Early Music Venture:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d...006866&t=h&z=17

Euro Music (few lots next to CK Music)

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d...e=UTF8&t=h&z=18

i don't recommend chamber music for few reasons.

first reason being pretty obvious, prime area + shopping complex, they have to mark up the price a lot more to cover their maintenance and cost.

2nd reason, in regards of string instruments, they don't have knowledgeable person to take care the instruments they sell. so there might be hidden damages like humidity/soundpost/endpin that neither the sales person or customer (unless knowledgeable) will notice.

the rest being personal preferences, so no point to voice out here.

PS: i recommend early music venture and euro music simply because they specialize in string instruments, and have in house luthier (repairman) to take care the instruments. on top of that, they sell their stuff at reasonable price.

This post has been edited by little ice: Jun 12 2009, 08:40 PM

make sure the shoulder rest isn't tight, and it should leave a little space, but be careful that the shoulder rest might just slip off after years of usage, the rubber will eventually lost the grip.

actually, shoulder rest should provide the least damping to the violin body. think about it, how much space it take the shoulder rest to dampen the plate, compare to your shoulder? which part vibrate more, the center of the plate (where your shoulder touches), or the edge of the plate (shoulder rest clamps)? i did a test recently, turned out that without shoulder rest the sound dampen the most, and sound best with a shoulder rest that slightly loose where it doesn't add any weight to the plate.

some people claim that the body/bone of the shouder part will also help to resonate the violin, which i don't have much info regarding this.

regardless of the sound, use a shoulder rest if you have a long neck. as long as it doesn't squeeze the violin. it won't have much impact to the sound. i wouldn't trade sound for uncomfortable playing, it makes no point at all if you have a better voice but you can't sing well.

This post has been edited by little ice: Jun 13 2009, 09:59 PM

yes, many violinists play with shoulder rest, including world class famous violinists that play on Stradivarius with incredible skills.

try to fit it in the small pocket where you usually put your books there. or, buy a new case, it'll smarter than trying to force yourself to play on something you're not comfortable.

hi Nick Chan.

even if you have the tool, it's difficult to set it up and even more difficult to get it to the correct position. i've been there, done that. better bring it to experienced people to fix it. not sure about ppl in penang, perhaps you want to travel to KL.

just wondering if you happened to loosen all the strings at once?

regarding travelling to KL everytime to adjust soundpost, it's pretty uncommon to do so. once the soundpost is setup nicely, you don't want to move it anymore. to ensure soundpost in place, don't loosen all your strings at once while you're changing strings, and don't knock your violin or your violin case (when you have the violin inside) around or it'll knock the soundpost off. i haven't make any changes of my soundpost for long time since it's stable and the sound doesn't change.

i strongly advice you to travel down to KL once, have the soundpost setup, then ask around whether someone got sell the tool. even if you have the tool, please don't mess around with the violin that you play everyday - it's extremely difficult to get the soundpost back to original position (even for a well-trained luthier, unless you mark the place with pencil), especially talking about getting both upper and lower part of the soundpost fit perfectly and parallel to the plates.

if you seriously want to learn the hard way, make sure your violin is those entry level (RM300+-) to start with. 99% of the time, you probably need to make a significant damage to the treble side ff hole as well as possible damage to the top (over tighten = distorting the plate) before you have an idea of how to setup and adjust a soundpost nicely. if nobody is selling that tool in kl, you might want to order online.

you're welcome jess (jessica?).

alright, in your case, i'd probably just get the tool, and set the soundpost up until it's roughly in place, since they're student violins. if you don't know, when you look at entry level violins, most of them have funny soundpost setup, so it probably doesn't make much of a difference anyway.

anyway read through these websites to get an idea of how you should setup the soundpost.

http://www.violins.on.ca/luthier/soundpost.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_post

read his post:

http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?act=ST&f...post&p=17906307

and scroll to the bottom of the post.

congratulation!

i'm surprised that there're actually people selling this tool eh. cause normally people don't want sell cause they scare they know how to setup soundpost but people got tools can self practice so no business do liao.

anyway, if you've seen trained person do that, they also use a soft ruler to measure the soundpost position without look inside. however, to ensure the soundpost fit perfectly, they also use a dentist mirror to check the upper side of the soundpost, as well as a small LED torch with gooseneck so it can put inside the violin and you can see everything clearly. perhaps the student violin doesn't need such detailed adjustment, but maybe you can practice for yourself so you can charge for a fee to help people do.

read through previous page (pg 53)...

pm'ed you.

good question. but a better question would be "who will actually look into garage sales for pro violins?".

there're various sources, but since they brought it into malaysia, you will not able to get the price you see on ebay or online shops in western countries.

how much budget are you actually looking into? to me, pro violins are in the RM8,000~RM20,000 range. lower than that doesn't really cut it unless you're lucky.

i don't want to go through any local dealers, so i bought mine off ebay. RM20k, turned out to be a great violin that worth double of the price easily, but my pay off is to deal with great risk - violin damaged during shipping, conman, stolen parcel, etc. in order to get rid of the tax i actually insured my violin as a $100(!) violin, so anything goes wrong, there goes my RM20k. luckily, violin arrived safely and i'm enjoying every bit of it everyday.

last time, i shipped a RM4k violin and they charged me 10% based on the insured/declared value written on the shipping slip. so i guess, if it's more than certain amount, they'll charge you 10% for that, perhaps lower than RM1000 might not kena tax...

my violin arrived safe and sound, straight to my house without any tax charged. if not i'll be looking at RM2k for the tax and i'll need to go airport cargo there to collect, 45mins~1hour drive there, and same amount of time to come back.

99.9% of ebay violin that seems too good to be true, they're almost always too good to be true. maybe that 0.01% is a hidden gem, which you have to really look hard. manay many of them claimed italian labeled, old violin, are usually fake, imported from china, or some old mass produced violin with fake labels. some honest seller might sell it for reasonable price, but some will sell it at high price so it's consider a scam to me.

a pro violin, old or new, will have:

1. good respond to the player's bowing
2. easy to play, in terms of getting a good and clean sound without much effort.
3. clear sound, where you can hear the intonation very easily. you'll find how much it'll hurt your ear when you play out of tune on pro violin.
4. variety of tone colour, you can control the sound being strong, gentle, mellow, bright, with a change of the bow speed/pressure. with cheap violins, you can only do 1 kind of sound no matter how you cut it.
5. projection. this is actually a rare quality to be found on violin even on pro violins. and this particular word is commonly misunderstood as the sound being loud or piercing. a true projection is the sound will not lost its power through out the journey from the violin to the audiences. and apart from projection, it can be heard above other instruments when play together.

my violin shipped directly from USA.

basically, choosing a good violin:

1. you have to feel comfortable with the sound under your ear, but a good violin might sound totally out of imagination, so before jumping into conclusion, test the violin a longer time.
2. good violin will give you a feeling that you're sloppy at first, because it has so much to offer - tone color, dynamic, respond. just like suddenly ask you to drive a ferarri, you know it's a good car, but do you think you can feel comfortable at first? just like point no.1, give it more time to know the violin more.
3. ask somebody to hear you play, and listen at a distance. best, test them in a concert hall, at least at somewhere with a good acoustic with big space. violin almost always sound different in a distance.
4. you'll be surprised if a violin sound good at distance, but literally disappeared when played with just a piano. so test with at least a piano.

of course, the first thing you'll need to be comfortable with the violin, the way it respond to your bowing, as well as the sound under the ear. it will never make any sense if you don't like the sound you hear all the time, although you know people are hearing beautiful sound. although some people prefer that way.

as for the price tag, it's always a hit and miss. some people get a great deal with much less money, some spent a lot end up finding it doesn't do well for the player in the end.

of course, shipping such a big instrument is extremely risky. even from europe to US, i've read blog somewhere that the neck of the cello broke. it was a USD$8000 cello.

to answer your question:
1. bridge definitely have difference in quality. but not by so much that it can change the sound completely. to me, a good quality bridge = good fitted bridge.

2. none. sound post should be up at all time, unless repair is needed, or in need of a new sound post. if you're not playing your instrument for a long time, loosen the strings, but still hold the bridge in place.

anything can happen, especially those idiots don't handle them with care regardless of the broken glass (fragile) sticker on it. even if it's in a hard case, things can happen too, because the cello/case is pretty heavy, so if there's ny impack, internally there might be some bump, perhaps the strings also on tension too, hence it helps to break the neck.


actually, the reason behind not buying from ebay is simply the risk of scam. the rest pretty much applied for other online shops - you can't try the instrument so there's risk that you don't like the instrument and need to be returned. so imagine the shipping $400x2, you get the idea.

i've bought 4 violins from ebay, all turned out fine and as described. do i like them? some yes, some no, but i sold those i don't like locally for roughly the same price.


and that's exactly the reason why i don't insure my violin. insurans definitely will cover the lost, but custom will also tax based on the insurans as you need to declare the value.

actually, even the china people themself, including those world class players, will tell you that china violin is good but only up to RM10k~RM15k range, which roughly equal to those european violins that priced around RM20k~RM30k. They'll prefer something else when it comes to those top notch professional violin, old or new.

i recommend euro music. their price is usually reasonable, and those instruments are under well care from the shop owner and his staffs.

the problem with local shop is, you don't get a lot of choices. moreover, local price tags are higher than any of the price you'll see on US/Europe shops/online shops. so just shop accordingly loh.

i'd say, with airasia, travel to china and shop there doesn't seems to be that expensive anymore, if you're looking at very good quality violins at RM5k~RM10k range. definitely worth the trip.

This post has been edited by little ice: Aug 4 2009, 11:59 AM

not sure, but the onwer calvin is more experienced.

didn't know about that, always thought he's the owner haha...