I?m not a violin player?..until now.
Wow this is a good instrument, plus all the extras,
for a low price.

It is a ok product. The fine tuner is very tight on some of the string and one of them is already not functioning after few weeks of tuning. For the price, it is a ok product. You get what you pay for.

I never even held a violin until this one, so I am probably not qualified to comment on it, but it seems to work properly and produces a nice rich tone when I'm not screeching away on it. It was inexpensive enough that I'm not afraid of it and it seems to be built with a beginner or student in mind. Once I achieve complete mastery of it (probably several weeks), I will update my review.

We got this for my son's beginner music class. We were not expecting a decent violin for this price range, but we are pleasantly surprised by the quality, sound and the overall value. Recommended for beginners.

Looks better than expected. Of course, bridge requires setting and fitting to the top. If you are not familiar with that procedure, best let someone who is do it for you. Violin has a bright full tone after setup.

This violin looks and sounds great. Great deal.

Quality of the violin was great for the money. The strings it came with were not so good, two of them snapped while tuning.
Overall good buy

Having played violin for the past 36 years, I can say that this violin has quite a nice tone, and makes a fine choice as a beginning violin. This one will most likely go to my son when he needs a 4/4 instrument.

The wooden tailpiece with four real fine tuners is an upgrade from most violins in this price range. It improves both the look and tone of the instrument.

The bridge seems to have been fit well--by which I mean the curve on the top of the bridge is appropriate for the instrument. You will need to set the bridge in the proper place, but there are reasonably good instructions for how to do so included in the package.

That said there are some things to know:

The tuning pegs are not fully set up. Though they are functional as they arrive (assuming you know the proper technique for tuning a violin w/ tuning pegs), they should emerge slightly from the opposite side of the peg box as opposed to being slightly inset. Not worth paying someone to fix it, as it would likely cost more than you paid for the violin, but if you know what you're doing, probably worth it to do yourself for better aesthetics and hold. (I recommend using a peg shaver as opposed to a tapered reamer, should you try it, as it is easier to replace pegs if you screw it up than it is to fix a mistake in the pegbox)

The bow is not particularly good. Its weight and balance are actually OK (many cheap wooden bows are way too light), but, at least on the one that I got, the camber (bend) is terrible (way too shallow). Get yourself a $25 carbon fiber bow straight from China--they're consistently pretty good--way better than cheap wooden bows.

Note: the above problems are minor, and you will not find another violin in this price range that does not have the same issues. Many violins in this price range (from other sellers) have many more issues; quality from other sellers varies wildly.

tl;dr; Nice tone, great price, invest in a better (still cheap) bow.

It is great for the price point.

This is a great deal. I am very surprised at the quality of the instrument I received for less than sixty bucks, shipped.

I originally thought this would be a cheap toy something to test my interest, and then make into an art project after losing interest or buying better. But it's much better quality than I expected.

When one of my strings broke, my son brought it in to his school orchestra class where they repair student instruments and the teacher who replaced the string mentioned what a nice violin it was.

The parts and materials used in construction are far better quality than I thought I would get for this price.

The strings are basic student-grade, as expected.

The music and violin stands shipped with this would cost $20 sold separately, so I didn't feel much risk in buying this.

If I saw and heard this in a music store, I would've paid one fifty or more for this package.

I am very happy, and hope Monoprice starts selling violas, cellos and bass!