My daughter is ready to advance to a 3/4 size violin, and because of her abilities and performance (including soloing) needs, her teacher would like a more intermediate level instrument. We have searched local shops to our dismay. We are considering a Gliga Gama Professional, but have also seen the new Primo series violins (www.primoviolins.com) and wondered if anyone knew anything about them or if anyone had any thoughts about them. We can only get a 3/4 size in the Kinder series. We were impressed by the website, but didn`t know how much of that is hype. Any opinions or suggestions for us? Thanks!!

I haven`t seen the Primo series, but comments like "it`s all in the wood" which is their trademark are indeed hype.

I expect you can guess my recommendation

liz

Liz,
Yes, while I am brand new to this forum, I have read enough to know that you are something of a Gliga guru. Did you look at their website? (Primo`s, I mean) What else did you think? We are wanting to buy a Lexus for a Yugo price, I realize. The idea behind this is that she is ten years old and in a few years will need full size, and I want to go all out for that, so the more I save now.... see? But I don`t want to sacrifice quality for my less than $1,000 bucks. She is a reigning state queen and a major theatre violinist/performer in addition to other performance "stuff" so performing in those venues requires more. Have you tried or sold other 3/4 besides Gliga that you suggest we consider? Thanks so much for all your help.

Yes I have looked at the Primo site. I just haven`t seen one. My GUESS is that they are typical midrange Chinese violins, and i have seen Chinese violins from four different makers all of which have the same basic characteristics: the violins play nicely and are very loud but whatever strings you put on them you can`t get the warmth of tome that i like. They`re all rather similar to modern german violins, loud and rather bright (to my ears), even harsh with certain strings.

It may be that Primo are different of course, i have no way of knowing (short of investing in one!) We did apply to Jinyin (the company who makes them) to become dealers but basically you can`t get through the system, there`s a UK distributor who doesn`t really seem to exist (is uncontactable) and therefore the only source is the US. that means working round the territory problem and some people in Scotland have managed it but we haven`t (and to be honest after a couple of tries we gave up).

There`s no others we`ve tried apart from our German brand, Otto Klier, and they are beautifully made but very similar in tone to the Chinese ones in my opinion. We are expecting a delivery of Strunals (Czech republic) any day and i`ll happily report back on those.

For my money it would be a Gama (not a maestro: the difference is in volume rather than tone quality) and spend the rest of your $1000 on a good bow and a set of the loudest strings you can find. Zyex don`t come in 3/4 but the slight cutting down involved wouldn`t make much of a difference so they would be my choice, assuming your daughter is happy tuning on the pegs alone. The difference in volume over Obligatos and richness of tone on my maestro viola was really astounding. The section leader and i swapped instruments for a while this week, his was over £3000, and i thought "yuck!", not only was it not even across the strings but it was SO harsh, all it had going for it was volume, but then he uses dominant strings. I like my three month old Gliga better than my own 1978 Schnabl too (and that was £1200, used, back in 1984)

But then tastes vary of course.

If you get a Gliga from Cristian you have a 7 day trial period anyway. And no, he doesn`t pay me a commission )

liz

Liz, thanks a ton for all your help. If you have the time, I have more questions, actually for anyone who will be kind enough to help me out! The standard here, the ONLY strings to "have" are the Dominants. That`s the big deal, to go "upgrade" to Dominants. I was wondering if you had a recommendation for a better string for my daughter`s current chinese violin that might give better sound, perhaps a little more projection even? Compared to others, I think her violin sounds wimpy, although I realize some of it is the size difference (her 1/2 to others 4/4) Also, I`ve included a link to the Gama outfit we are looking at and wondered if you would recommend any upgrades for it, like the Pernambuco bow? This kit as you see is quite a bit less than the Maestro and very affordable, even with the bow upgrade, which I can`t tell if it`s SO much better than the rosewood bow included. Any thoughts?

http://www.gligaviolins.com/OutfitIn.php?I=5147&B=V034SMOP1&C=V034CHBurgundyBlack

Hi again,

Chinese violins are about the loudest you can get, and if they`re not loud enough for you, I honestly don`t know where you`d go from there. What make and model does your daughter now have?

In my experience there are many strings that do better on Chinese violins than Dominants: Pirastro Synoxa, Helicore and Corelli Crystal are some that i`ve tried that seem to work well: current favourite is helicore.

I like the Gliga pernambuco bow, but I like the Glasser advanced composite better. Gliga don`t offer one that they describe as "rosewood" though they do offer one called "massaranduba" which i assume is what is meant here. I find the massaranduba bows to be very variable and we have ceased stocking them. Some were almost as good as pernambuco and some were not very special at all.

I wouldn`t buy from this site though: Cristian`s ebay prices are usually lower.

Liz

I read on another site a comment about Dominant strings which might be interesting. They tend to give a good all round performance, and rarely sound bad, so if you`re not happy with the current sound of your strings, they will improve it - but they may not get the best sound out of your particular violin. Trying out some of the more expensive strings may give a much better tone yet.

Thanks everyone for your help. Her violin now has dominants, but still her teacher has complained about the poor tone and volume of the current instrument. I am going to try the Corelli strings because they are available here, and none of the others you mentioned are. I would have to order the others, and since we`re buying a new one, I don`t really care all THAT much. She has a Palatino I think some model with 750? She`s gone for the weekend with it so I couldn`t look. I looked on Ebay for gliga violins and found nothing with a complete outfit, and only one 3/4 size at all. Do you have this person Cristan`s contact/user info and would he get something if I request? I really do want the complete outfit to save running around purchasing pieces, and the website I linked had that. Thanks again!

Hey Liz, something I just came across in a recent email. Is this Cristian you speak of also known as Chris of ViolinsLover? I sent him an email previously about whether he had this violin in an 3/4 outfit and he replied with the link to the gligaviolins.com as his website, the one you responded to by saying I could probably buy it cheaper from Cristian on Ebay. So is this his new website for direct purchase, the same guy you talk about? If that`s him, then I will go ahead and buy from the website rather than Ebay (has only one 3/4 available on Ebay, no gamas, no outfits), but I still wasn`t sure what your bow recommendation was.

Hi, I haven`t seen a palatino but in my experience so far (violins from five different Chinese sources) there isn`t a lot to choose between them and I will be very surprised indeed if the violin your daughter has now is any better than what i have seen at that sort of price. In which case Gliga is in a totally different league.

Yes that`s the same Cristian. He`s Vasile Gliga`s son and a luthier in his own right.

Liz

ps. I wouldn`t recommend Corelli Crystals on a Gliga. Stick with the dominants it comes with and go from there.

liz