I dropped almost $2000 just so I could take a photo like this!
Ok that was an obvious joke lol. I’ve been thinking about it for a while; ever since learning it for only a couple of years in high school, but I never felt like I’d be able to commit to learning it again. I even rented one for a while in Adelaide and it sounded so bad that I didn’t use it again the whole time!
But recently I’ve become interested again, and I wonder if I can actually relearn it and have fun. Only time will tell!
The process of getting one was hilarious though, I had spotted a luthier that I could probably visit, as well as a couple of music stores that seemed to stock some. My errands led to one of the music shops, where I asked about their student violins. They only had these $350, fluoro orangey toy-looking instruments, and the shop assistant went to explain that it wasn’t even made of proper wood and half of it was plastic! Oh my goodness! It also sounded terrible (even accounting for the fact that it was horribly out of tune) when plucked.
I then went to visit the luthier, but even though google said they’re open for shopping, the actual signage was by appointment only, and they looked closed. I figured I should call them and then book in a time later on, and tried to catch the bus back home. But, for some inexplicable reason, I changed my mind, and crossed the road for the bus in the opposite direction? Which turned out to be a very good thing, because on the way I saw another music shop and thought, hey, let’s give that a go!
This was a proper music shop and I found an entire section dedicated to violins, and they looked like the real deal, so I asked for assistance. I said that I wanted a student violin that was also kind of nice. Apparently this is a thing, and people do ask for it! I got shown some Chinese violins and some German violins, and wow, ok – I didn’t expect the starting price tag to be almost $2000! What! Student violins are this expensive??? I mean I know I said nice ones but he was showing me nice ones. Considering I already have a Chinese violin back in Sydney, I really wanted a German one this time. But the shop assistant was now starting to say nice violins are between $3000 and $5000….
“So what’s your budget?” he asked. What was I going to reply with? In my head I was prepared to spend $700ish but I realised I’d grossly underestimated how much a good beginner violin costs these days. I really wanted one though, so I said $1000, what will that get me?
He went back to one of the Chinese violins which actually did and sound pretty good, but I internally had a panic about the single fine tuner on the E string. I’ve never tuned without fine tuners on all the string and that was actually a daunting prospect. Even then, it was $1300. So I asked about the German one next to it.
“This Hofner is also really nice, this one is $1995.”
My logic? It’s only a few hundred dollars difference compared to the Chinese one AND it was under $2000 and it looked really really really good, and the assistant had explained the quality of workmanship and how it was more labour intensive, which I really liked the sound of.
“So um, since there are Black Friday sales everywhere, are there any discounts on instruments?”
Haha ok, so I asked that and the assistant did consider it! He went off to ask his manager after I explained I’d be interested in buying it if I could get a small discount. What was I doing, this was starting to feel like an impulse buy because I was way beyond my budget now!
He came back with $1795, and an extra $80 for a shoulder rest. I’ll take it!
And that was that. Somehow I’d committed to spending more than twice my original estimate for a really really nice violin, that I can’t even play hahaha! I’m so silly sometimes.
At the till the assistant asked me what got me back into violin (since I had explained I learned it in school but then stopped), and I mentioned a Youtube duo called Twoset violin, and one of the other assistants perked up and said that he knew of them too! They even talked about a recent concert they did, but I said I wasn’t aware of them at the time, but I’d signed myself up to their mailing list for future events!
Another hilarious moment was when they said that this particular model was selling like hotcakes, it was very popular! Someone had come in and bought one on the Monday, and today I’d bought the last of their stock. I guess everyone wants a nice beginner violin haha. It definitely is a nice feeling!
They also helped rosin the bow (pre-rosin?) and gave me a high quality rosin for free, replacing the default rosin that was provided. How nice!
And of course the first thing I did with it once I got home was not play it, but do a photoshoot of it. Ok, I actually rosin-ed the bow first, and then did a photoshoot, and then tried it out. The sound is amazing!! But I can’t play notes to save my life right now, so I’m going to have to relearn the fingering and make sure I can still tune it.
Yay for stupid expensive splurges on nice things!
