Best starter violin

JonathanAnon

Hi lads,

I have a cheap violin, but the tuning pegs arent great on it.. I end up just leaving it down and not picking it up again for ages, cos it just annoys me.. What's the best bang for the buck violin in the 200 euro range..

Is there any really good all round starter violin, much in the same way that you would have a Yamaha Pacifica 112 for starting guitarists.. ?

thanks,

JustAThought

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Hi lads,

I have a cheap violin, but the tuning pegs arent great on it.. I end up just leaving it down and not picking it up again for ages, cos it just annoys me.. What's the best bang for the buck violin in the 200 euro range..

Is there any really good all round starter violin, much in the same way that you would have a Yamaha Pacifica 112 for starting guitarists.. ?

thanks,

Hi! Just spotted your post ; I'm half sure you re sorted by now; but of not have you tried creehans / creegans in Glasnevin up in Dublin? They have second hand violins and for e200 you should get quite a nice second hand one wih bow... Don't waste money in the case; keep the one you have. They re quite good on letting you browse for hours and try them out etc...
Best of luck : )

eoin5

Whats wrong with the tuning pegs? Are they slipping?

JustAThought

eoin5 wrote: »

Whats wrong with the tuning pegs? Are they slipping?

New instruments can have iffy pegs; apparently ; thou I wasn't exactly happy to have had this problem. Try loosening the string of the iffy peg, take the peg out and coat it with dusty chalk and put it back in again and retune. Should stop the problem. If I'd spotted this 2 months ago I'd have said bring it back and complain but it's probably a bit late for that now!!! If that dosnt work; bring it back & complain !!!

JonathanAnon

Havent bought a new violin yet.. After another string break, I put it down for a while.. Having put a new string on it I'm reassessing things.. I dont think I'm good enough to even consider upgrading..

I actually took a hammer to one of the pegs, having spent about two hours trying to get it to stay in tune.. That did work .. however I hear it's not recommended it..

eoin5

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Havent bought a new violin yet.. After another string break, I put it down for a while.. Having put a new string on it I'm reassessing things.. I dont think I'm good enough to even consider upgrading..

I actually took a hammer to one of the pegs, having spent about two hours trying to get it to stay in tune.. That did work .. however I hear it's not recommended it..

Heh, well as JustAThought said some chalk should do the trick so no need for the hammer!

Owen

Does your bridge have fine tuners? If not, and if you're not used to tuning pegs, you should get a set. Failing that, get the bridge setup properly, a lot of entry level violins have atrocious bridge placement/string channels cut into the bridge.

JonathanAnon

eoin5 wrote: »

Heh, well as JustAThought said some chalk should do the trick so no need for the hammer!

okay, I'll hit the tuning peg with a piece of chalk instead of a hammer the next time.. . what do you do with the chalk, just put some around the peg?

Owen wrote: »

Does your bridge have fine tuners? If not, and if you're not used to tuning pegs, you should get a set.

The violin has fine tuners.. the problem is specifically with getting the plastic tuning pegs to hold in the wood.. Once I get them to hold, there is no issue with the fine tuners..

eoin5

JonathanAnon wrote: »

okay, I'll hit the tuning peg with a piece of chalk instead of a hammer the next time.. . what do you do with the chalk, just put some around the peg?

Yea, just take the peg out, give it a wipe (they can be a bit greasy), run some chalk mainly around where the peg makes contact with the violin and away you go. Do it one string at a time to avoid other problems.

JonathanAnon

I'll give it a shot Eoin. They do seem a bit greasy when I'm pushing them in.. tbh, I dont understand why they dont have a similar system to guitars.... i.e. metal tuning pegs fastened to the wood

eoin5

JonathanAnon wrote: »

I'll give it a shot Eoin. They do seem a bit greasy when I'm pushing them in.. tbh, I dont understand why they dont have a similar system to guitars.... i.e. metal tuning pegs fastened to the wood

Id say its got to do with the tone. Everything on the violin is held together by tension. Anyhoo give it a shot and let us know how you get on.

donzenettii

All Violin pegs slip from time to time, there is a paste you can buy from Creehans/Charlie Byrnes/Waltons or any good music shop that will stop them from slipping, all you do in to loosen the peg a bit, pull it out slightly and dab a bit on the pegs, should you have used too much there is also a paste you can use in the same manner to free a stuck peg.
Cheap violins in Waltons run around the hundred euro, Creehans are wonderful and will advise you well, Charlie Byrnes will also advise you well but Charlie tends to run to the more expensive instruments. If you are buying strings try a set of Spiracore Pink they are great for beginners and not too expensive. Most beginner violins come with fine tuners attached and its best to try tune if from there and not from the pegs if at all possible. Also buy yourself a tuner, any tuner should do once you can set it to 440mhz, each string, E,A,D,G will show up as either sharp, flat or usually show green when in tune, this should save you from breaking strings. Hope this is of some help.