Mendini by Cecilio 3/4 Violin Set For Beginners - Hand Carved Acoustic Violins Set - Fiddle Solidwood Kit with Hard Case, Two Bows, Tuner, Rosin, Shoulder Rest, Extra Strings, Lesson Book

This violin is fantastic for its cost. I will try to briefly touch on the important things. For background, this purchase was for my five year old son, who is just starting out. I am not a violinist, but have a lifelong history of playing various instruments and can play the violin a little bit.First, build quality. Like most production instruments, this violin is overbuilt. What that means is it is sturdy and can take a little bit of abuse. What that also means is it will not resonate as much as a high end or custom built instrument. For the target audience here, robust over sound projection is preferred. It is a beautiful instrument aesthetically with a good finish. Remember, kids drop things. A lot. These are for kids, so this build quality hits the target.Next, sound quality. It is loud and clear. Out of the box it has decent intonation. It projects a nice sound (when played correctly). An important thing to consider, it is a 1/4 size. ALL 1/4 size violins lack that full vibrant sound. I will not penalize it for being what it is and neither should you. As a comparison, my son started with a rental. MSRP on the rental was ten times the cost of this one. This one sounds better. The rental had very old, dull strings that needed replacement. Changing them probably would have helped tremendously, but that’s typical of how rentals come—beat up, abused and neglected. I feel like this instrument, being a 1/4 size, is aimed at the youth who would otherwise consider renting. This is better than renting. It’s paid for in about four months worth of a rental and sounds better than most rentals you will likely be issued.Finally, accessories. The case is nice. The bows are nice. The tuner is superb. It comes with extra strings, which I have not used, but I assume they are probably the same as what came installed, so likely perfectly adequate. The shoulder rest is complete trash. Don’t bother. File it in the trash can where it belongs along with the rosin that may not actually be rosin but resembles something more like plastic. It’s no big deal, pick up a good quality shoulder rest and rosin before you get started. The way I see it, for the price, those accessories were thrown in as a bonus anyway and the quality of the case, bows, and tuner are a great bonus. The instructional book looks good from thumbing through it, but we haven’t really gotten into it as my son has been playing the music issued to him by his teacher.I definitely recommend this violin. Just remember, 1/4 size violins sound like 1/4 size violins. We deal with them because our kids’ arms and hands are small. We take their limitations that result from that size decrease. If your kid shows any interest, this is a great way to start. My five year old has longer arms than most of his peers, so this is probably more for 6-8 year olds. Most 4-5 year olds probably fit a 1/8 size better, but do your research or have your child fitted to be sure.Hope this is helpful.

My MV400 has a really nice sound. It's my first violin so I can't compare, but I bet a violin that cost 10 times as much would only sound 5% better in my novice hands.I thought it might be too yellow, it is not. There are some cosmetic imperfections (black spots, some smearing of the pin striping on the edges, and a minor wood "soft" spot) in the finish, but my impression is that it was made to be a better instrument and got moved to a "less expensive" edition because of the imperfections. The result being a great sounding violin with some minor cosmetic issues. I could not/would not expect more for the price and it is a sweet starter violin.The case is really nice. One of the bows is really nice. While I'm sure there are better I'm not sure what more you could want from a bow. The second bow I am tinkering with (I have many guitars and am no stranger to instrument tinkering) but it seems to be made of good materials and just needs some fine tuning in order to adjust the tension smoothly/easily.I like the shoulder rest and will add a picture of my positioning of it. My research indicates that placement and usage of a shoulder rest is a personal preference. I only show a picture of my mounting for the guidance of other novices out there. Mess around with it and do what feels right to you.The fine tuners work well and the tuning pegs hold their position. I had to press the "E" in a bit to get it to hold, but that is just set up work and all the pegs are holding their tune. Speaking of which, the set-up was superb. The bridge was set and all strings were only 2 or 3 half steps (flat, or short of) off pitch. Being my first violin it was nice to be able to tune it and play it fairly quickly.Just some set-up notes: It took me forever to rosin the first bow...score it with an emery board first. Some on-line advice was not to touch the hairs on the bow, which makes sense. Oils from your skin would be counter productive. Something else I did was spit on the rosin. I'm sure someone will come back at me negatively about that, but the second bow rosined up in 30 seconds and 10 swipes, while the first took about 10 minutes and 500 swipes or more.My rosin was whole and unbroken.I like the lesson book so far...for technical issues, I go to YouTube.I won't comment on the tuner, I already have several and will keep that one boxed in case I ever need it.So, I will give the MV400 5 stars with one caveat - for the price.If you are curious, that is a ukulele String Swing mounted to my music stand. The shoulder rest keeps the violin from banging into the music stand, and putting the bow on the mounting screw keeps the bow from banging on the voilin. Sweet.