Choosing the Right Fiddle For Beginners
When looking to buy your first fiddle, it's important to note that "fiddle" is a colloquial term for the violin, so when shopping at a music store, or searching online, you can use both terms and you'll end up with the same instrument.
How Much Should I Spend?
For a solid beginner fiddle, you don't want to spend much less than $200. You can find cheap fiddle set-ups for less than that, but they will have terrible tone, and be frustrating to play. While $200 is still considered a "student violin" it is an excellent choice for students unsure if they will stick with the instrument and just want to try it out, or for young children who change sizes quickly.
For a fiddler who is older, and has a more discerning ear, we'd recommend starting with a $300 fiddle.
(To put this price in context, if you were to buy an adult size 4/4 fiddle you will keep for life you'd want to purchase something like our instructors fiddles, costing between $1,500 and $4,000.)
What Size Should I Buy?
Picking the right size of fiddle is simple! Just measure from the base of your neck out to the middle of your left-hand palm. This chart will help determine the best fiddle size for you!
Best Beginner Fiddle Recommendations
Our favorite beginner fiddles have come from local violin shops. Going in-person can be a great way to hear tone, get measured, and pick the right fiddle for you. Ray's in Olympia, WA, has served our family for years.
However, if you aren't a Washington local, and don't have a music store you trust nearby, The Tower Strings Entertainer Violin is a fantastic set up for beginners!
Tower Strings Entertainer Violin - For Young Children
All Fiddleshop violins are set up and played by a luthier before being sold, so your fiddle will hardly need to be tuned when it arrives! This is a huge plus, and not something you will get when shopping for a fiddle from a giant online store.
Bonus: These fiddles come as an outfit with the case, bow, rosin, tuner, shoulder rest, cleaning cloth, mute, and beginner’s guide. Everything you need to begin playing the day it arrives!
Tower Strings Rockstar Violin - For Older Students
Again, ready to play right out of the box, and has been inspected by a professional luthier.
Great tone, no cheap orange finish, and excellent customer service. At Fiddlershop, the more you spend, the more fiddle you get, and the Tower strings Legend is also a fantastic option if you are willing to spend a little more.
Looking to Save Money?
Check for Fiddlershop discounted B stock violins. They are perfectly playable with small cosmetic defects.
What Fiddle Brands NOT To Buy
There are a lot. The problem with these brands, is that regardless of how much your children (or you!) practice, they will NEVER sound good. This is demoralizing to the student, who will quickly tire of scratchy, pitchy, tone, and hitting the wrong strings due to poor engineering.
Mendini
Cecilo
Eastar
Lagrima
JMFinger
Aliyese
Amazon Basics
Sky
Vangoa
Amdini
To name a few. Rather than search Amazon or cheap Mega Store models that blogs recommend to earn affiliates, you're better off going to a trusted online store like fiddleshop.com where you can read honest reviews, and receive helpful customer service.
When $200 is Too Big of A Commitment
If you aren't confident spending $200+ on your beginning fiddle player, siblings that are similar sizes can share an instrument. In fact, we did that for a couple months in our own home. Another option is calling around to your local music stores and seeing if they offer violin rentals!
These can be great ways to dip your toes into the fiddle scene, but we recommend getting each student their own instrument as soon as possible. There is so much joy in playing together!