Hello, I'm writing from Costa Rica, here we have a program for young musicians partly sponsored by our goverment. In our town these program has a Youth Symphonic Orchestra, and my son plays the flute for them. Most of the kids come from poor rural families, so they usually ask me to help them about some "technical" issues. One of the kid's mother approached me and asked for help about buying a new violin for her kid (who, by the way, is very talented). The big deal here is that they are under a really limited budget, lets say about $300.00. I checked on the web, mostly on Amazon, and found some "bargains" from Del Sol, JinYin, Cecilio and Mendini that they can afford, but I don't know what to I tell her, since I declare myself absolutely ignorant when it comes to strings. The kid is now playing a Cremona violin owned by the orchestra and I don't think it would be right to buy him an inferior instrument. This is a very good cause, please help me, I really need you advise.
Please remember that our standars are lower than yours and the only comparison point is the Cremona vilin he's playing now.

Thank you very much

Marco

I would not buy from Amazon as they are a general store ( not a music special store). Here are some good violins, 3 of which I have tried.
I would only spend around 200$ to start with and then wait for about 1 1/2 to 2 years to make sure I am continuing my violin studies and have not stopped for what ever reason. Then possibly I can upgrade to a 300-500$ violin.

Buy violin online