Hello all.

I am a 31 year old Australian guy who has decided to learn the violin.

I was in Paris last week and heard a gentleman busking in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral and was instantly inspired. I've always had an interest in music, but predominantly singing (many choirs over the years).

Here in Australia it seems that much of the advice available for first time violin buyers is based around who needs to sell what, rather than what might be best for the student. With no friends who play I was hoping that you might be able to guide me a little.

I have been looking at a number of violins, and the concensus (including here it seems) is that Gliga is a good way to go.....but WHICH one? i have looked at 3 different models (I think they are all in the GEMS class) known simply as Gliga I, II, and III. There is a bit of a price difference between them, and thus I have a quandry. Am I better off buying a cheaper "package deal" now and looking to upgrade later to something more dynamic, or is a little more money now likely to provide a better investment in the enjoyment and progress of learning?

I can afford any of these instruments but is more expensive necessarily better for a novice?

As I indicated I have no friends who play so have few avenues for questions. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Nathan Jones

I think I know what website you are talking about and this answer is based on the assumption that I do.

The Gliga 3 is a Genial 2 and the Gliga professional is a Gama, therefore it's likely that Gliga 1 is a Gems 1 and Gliga 2 is a Gems 2, but the Gliga 2 could just possibly be a Genial 1 - the description would fit either. The most popular violin we sell to adult beginners is the Gems 2.

Whichever you get, do get four adjusters fitted - you'll have terrible problems tuning without - and some decent strings. Dominants, Tonicas, Helicores and Violinos all work well enough with Gems and Genial, we use Dominants on ours. To get the combination of four adjusters and good strings from that website you'll need to go for an outfit and that means the Gliga 3 (Genial 2)

I see the "Gliga 3" is offered with built-in adjusters. That almost certainly means a Wittner tailpiece and, at the risk of incurring wrath from forum users who may love those, they do nothing at all for the tone - I have never yet found a violin that sounds as good with a Wittner tailpiece as if does with a regular tailpiece and four adjusters. The Pusch tailpiece is a different matter but is more expensive and is a nightmare to get the strings through.

I think, in short, what i'm telling you is, yes indeed do get a Gliga, but that may not be the best place to get it from. If you must get it from there, then pay the extra $50 to have it sent bridge up - having it sent bridge down will cause you a headache if you don't know what you are doing and it increases the likelihood of the soundpost collapsing.

Liz

Nathan I'm sure Liz will be here in due course and is best placed to describe the differences in the Gliga violins. (Edit...she beat me to it!)

I tell you my experience it might hel you make a decision.

I bought a cheap and nasty student violin when I started playing and am now just stuck with it, I think it cost me about £70 including case and bow, so you get the picture (plywood and chewing gum I think). At the time I just had this desire to learn the violin and I didn't want to spend a lot of money just in case I didn't take to it. With the benefit of hindsight, I would have been better to buy the best I could afford, then if I didn't want to carry on learning I would still have something very saleable and could get my investment back.

Also the cheap and nasty student violins (like mine, I'm sure the Gligas are fine) are harder to play and to get a decent tone when you are learning. Even changing the strings didn't help, and the bridge did not fit on the table properly either, which I was totally unaware of until my teacher pointed it out and set to with some emery paper!!

I now have a very wonderful 200 year old Italian violin which is gradually increasing in value year on year.

I notice that the tax rules are about to change in the UK (not much help to you but they might already be different in Australia), in that you can invest in a violin as part of your pension fund. So the pension fund buys the instrument and you can offset the cost against tax. Not quite sure what happens when you retire though...do you have to give it up

So I think what I'm saying is, I would buy the best I could afford as it will be an investment, and if you buy a Strad it will even keep you in your old age

OOOh. Now THAT'S going to send the auction price of a certain price range of isntruments up through the roof. What a lovely thought though - buy a £20,000 instrument and it's just counted as part of your pension payments. It's almost enough to make me wish I had a pension fund - sigh.

Liz

Buy before April 2006 then if you want a bargain, or if your pension fund can afford it after April 2006. I wonder what happens when you retire though? Can you keep it and the pension fund has the violin when you finally demise, or do you have to sell when you retire.

I would imagine you'd have to sell the violin and that would be where your pension income would come from. Only guessing of course. I could see a few very disappointed grandchildren though when they realise the violin has to be sold to keep granny in a nursing home. Then again, perhaps it means more violinists will be looked after in their children's homes rather than in a nursing home. Or perhaps it means food will be withdrawn at the first opportunity as soon as granny gets alzheimers. Don't get me started ....

Liz

Sorry Nathan...we seem to have gone a bit off topic here!

Liz, but it could mean that violinists, in order to hang on to their instruments, have to keep playing well into their dotage, and put off retirement as long as possible.

With the new law on age discrimination coming up, and the impact that will have on retirement age, I can see orchestras becoming full of doddering old people on zimmer frames....well the string section anyway.

Hello and thank you for your replies.

I have decided to hire a violin from a school here and take lessons with it while seeking the best advice I can while searching for a good violin deal. (Yes Liz, I am happy to be contacted off forum if you like).

I think this will allow me sufficient time to decide if this is the best instrument for me and to determine what sound I like best.

Thanks again for your helpful advice.

Nathan

That's probably quite a good idea. I hope you enjoy it

Liz

There are a few string teachers I know that fit that description very well!! Trouble is, it means the younger generations are being deprived of these jobs while the real oldies (some of which are going deaf and don't really care about the students) are hanging onto positions they really no longer fit to be in.

I have no bones to pick with older teachers who are on the ball and still have a real spark to their approach of teaching, but most of them are just hanging on until the last gasp.

...and YES, I will be instructing my pension company to spend my fund on a violin - in addition, not being married and having no children will mean that I won't find some family member trying to bump me off as soon as I reach 75. I shall just make sure that I have a water-tight Will made out that if anything should happen to me before I reach the decrepit stage of life, that the violin goes to either a Music Trust or somewhere like the RAM collection, for use by young up-and-coming professional string players.

(The Viotti Strad is a recent example of this - saved by the skin (or rather varnish) of its teeth from ending up as government property and being auctioned abroad!!!)

Trouble is, will pension companies that hold peoples pension funds agree to it?? - it will after all mean that the money would no longer be sitting in the companies accounts earning them interest!!!

It's just a coincidence but a friend called me yesterday and told me that staff at a shop she went to in Beswick (west London?) made disparaging remarks on their Rumanian violins! Why on earth would they do that and still stock them? I wonder... Hope they don't stock and weren't referring to the Gamas!

Most unlikely - no-one else in the UK stocks Gligas.

Liz