I just bought my first violin at a pond shop for $120. I'm trying to find out if I did alright. The inside of the violin just has C. Becker and that is all. Any ideas?

violins like that tend to go out of tune alot, especially if you buy it at a pond shop. You should probally look into a student violin at a near by music store. They run from 200-900 dollars. But they are pretty good quality. Especially if you pay more. Sometimes you luck out at pond shops, but rarely.

Good ingenuity on your part. A pawn shop can be a source of great treasure or - quite often - just junk. I think the price you paid will only be determined as good, bad, or ok based upon the sound that you get out of it. Make sure the sound post is set correctly and a good set of strings are on it. If it sounds good, that's great. If not too good, then donate it to the local school orchestra program.