Customer Reviews

Palatino Campus Violin Outfit 4/4 Size (Featherweight Case, Bow)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

You see a bargain violin and you immediately ask "What is wrong with it?" In the music store the basic student violin kit may be $100 or more. Other violins cost thousands of dollars. Why the big difference?

I bought one of these cheap chinese kits because I wanted to pick up playing the violin that I gave up when I was about 10 years old. I wanted to see if I could remember anything and get any enjoyment out of it.

After slaving away over this thing for weeks, sounding like a sick cat, I borrowed my sisters German made violin ($400 cost). What a difference! Suddenly I could play.

So I set out to find out the differences between paying under $100 and over $300 for a violin.

1. The Wood
Chinese violins are made from heavier wood, cut thicker, than European and US made violins. The cutting can be rough, and overall the instrument is heavier than a well made equivalent.

2. The fittings.
The pegs in chinese violins are now being made well, so you can tune the instruments. But the tail piece is plastic and can be flimsy. Generally these instruments require more tuning than European/US made instruments.

The bridge supplied with these kits is often poorly cut, and can give a bad lie to the strings. This makes the violin difficult to play. The good news is that you can buy a cheap violin, and stick in a good quality bridge, and vastly improve playability.

3. Fine detail.
A truly great instrument will have a lot of care and attention to detail on inlay of purfling etc etc. Not a concern for the beginner.

4. The Bow
Boy is this an important piece of the kit. The bows supplied in these kits are often fibreglass rather than wood. The main problem with them is that they are rarely straight and do not have a proper "Bow" in the wood, so they don't tighten properly. This means they hop around too much on the strings.

Also, the horsehair is poor quality, and needs lots of good roisin to grip the strings.

The good news is that for under $50 you can probably get quite a nice replacement bow.

5. The roisin.
The block supplied with these kits is dreadful. Toss it out and buy a good German roisin and you won't ever look back.

6. The strings.
Dreadful flat steel wires are supplied with these kits. I pity anyone struggling with them trying to get a tune. Ditch them and buy a decent set.

So, you buy this kit, dump the roisin, bow, strings and bridge, and set it all up from scratch. (You may even replace the tailpiece. What you end up with is a fairly playable piece of kit, and still for less than $200. So it still represents excellent value in comparison with even the factory produced Czech, Romanian and Hungarian instruments.

Ideal for the beginner, until they reach a standard where they will demand a better quality instrument.

In violin circles we talk about violins and VSO's. A VSO is a violin shaped object. The reputation that Palatinos have among violinists I know, particularly teachers who have new students coming tothem with these VSOs,is as pure junk and well shaped firewood. There are other inexpensive brands that will give you more violin for the money like the Cremonas, but the Palitinos are pretty crummy.

I know what it is like to be poor and not to be able to afford a decent instrument. I know that from having struggled to learn the guitar on 15 buck stellas back in the 1960s. However, if you can possibly wait and save up two or three hundred dollars, you can get a decent enough student violin to be worth it. You will see the difference. For a new person, often the difference might be having an instrument that discourages a beginner from playing and having an instrument that will get the fun of playing the fiddle or violin to be a permanent part of your life.

Unless you know about violins, don't buy one on the Net buy yourself. Find a violin teacher, or someone from the many online groups for beginning violinists. I highly recommend Yahoo's Beginning Adult Violinist group which has thousands of members all over the US and beyond. They can give you advice, go with you to a store, or help you make an online purchase. They can even recommend a violin seller in your area who has a proven reputation or is a member of the group. This how I got a really great deal on a violin worth twice the money I paid for it, found a luthier who wouldn't mind my calling up with dumb questions, fixed my violin for nothing, and has become a friend.

I don't recommend most music stores that are generally stores where they know about guitars and keyboards and have a few violins lying around and know NOTHING or worse only enough to try to get you to buy whatever piece of junk they have. Violin only stores can be good, but they often cater to serious professionals who must have instruments that cost thousands.

Some of the misunderstandings people here talk about show what I mean. It isn't the question of Chinese violins. Almost all inexpensive violins available in this country are manufactured in China, although some are also made in Eastern European countries like Bulgaria.

Chinese luthiers are making some of the finest violins in the world today. Some Chinese luthiers have even set up violin making schools in the US because American luthiers want to learn from them. The question is a cheap Chinese violin under 100 bucks just isn't going to be very much since it just takes a certain amount of effort to build a violin. It is just like the idea that German cars are considered the best, but a 500 dollar German car is probably as much of a lemeon as a chinese violin under 100 bucks.

Even a 10,000 dollar violin that will be a life-joy for a serious player should not be expected to arrive in tune from shipment. In fact, it would be irresponsible for any shipper to send a violin already tuned in full tension. The instrument should be tuned only enough that the sound-post will stay in place. Most string musicians, even less sensitive instruments like guitars or banjos, know that even when they are taking an instrument on a trip themselves, let alone shipping one, to untune the instrument.

There is nothing wrong with a violin whose strings are not in tune. It simply needs to be tuned. Moreover, the normal variations of travel temperature and jostling will set them out of tune. THIS IS GOING TO BE ESPECIALLY TRUE FOR A CHEAP VIOLIN WITH CHEAP POORLY FITTED PEGS LIKE A PALITINO!

Setup, is very crucial for a violin's sound even for an inexpensive violin. Setup involves the placement of the bridge, what size bridge and how the sound post is properly place under the bridge, something that is hard to do as it requires precision. Finding a luthier who will set up a violin for you, and perhaps put decent strings on it, can make a big difference in buying a violin at any price. For someone buying an inexpensive violin it is something relatively inexpensive that can help the sound.

Likewise, the bow is often as important to your sound as your fiddle itself. Moreover, someone with little cash can more easily move up from the 10 or 20 buck bow that comes with these cheap fiddles to a 100 buck bow, than they can move up from a 300 dollar fiddle (most things that cost less are VS0s) to a 800 or 1000 buck fiddle. To me it was shocking how much my playing improved when I went up to a 90 buck bow! Moreover, it is also easier to move up from a 90 byuck bow to a 300 buck bow, than it is to move from a 800 buck violin to a 5k violin.


Finally, buying fiddles on ebay is even more of a turkey shoot than buying one online without advice. There are plenty of vsos up on EBay and plenty of people who are selling cheap violin sets like these as used violins for even more money.

I will repeat what I said before. Don't buy a violin simply from an Internet Ad. Find a violin teacher, or someone from the many online groups for beginning violinists--I recommend Yahoo's Beginning Adult Violinist group which has thousands of members all over the US and beyond--who can give you advice, go with you to a store or help you make an online purchase.

One more positive thing to say is that learning the violin is not as hard as many people imagine it. I started playing the violin at 55. I don't have a lot of time as I work two jobs, have a lot of involvement, and play the guitar and the banjo and have to practice them a lot. Still, once you past the first stage when the violin sounds really awful (my violinist friends said it helped that I am single) you can play the violin enough that it is fun.

Yes, violins are fun!

I am also a violin teacher and recomment these instruments to my begginning students as it is cheaper than renting and with a little care they go a long way. 3 of my students performed in the NYSSMA competition with these instruments all recieving the highest mark and praise fro the tone of their instruemnt.

When I got the violin the strings were out of tune, so I went to a music store and had them put on new strings which they tuned for me right then and there. Be sure to use plenty of rosin on the bow hairs because they're new.

I also got the ABCs of Violin book #1 and its CD. These materials plus the violin worked well for me.

Great way to begin playing the violin! My lifelong dream....

I am a string orchestra teacher, and PLEASE do not buy your students this violin or any cheap violin! Students with this brand of violin (and other in-expensive brands like cremona) had a very difficult time in orchestra being successful. These instruments do not tune well and do not stay in tune. Students are quickly frustrated when they realize that the music coming out of their violin does not sound like everyone else -it just sounds bad! Fine tuners tend not to work at all! If you want your child to be successful - buy a decent instrument. It does make a difference!

This is a wonderful instrument for beginners. It might be necessary, however, to replace the chin rest - which is pretty cheap to do - for a more comfortable hold (mine was cut too high making it difficult to hold wit hmy chin). Also, as has been stated, it also migh be advantageous to replace the strings, bridge, and buy new rosin. The bow is okay, but if you have problems with it there is no problem replacing it with a glasser fiber glass student bow. Fiber glass bows are okay for student learners and they're cheap (a wooden bow is not essential). One also might want to invest in an electronic tuner with a pickup, as this is the least frusterating way to tune the instrument. With these things mind, this is a good instrument for the price - and the sound is equal to that of an expensive violin as far as I can tell. Don't let the fact that it's cheap deter you. If you can't afford a $500 or $1,000 violin, this is a good place to start. This violin is indeed a quality instrument.

Running through a lot of these reviews, I felt I should type a proper one. For starters, it tunes if you know what you're doing- the concept is there, there's a friction peg that fits into the hole properly, and if it slides use an abrasive or goop just like you'd do on a high-end 300 year old instrument. There's microtuners that definitely do their job perfectly- after being extremely aggressive during playing, I tested the tune with my chromatic tuner, and my G string was the only string that was off, and it was -01 cent off... which is fantastic. The over-all tone isn't as lush as it COULD be, but in return, I feel that this violin isn't as lush as a higher-end instrument because the build material is brand new/not cured, and anyone that has dedicated time into playing any instrument will tell you- it's like a wine... it needs to age to be sweet. Honestly, for the price, I could justify this being 1/4th the quality that it is and probably not complain about it. It's not for auditions, but it, just like any other instrument, does not make the musician- it just translates and broadcasts.

Any newcomer will enjoy this setup, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it, and it's cheap! As a new player, you'll be too ruff on the bow, and overtighten then undertighten strings- this will take it, and prepare you for whenever you want to step-up to something more high-end if you feel you need to.

This violin sounds so horrible! There's a reason why they call this a student violin. That's because even the greatest violinist would sound like a student with this. No matter how good you are, you will sound terrible. This violin produces a horribly flat sound. It is tough to tell whether you are in tune or not (Because it always sounds bad). While it is cheap, it is definitely very bad for a student. It will discourage them (Sounds horrible), teaches bad tune (Difficult to compare to other's tune), and requires frequent tuning.

It may be more expensive, but please just rent a decent violin. You will save a lot of trouble. Also, many stores offer a discount when you rent from them. That will come in handy if you become a serious player and require a great violin.

Save yourself some trouble, time, and money by renting a decent violin.

I picked up one of these from a pawn shop after I tuned it and played it for a few minutes. The instrument has a ringing tone almost like a mandolin and I thought it would be a nice compliment to my 1920s German student violin.

The instrument is very poorly made. The pegs are very ill-fitted and difficult to tune. The bridge is carved almost flat as if it was designed for fiddlers who want to play a constant drone string. The distance between strings on both the bridge and nut is very poorly measured. The tailgut that holds the tailpiece to the button on the back broke the third time I tried to tune it -- as did the plastic button itself. All of these parts are available at reasonable quality for cheap ($30) on the web, but may require some investment in tools as well. You'll need to learn to carve a new bridge. You'll want learn how to replace the nut. And fix the pegs. All this takes time and effort and some skill.

Or you could just buy a better made instrument to start with.

Ah, but that tone. These are hand made cheap junk. But some of them have promise if you are willing to tackle the work. The problem lies in knowing if the one that you just bought over the web has that promise.

I own several violins including one of Palatino VN-300. I also played 3 other VN-300.

This violin sounds its bests the way it comes out of the box with only 2 small inexpensive changes: 1- better rosin, 2- a small rubber mute on the bridge.

Good rosin and the small rubber mute should be around $5 for both.

About other upgrades:
Do not waste time and money with strings, bridge, tailpiece, sound post, professional tuning, bows,... My experience is that Palatino found the best match and it comes with it. (Do not believe the other guys saying that upgrades works, they do not)

About Expensive Violins:
Violins are all hand made (even the cheapest one) and none sound the same. Some very expensive instruments sound bad and some budget ones sound decent. The price of a violin is not based on the sound, it is based on its brand (maker), country of origin, looks, and materials. Sound quality is not part of the equation. But in general the better made instruments do sound better. Anyway, in my experience the Palatino sounds as good or better than a bad sounding super expensive instrument. Just think about it, there are many over $1000 violins that sound worst than the palatino!