CremonaSV-150 Premier Student Violin Outfit - 3/4 Size

Bought this one for about $103 when I saw the 1/4 Cremona SV-130 was at around $135. Thought I got a good deal. But a bit disappointed when received it. First of all the chinrest is not as shown in the only item picture at Amazon.com. It is a smaller piece that is attached to the left side of the tailpiece, instead of on the top of the endpin (the so-called Guarneri). Therefore it does not cover the end of the tailpiece. An indication of overall lower quality and being cheap. The paint job and overall appearance of the body are also not impressive. The bow has fewer hairs than I would like to see. The rosin is a bit broken on the edge, like having been dropped on the ground by someone already. Tuning is harder than it should be, because the pegs are a bit slippery. I have to apply peg drops to make them work. However these are all not big issues, at least not enough for me to return the violin. The strings are decent. The initial sound is a bit scratchy, but not bad. So I decided to keep it. I will update with the sound quality of the violin after it breaks in.Update: The bow broke after several months of use, about 2/3 of the bow hair came out of the bow tip. Not surprising to me. It is a very weak bow to start with. The good thing is Amazon replaced the whole violin with a new one. I just realize that the case, although nicely made, has only one bow holder. Therefore I can't put in a back-up bow there. The case has another problem, there is no space for a shoulder rest inside, although it is bigger from outside than the previous 1/8 violin case. Therefore this case is not very practical.Further update: The sound of this new violin is slightly better than the one it replaces. The pegs hold the tunes better too. So is the paint and finish. For the initial price paid, I am happy with the replacement. I have added one more star to my original review.

I'm a new player, learning Violin.This is a great value for the price point. The case is well-built (although I wish there was a place to store the shoulder rest) and the sound is quite good.I plan on keeping this for at least the first year or so until my skills improve before upgrading to a higher tier, but for the price-point, this is a great, quality student violin!

I purchase the 2011 model which has boxwood fittings (pegs, tailpiece, chin rest, button) and ebony fingerboard, all fittings are fine to me -- pegs and tuners all turned smoothly. The bow is a LB-13 octagonal brazil wood with ebony frog and unbleached white horse tail, the bow is straight and usable. The case is a TravelLite TL-33 with hygrometer (durability is ok for me as I don't lug the case around that much and use it mostly as a dust cover). The bridge was easy to install, but takes patience as tightening the strings require re-positioning so the bridge stays perpendicular to the table. I recommend purposely positioning the bridge a bit closer to the tailpiece (say 1/16" to 1/8" from it's final position) that way when you need to make the bridge vertical just slide the feet of the bridge toward the neck instead of sliding the part that contacts the strings toward the tailpiece which can be hard to do as the string tension builds. Bridge seems to be properly cut and the action seems fine (at least from first position the string height feels good). The stock rosin is deep amber and hard: I couldn't get any rosin on the bow until I scratched the rosin which opened the rosin up and then it took a good 20 minutes just to rosin down all the slippery parts of the bow (yes, the rosin is that hard and the temperature was about 55 degrees F so that may be a factor) -- well 20 minutes of rosin a little and test play a little, not 20 minutes continuously grinding away like grating cheese. By test playing you help evenly spread the rosin powder on the bow and prevent over rosining. You'll know when you have enough rosin as the bow will have the right resistance without feeling gritty (too much) or slippery (too little). Bottome line: the stock rosin is usable in a pinch, but I bought a Bernardel rosin ($6) to replace the stock because I want a more consistent rosin. The stock strings are Anton Breton VNS-150 perlon: E sounds warm and bright but the A sounds hoarse and muted when fingered (a brighter A would be better to match the E), G and D are nothing remarkable. Unit seems promising and will probably sound even better with better strings. Overall very pleased with the quality for the price (I got an additional 15% off during Amazon's promotional). Good starter package for a student. The weight of the instrument is 1 pound and 2 ounces with chin rest (average for a factory made). I also bought a cheap copy of Kun's shoulder rest for under $7: Anton Breton VP-70K and a rubber Ultra Practice Mute $3. Also, I use a Korg TM-40 tuner/metronome ($23) to tune the violin and verify my intonation.UPDATE: I replaced the tailpiece with a wittner composite tailpiece. I want to have fine tuners on each string, yet have the correct after length. The G and A string sound better with the correct after length.UPDATE: I bought this instrument in 2011. Since then (It's 2015 now), the folks at Cremona has improved this student instrument by replacing the individual fine tuners with a composite tailpiece with fine tuners built-in. In my opinion, the composite tailpiece with built-in fine tuner is better for a student instrument because it allows each string to be fine tuned while keeping the correct after length for proper harmonics.

Bought this directly from Amazon (who has the best price for 1/4 size), was expecting it not set up. seemed decently packed, but one of the screw tuners had fallen out, found it in case and rescrewed it in. It is very easy to install the bridge yourself (youtube videos). Violin seems of very decent quality, good finishings, nothing looking rough, unfinished, or crude. Bow works well. It comes with a beautiful case with built-in hygrometer. I am waiting to see how the pegs and strings settle in and hold tune.I was considering buying a used instrument of higher quality from ebay or locally, but now that I have this I think this was the right choice. My six-year old who is very serious about starting violin will be so excited to have this bright shiny instrument with very nice finishings. Because it is widely marketed with a known retail price, it will be much easier to sell for about 1/2 price when my child outgrows it. No-name violin will have no value at all in the used market. Even the initial trial rental from a music store, which is usually heavily discounted, will not be as cheap.