Where should I get my kid's violin from?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You end up spending more in rentals than buying. Buy a cheap one.

Not good advice. Better to rent a higher quality instrument with insurance. Potential for better sound and better outcome if kid has accident at school with instrument, also, easy to turn in if kid wants to switch

We've done both. Renting was a waste.

DP. I feel that renting is safer. Younger kids are not careful with instruments and even if they are, kids around them are not (DD had kids in class that were swordfighting with their bows). You can in fact get a better instrument for considerably less up-front cost with renting than buying, and a better instrument is likely to get your kid to stick with the instrument, longer term. If the child seems committed in a year's time, then invest in a decent beginner instrument.

[Anonymous]

You can rent from Foxes for a year with all the money going towards cost of buying your instrument. At the end of the school year they have a sale where you get twenty percent off the remaining balance.

One thing to be aware of is there are no free repairs once you own the instrument

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://potterviolins.com/ in Takoma Park.

They're the best, hands down. But whatever you decide, go to a luthier, ie, a place that only does classical string instruments: violin, viola, cello, double bass. There's also Fox (sp?) in NoVa. They're good too!

[Anonymous]

I’m in the camp of rent until 1) your kid needs a full size violin, and 2) they are sure they want to continue to play. Your kid may not be in a 3/4 for too long. I think my kid graduated to full size by 6th grade.

[Anonymous]

The DC Youth Orchestra site has a list of store you can rent from:

https://www.dcyop.org/instrument-rental/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You end up spending more in rentals than buying. Buy a cheap one.

Not good advice. Better to rent a higher quality instrument with insurance. Potential for better sound and better outcome if kid has accident at school with instrument, also, easy to turn in if kid wants to switch

We've done both. Renting was a waste.

DP. I feel that renting is safer. Younger kids are not careful with instruments and even if they are, kids around them are not (DD had kids in class that were swordfighting with their bows). You can in fact get a better instrument for considerably less up-front cost with renting than buying, and a better instrument is likely to get your kid to stick with the instrument, longer term. If the child seems committed in a year's time, then invest in a decent beginner instrument.

I got the warranty, so when there was an issue, it got replaced with no issue. Renting you are required to pay if there is damage. We ended up selling it for a good amount.

[Anonymous]

Rent for the 3/4, especially since kids that age can grow unpredictably fast. Potter's will give you the money you spent on rent as a credit towards a future purchase. If you can afford it, buy when your kid is ready for a full-sized.

Potter's, Weaver's, and Gailes (at least prior to Bill Gailes's relatively recent death) have the best local inventory of reasonably-priced student instruments. I think Gailes and Weaver's have the best value-for-the-money on purchases.

Do NOT buy from Amazon. Violins need something call "set-up", and shops engage in quality control (every violin with a particular brand/model is NOT the same, they're not factory-made), along with carving bridges and soundposts and placing them in a way that has to be unique to each violin so it can sound its best, planing fingerboards to be even, properly fitting pigs, and fixing other issues with the instruments they get, along with using quality strings. You can end up buying a cheap violin from Amazon and needing to dump $200 to $300 into making it playable.

The rentals that you get at Potter's are typically "outfits" (violin + bow + case) worth approximately $1,000 if you were to purchase them on your own. Unless you're prepared to spend more than $1,000, you will generally receive something higher-quality by renting.

[Anonymous]

We also went with Potter and had an excellent experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Chuck Levin in Silver Spring

+1 Great store and reasonably priced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You end up spending more in rentals than buying. Buy a cheap one.

Not good advice. Better to rent a higher quality instrument with insurance. Potential for better sound and better outcome if kid has accident at school with instrument, also, easy to turn in if kid wants to switch

We've done both. Renting was a waste.

I wonder what you mean by that. It will always cost money to play an instrument. My teen has been playing for 11 years, and owns an expensive professional-level instrument and bow she cannot bring to her public school. We continue to rent a full-size instrument from Potter's, just like in the past when her small fractional size rental was her only instrument. She keeps the rental at school, and avoids traveling daily back and forth with an instrument. She uses her own instrument for her private lessons, youth orchestra, chamber music group and competitions. A lot of serious teen string players do this.