to Dominant), they delivered what was expected. Now, they have new instruments, one of them 100 years old. Professionally checked, good strings and Coda bows and ... oh, what a difference. They can continue for some years until they arrive to the next level when they would need better instruments, but that will be another story :-) So ... I think (and this includes Bass also), that it is a recipe. A good instrument with bad setup, bad strings and bad bow won´t deliver. A bad instrument with magic, the best strings and wonderful bow ... won´t deliver. A good instrument with love, good parts, good bow and study, will show what a violin really can do.

That would be intermediate... I noticed that for beginner cellos the prices are often tripple compared to a violin, because freight and material costs make up a significant percentage of the overall price. Once you get to intermediate, the price is aproximately twice that of a violin, and at a higher level it ends up being 30% to 50% more. Hope that helps.

@@AskOlaftheViolinmaker Super helpful, danke!!

all judgements are ultimately subjective by definition.

me too IKR

Australia gang 🤘

Same except for the deadly animals appearing on your home (just a joke, I know it's a Meme) , but for violin purposes yeah 😋

It really does depend on the player. At 69 usd, 10 million dollar violinist really couldn't do much with it. Rather most upgrade in tiers as we advance in our studies: 300 USD - 1,000 USD - beginner 3,000 USD - 5,000 USD - intermediate/advancing 10,000 USD+ - advanced 20-30K - music uni/college/conservatoire When you literally cannot get it to sound when you do the techniques, that's when you upgrade.

I believe he would get some like 5 mil dollar instruments He is a master

Over 10 million dollars.

@@AskOlaftheViolinmaker oof like Ray Chen's Stradivarius violin

@@AskOlaftheViolinmaker what if you dropped it? No, I really mean like, if someone drops a 10 mil dollar violin belonging to someone else, and if it's not insured, do they get arrested?? I'm curious

@@angels5449 Well, those kinds of instruments are very well insured. Also I really clean my workspace and make sure there are no risks to the instrument. Accidents do happen to players as well.

No. It's not a brand sold in Australia. What's important is that the instrument is well set up, has good strings and sounds good...

Stay away

VSO. I have the mendini. I chose a very cheap first "violin" because I didnt know if I would be able to play at all. Violin is a notoriously hard to learn instrument so I was hesitant to spend money. Dont be like me. I found a luthier who suggested decent violins for me, and Im looking at it right now.

Olaf has a tutorial for how to string instruments. As for pegs, you can put on some peg grease. But... this all depends on you knowing how to tune.

@@brattingprincess oh i didn't see the restringing video! will check it out. thanks so much for replying! Tuning wise I have a basic understanding so that should be fine. i just didn't know if i would wreck the violin trying to restring it.

I'd be VERY thankful

I think violin first... But then again... what comes first... the chicken or the egg 🙂

@@AskOlaftheViolinmaker thanks for your opinion! :)

@@AskOlaftheViolinmaker the egg because something which is not a chicken can lay a chicken egg. For future reference :) . In this case I would also say the violin - you can pluck it first without a bow.

There is a very knowledgeable community at maestronet. If you post there some pictures, I’m sure they can help with identification.

There's also a great Facebook group that focuses on the identification of instruments.

Ask Olaf the Violinmaker what is it called?