Our daughter has hinted about wanting to learn to play the violin, so we thought that this would be a good way to get her started before taking orchestra in school, and on sale for a bargain. Unfortunately the quality was not what we hoped for. The bridge did not come installed as the directions indicated it would be. The tuning pegs did not hold any tension and would immediately back off, and the G-string (thickest of the 4) broke when attempting to tune. There were minor scuffs and dings on the chin piece and body, and the horsehair on the bow was slack. For the price I was not expecting high quality materials, but I actually wonder whether the stands and case cost more to produce that the actual instrument. There were almost no instructions, so we probably made a bonehead mistake trying to set this up. A setup video would be GREAT.

I'm sure it's a great value, comes with a lot of accessories, but maybe not the right product for brand new beginners without a little guidance. I bet any middle school music teacher would do well with a half dozen of these in their backroom as a commodity learner's instrument, but for parents who have never held a bow and stringed instrument in our lives, this wasn't the best choice. Requested an RMA...

It's beautiful, I bought it for my kid's beginners violin class. The teacher said that the strings are made of steel and when she plays with a bow it's hard to hear the sound when played,

Very nice instrument for the price. The accessories alone are almost worth the money. Nice looking instrument that stays in tune fairly well. Instructions are minimal but you can do a few Google searches to see how to rosin the bow and tune the instrument.

When my daughter first used her rental violin, I was very impressed with the sound compared to the one she had borrowed from her school. For the price of four months’ rental, though, I thought it was worth a shot to buy one from Monoprice. The rental sounds better in subtle ways that could be explained by the difference in strings, the fact that the other violin had been broken-in or other factors. The rental has a slightly richer tone, and a more rounded low-end. My older daughter, who plays pretty well, says that the rental violin has a somewhat better feel to it, but that she likes the Monoprice violin too. If we had switched from the school violin to the Monoprice, I’d want to give the Monoprice ten stars. Given the fact that the rental is at least a $500 violin, the Monoprice is an absolute keeper and a steal.