Hi folks,

I'm saving up at the mo for another violin and was wondering what brand of violin everyone has.

Thanks,

Fiona

I play a Gliga Gama

(bet that surprised everybody ...)

Liz

My violas handmade, German, circa 1880!

But if you are looking to buy a new violin, don't look at brands, just find something that feels nice and makes the tone you desire since every violin (or viola) is different.

Mine is a 'Blessing' made in China circa 1970

QUOTE

But if you are looking to buy a new violin, don't look at brands, just find something that feels nice and makes the tone you desire since every violin (or viola) is different.

I totally agree. Try out all sorts of instruments in your price range - old and new. Whatever feels comfortable to play and has the tonal characteristics you like, will be the violin for you.

If you go to a shop/dealer, they will normally let you take an instrument away for a couple of weeks to try it out properly at home.

Amanda

Thanks for your replies.

My main concern is spending a lot - or maybe not but only lasting through beginners/intermediate.

Ideally, I would prefer it to see me through to advanced stage.

Or, do I not spend a lot that will last intermediate and upgrade for advanced ?

Do I make any sense ?

Fiona

Could you be more specific, Fiona? What grade are you now, what grade do you intend it to last till, and how far do you intend to take your playing? (good amateur, violin teacher, professional performer etc)

Liz

QUOTE (AmandaL @ Nov 23 2004, 07:19 PM)

QUOTE But if you are looking to buy a new violin, don't look at brands, just find something that feels nice and makes the tone you desire since every violin (or viola) is different. I totally agree.

I don't, although I accept this goes against received wisdom.

I think you should get a Gliga.

If you do a "search" on this forum on the word "gliga" in the last 365 days (not just the last 30), quite a lot of info from various posters and links from will be brought up, as well as my own reasons for saying what I do.

I am convinced that Gliga violins are so much better than anything else in the same price bracket that even accounting for differences between instruments (which are heavily outweighed by the similarities with Gliga) it is worth getting one. Just by way of example if you had £165 to buy a violin (instrument only) I suspect you could try to your hearts delight every violin shop, luthier and music superstore in Britain, and the best you would be offered in that price range would be an acceptable alright sounding Chinese made beginner instrument which sounds like a violin, but not one that anyone (including you) would want to stand and listen to someone else playing for 5 minutes. For the same money you could buy a Gliga Gems II which is a beautiful sounding finely crafted instrument from Romania, from the workshop of a master luthier, at a price based on a multiple of Romanian wages.

Alternatively if you want to hedge your bets, see what you can find on a "hands on basis", and get a Gliga on a trial basis for direct comparison.
In fact, so convinced am I that you would not return a Gliga Gems II (or Gama II if you want a more advanced instrument) that I (despite having no links to Elidatrading other than as a customer) will pay your postage costs (to and from UK!) myself if you have to return the thing. PM me and (after checking its been sent back) I will send you a cheque. I give you my Poisonal marker for one violin posting, and if I let you down you can come in here and tell the boys that Zoda is a Welcher and I will never be able to show my faces again

I make the same offer to AmandaL and Violinia in relation to a Gliga Gama II as long as the offer was taken up in good faith (for which I will accept their word) that they might conceivably have use for a second instrument, since they already no doubt have a rather nice one to start with.

David

[subsequent edit in December 2004: I'm sorry AmandaL, I've just realised it was very presumptious of me in my Gliga zeal to try to "share the light" with you over Gliga's - a mooch through previous Gliga posts shows me you were in fact the first person in the Viva forums to recommend Gliga and Elidatrading, months before I even joined. I doubt anyone will read this post as an edit of an old thread, but I wanted to make the correction without resurrecting the thread unnecessarily.]

Good heavens! However much did my husband pay you for that little lot, David?

**** ONLY JOKING!!! *****

Seriously, on Saturday we had a new experience, we went up to Edinburgh to take a stall at the Fiddle Festival. I confess I had never been so far north before .. and yes I love Edinburgh! But there was one very interesting thing.

Without wishing to give too much away: very near to our stall was a stall run by a very respected specialist shop. They had a 14 year old (roughly) of the variety that gets 149 at grade 7 (that's what she sounded like anyway) playing their violins, and we had some rather more elementary level folk fiddlers playing ours, plus a few people saying "i'm not playing anything until she's gone!" (I said "neither am I!") The good 14 year old of course wouldn't stoop to the level of our violins and to be fair she probably has a good one already, so i couldn't make any direct comparisons there, but what i COULD do was have a little look at the bows.

Now I will say straight away that i found a bow i really liked. Trouble was it was £1860. The tone I could draw with it was no better than with a Glasser carbon graphite but I confess spicatto was easier .... but not 12 times easier. I saw (but didn't play) three other bows selling at below £400. We have ones that at least appeared to be similar enough for me to be sure they came from the same sort of source (originally) at the same sort of original price. Only thing is ours, to the end user, are about a third of the price. That is one of the joys of importing direct.

Those who don't know the market assume that you get what you pay for but this is not entirely true. What probably IS true is that you get what you pay for AT THE FACTORY GATE OF ANY GIVEN COUNTRY. There is quite a difference ....

Liz

QUOTE (elidatrading @ Nov 23 2004, 08:59 PM)

Could you be more specific, Fiona? What grade are you now, what grade do you intend it to last till, and how far do you intend to take your playing?

Hi Liz

I'm about G3 - 4 I think !

I've not actually taken any violin grades but I've been looking at the pieces at that level which seem ok.

I'm currently playing 2nd violin on Beethoven Pastorale (full version, not adapted) in our orchestra which is fun.

So, I don't know. Top part beginnerish upwards?

I would love to be in a prof orchestra one day or maybe a freelance musician. So that's obviously why I'm confused about what kind of lifespan on a violin I need to invest in.

Or am I just looking into it too much ?

Fiona

QUOTE (Fiona @ Nov 24 2004, 12:00 AM)

I'm currently playing 2nd violin on Beethoven Pastorale (full version, not adapted) in our orchestra which is fun. So, I don't know. Top part beginnerish upwards? I would love to be in a prof orchestra one day or  maybe a freelance musician. So that's obviously why I'm confused about what kind of lifespan on a violin I need to invest in. Or am I just looking into it too much ?

I would be surprised if any violin being played in a professional orchestra is worth as little as £1000 nowadays. When Hugh Maguire came to lead the Bournemouth Orchestra about 50 years ago, he played a violin that he had bought in Ireland for £10. It was clearly worth a lot more, but even that much is equivalent to about £1500 nowadays, allowing for inflation. Even if you have someone prepared to give you several £1000, do you want the responsibility of taking an instrument of that value to your orchestra, and with it wherever it may be performing? Typical all risks insurance for musical instruments costs 2% per year, so the running costs for my better double bass, which is a cheapish professional quality instrument valued at £5000 a few years ago, start with £100 p.a. insurance.

You're probably not going to get into a professional orchestra, unless you are practicing something like five hours a day. Professional orchestra players are generally the best conservatoire graduates and to even get into a conservatoire on violin you'd have to be approaching performer's diploma level by the age of 18. I should have asked how old you are but I'm assuming you're perhaps 14 or older?

That doesn't mean you could not make a very good, even front desk, amateur orchestra player, and perhaps do G&S shows for pay, many amateur players do that.

I started viola only at the age of 11, did no practice worth describing as such, did grade 3 at 14, took no further grades until I was at university (not studying music!) then did grades 7 and 8 and had three attempts at a diploma (and no i didn't pass it, though i do have a diploma on recorder which is my first instrument). I did grade 8 on a humble Poller, though with a better bridge, strings and bow. Pollers are Romanian violins which are generally considered to be a little better than Zellers, they're comparable, at their best, to the Gliga Genial 2

The gap between grade 8 and diploma is huge so realistically i'm assuming you're going to be wanting something to take you up to grade 8. That would put you around the back desks of first violins, or towards the front of second violins, in a good amateur orchestra of the type that performs the standard symphonic repertoire in the local town hall.

To be performing more than adequately at that level, with no feeling that the instrument is restricting you or is likely to restrict you, I would be able to find you a choice of at least two violins (instrument only) for £400 (and yes, one is indeed a Gliga!) and you'd need to spend perhaps £75 minimum on a bow. If you are thinking of upgrading again later then go lower, we have two excellent choices of outfit, either of which are better than what i did grade 8 on, at £250 or less. If you just want something that will be OK for now then go lower still, even for £100 we can probably find you something a lot better than your present instrument.

Of course we're not the only retailers out there, and apart from anythign else it is possible, if you're really careful, to get a used bargain on ebay. Just allow an extra £200 (worse case scenario) to have the instrument set up, "just needs a new bridge and strings" is the usual line and that usually means it needs a complete set up.

Liz

QUOTE (elidatrading @ Nov 24 2004, 09:33 AM)

The gap between grade 8 and diploma is huge so realistically i'm assuming you're going to be wanting something to take you up to grade 8. That would put you around the back desks of first violins, or towards the front of second violins, in a good amateur orchestra of the type that performs the standard symphonic repertoire in the local town hall.

Thanks for the reply Liz,

I think thats made things a little clearer.

I'm an adult and no, unfortunatley I'm not going to get in a professional orchestra But I'm not put off.

I play in a couple of amateur orchestras at present - only one really performs publicly and the other for friends and family at the end of the season.

As you say, I probably want something to take me to around G8.

Fiona

Hi all,

Just curious, are there fakes of gilga violin going around since it's so good? I'm thinking of buying one, but the price differs from US$50-150 between different websites for the same model, so I was thinking of why is there a difference?

Also, what's the difference between a one piece back and a two piece back? Does it affect the sound quality?


Andrea

Carl Holfner is pretty cool

$50??? I can't think who would be selling them for that, unless Cristian Gliga (violinslover.com) has stock he is trying to clear. I wouldn't have thought anyone would be faking them, they're not that valuable! Are you sure that wasn't a used one?

Prices for any brand will vary. Some brands, including Gliga, are cheaper for smaller sizes. The type of strings fitted affects the price too, and then of course one site may be quoting for an outfit and another for the instrument only. Beyond that, if a shop does specialist set up work the price will of course be higher. Other than that, it';s a matter of overheads and markups.

One piece / two piece back is a matter of appearance rather than sound.

liz

QUOTE (elidatrading @ Nov 23 2004, 11:49 PM)

we went up to Edinburgh to take a stall at the Fiddle Festival.

I've heard about these - it sounds like heaven - can you just go round having a go on zillions of violins? How are they advertised? Are they just in places like Edinburgh and London or do they have them up North?

Let me know if you're doing another one - I'd love to have a go on a Gama violin, also to see what a 15' Maestro viola sounds like or a 16.5' Gems II. Then again I wouldn't mind a go on a Gems II Cello. Hm - not sure how much time I'd have left for the £1860 bow/ in your face prodigy stall. How much stuff do you actually bring to one of these fairs?

Yes you can indeed go round having a go on a zillion violins!

We just took a car load, which amounted to 32 violins plus bows, cases, metronomes etc

I guess we'll do it next year, if we're mad enough.

Now what i'd REALLY like to find is some Suzuki concerts or LEA music service concerts that have stalls. Has anyone any ideas?

Liz