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Excerpted
from Strings
magazine, October,
2003, No. 113.
".......observers
also warn that China continues to be a source of some
terrible violins, particularly the low-price models sold
over the Internet. "When you get down to the $200
ones, there should be a law against selling those
things," complains Bill McClain of Atlanta Street
Violins in Roswell, Georgia. "They're just selling
objects, not real instruments."
He says
many of these cheap Chinese violins come with warped
fingerboards and poorly fitted bridges and sound posts.
"The
setup on them is so horrible that they're virtually
unplayable," concurs Richard Ward of Ifshin Violins
in Berkeley, California. "The bridges are not even
fitted, they're just thrown out there." Ifshin sells
its highly regarded Jay Haide line of stringed
instruments, which are handmade in Chinese workshops but
set up in the States.
Ward also
warns of Chinese instrument makers who cut corners during
construction by leaving out interior parts, or who use
painted white wood, which wears out quickly, instead of
ebony or rosewood for the fingerboard and pegs.
Consumers
must rely on retailers to steer them toward the better
instruments because of this variance in quality, the
difficulty of distinguishing between good and bad violins
by name, and the fact that most Chinese instruments are
made and priced for student players (or their parents) who
have no knowledge of what to look for in an instrument.
"You have to be sure you’re at a reputable shop
that knows what they're doing," Matt Zeller
recommends. "You get a lot of people on the Internet
who are really just selling trash."............. Mail
order instruments just don't give you the personalized
care and choice that dealing with a reputable shop
offers.
Read the full article at http://www.stringsmagazine.com/issues/Strings113/china.html
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Violins
