My current violin I have had for around 7/ 8 months and I would like to get it looked at ( given the onec over) to make sure everything is ok. I was just wondering how much this usualy costs. There arn't any luthiers in my local area, none that I can find advertised, so i cannot nip into the local expert and get an estimate.

I am also looking at upgrading my bow and I like the look of this one http://www.beautifulbowsandviolins.com/det...&id=Vi-BSMI
It also comes in gold mounting for a few extra £'s which could come in handy should I fall on hard times and I can do the cash for gold thing lol.

Cheers,
Alan.

I am pretty certain that i s a baroque bow as they are made of snake wood and modern bows are not. Therefore I wouldn't buy it, unles of course you are going to be playing mainly baroque muic.

Furthermore the way a bow looks is completely irelevent, it is how it feels when you use it. Personally I think the frog is ugly but I can see you think otherwise.

With regards to the serviceing for your instrument I believe this normally costs about £70. Unless there is anything wrong i wouldn't bother because all the luthier will say is this can and that can be improved and it will end up costing you money you had not planned to spend.

Thanks Hero,
so it is a bow for a specific style. I shall have to look else where. I was tempted to order it but thanks for the heads up.

That is alot of money for a service considering my cheaper end of the market violin. I am glad I asked and didn't just turn up at a luthier.

Sharkstooth, unless you are ready to 'gamble' your money (ie: if you don't like the bow then never mind £100 is gone....) then don't buy anything unless you either try 'really well' (ie take home for a week) or you are free to return with no quibbles all your money back guarantee (watch some still make you pay for postage to you and back)
that's all I can say really

oh and yes, the way a bow looks has got nothing to do with how it plays that's true.....

as for the 'violin health check', I'd wait until you 'bump' into someone who can tell quite a bit about a violin set up and ask them for an opinion or 'educate yourself' like I am doing at present, I have learnt quite a bit about set up and can now tell if a set up looks 'ok/good' of course I can't tell other things for which you may also need special instruments but I can tell a few things.....

I know my german violin needs to be properly set up, its' not bad and a beginner will not notice but now that I have developed as a player and know a few things about set ups I can tell, I don't want to spend the money on it as I think I don't want to keep this violin.

I just got my violin MOTed for free. I guess if there was any work needing to be done I would have been expected to leave it with the luthier for repair, but the guy was very fair - told me that if would need some work in due course (new fingerboard) but not just yet, and he also said my strings were OK when I was going to replace them, (have obviously not been practising as much as I thought I had) so actually saved me some money.

And that looks like a regular bow to me - baroque bows are a different shape and will have a different shaped frog to this - try googling 'Baroque bow' on images and you'll see what I mean.

However as others have said, I would not recommend you buy any bow on looks - you need to try it.

I would also second what others have said - it's how the bow plays that matters. I would also, as a general rule, not buy instruments / bows on-line, although I know many people do. A couple of my students have done this, and regretted it. There is no substitute for trying before you buy. When I upgraded my bow, I spent 2-3 hours in the shop trying them out. Don't rush with this, Alan. Unless you are very unhappy with the sound on your current instrument, save your money until you are, and then have a good look around.

thanks for the replies. I shall take heed and not buy on a whim. I guess i will have to go to the music shop and see what they have to offer if anything.

Hi Alan,

Will you be willing to travel to Bolton to get your violin looked at?

As I can recommend Booth's as they have their own workshop for instruments. The luthier is called Tony, and he's lovely.

The address is 17 Churchgate, Bolton Town Centre, BL1 1HU, Tel: 01204 522908.

I'm not sure how much it will cost you to have your violin MOTed, but I'm sure that they will give you a rough price.

Loz xx

Thanks Loz,

I shall keep that in mind. Bolton is as good as place as any.