My Two Fiddles

Someone asked “How much is a high-quality violin?” on Quora. This is my answer:

After a few years with my $259 Chinese student model, I felt I was ready for an upgrade. I thought I’d spend $800 to $1,200 on a new instrument. My teacher told me to wait until I could afford $3,000 or up because the quality jump from $259 to $1,200 wouldn’t be enough to make it worth it. I ended up buying a 1986 Belgian-made fiddle for $3,200. I love it and still play it today. 

But here’s the rest of the story:

My $259 Chinese fiddle is still a great instrument. I’ve played it so much that it’s really well broken-in. As I started gigging professionally, I realized that not only did it serve me just as well, but I preferred to bring it to a lot of these outdoor events and smokey bars where I didn’t have to worry about it so much. It took a spill onstage in Florida once. The fingerboard popped off. I took it to my luthier and she fixed it, no problem. If that had been my Belgian, I would have died.

I can say that my Belgian fiddle has a sweeter sound, rich with complex overtones that carry well across the room. My Chinese fiddle is brash and loud (like me). I have my Belgian set up to be my “violin.” The action is higher, the bridge radius is rounder so I can isolate strings better, and I use medium tension synthetic gut strings.

My Chinese instrument is set up to be my “fiddle.” It’s got light tension steel-core strings, low action, and a flatter bridge which makes playing drones and double stops a breeze. My Belgian never comes out of my house. My Chinese is my workhorse that I travel with. I play mostly old-time, blues, jazz, and “cocktail” fiddle.

Below are some samples of my two violins:

This is my $259 Chinese workhorse:

And here is my $3,200 Belgian angel:

Hey, check out my latest novel!