16-Inch Solid Wood Viola Set for Beginners - Hand Carved Acoustic Viola Kit with Hard Case, Bow, Rosin, Bridge and Extra Strings (Natural Varnish)

Okay, this is a little premature, I got it today and haven't tuned it or brought it to my teacher for her to break it over my head, and I'm a total newbie, never played strings before besides guitar and... keyboard. No chance I could ever afford an "approved" one. The price is obviously unbelievable. However the case is hard and felted, and the construction is beautiful of wood, with plastic parts (neck guard). It's *very* lightweight. When I first saw it I thought it was too small to make Viola-bassey sounds and wondered if they sent me a violin by mistake. But I'm writing about the immediate construction and first *sound*, timber, functionality (playability) of the instrument. I somehow managed to rosin my first bow adequately (my orchestral roommate tightened it when he came home because I forgot to). I had watched YouTube videos and read the scant instructions which tell you to wait and let your instructor guide you in your first setup. I held it (I'll definitely need a shoulder brace), and tried the lowest open string... my eyes opened wide. I had never produced a tone on a concert stringed instrument before. It was BEAUTIFUL. And totally bassey. Sounded exactly as it should (correct tuned pitch aside). I was actually amazed. I played all the strings open one at a time, likewise. Absolutely lovely instrument with a beautiful and fully resonate, bassey sound. Just like the YouTube videos. I tried some fingerings; okay, that'll take practice and a developed reach. But clearly it would play. If there's a problem of tuning, not holding pitch or cracking, I'll update my review. But I wouldn't hesitate to purchase this instrument if you're worried if it sounds good enough, esp. for the price. I hope my instructor doesn't break it over my head, I love it and will be sad. My first 4/4 cello by the same maker and store is on the way! :) My seller feedback: Thrilled! Arrived early, unbroken, with hardcase and all accessories, and... plays! First time ever player, sounds wonderful! :) :) Thank you! Update: Ok it's two hours before my first lesson. Tried to tune, string broke and the tuners generally won't hold. I should have had it set up before lesson day. I'm going to see if she knows a trick with rosin or such to make tuners stick. Otherwise I'll have to wait for a setup and it'll set my lesson back and may make it unaffordable depending. I'm not in the market for a more expensive instrument at this time. The sound of the box is still terrific and bow and rosin work fine. 4 stars and we'll see. Update Update: My teacher took it walked around awhile while I was getting ready and handing it back to me said, "Why did you think it couldn't be tuned?!" :) I also got a shoulder rest and two packs of DiDarios. So back to Fine Instrument! :) but follow instructions and let your instructor do the setup the first time. You'll save a string. She understood it was inexpensive, knew the price, but had no problem working with it and is starting me on the Suzuki method :) I thought the tuners absolutely wouldn't hold, so see a pro before giving up!

I wish I could put 4.5 stars as I don't want to give the impression that this is a perfect instrumment, but it is quite nice for a $100 piece. The first one I ordered had a warped and cracked fingerboard and had to be sent back, but the second arrived in good shape. I've only had it for a day and I am by no means a good string player, but this viola seems to keep itself in tune fairly well and it also has decent tone. The fine tuners are not great, but function just fine. The case is almost as good as the case my fairly nice violin came with. I've heard in other reviews that the strings are poor and should be replaced quickly, but they aren't terrible and if you're a beginner like me, they'll do for awhile. I had to score the rosin with a pocket knife before it would apply to the bow, which I'm given to understand is common, but not ideal (still, it worked). This brings me to the bow. The bow is very poor. Both violas I recieved came with warped bows and I can tell a big difference when I play with my violin's bow. In short, this is a good instrumment with some fixable shortcomings. The construction and tone are good, and I'm very happy with this purchase.

Let me start by saying this viola pleasantly surprised me on quality and sound for such a cheap mass made product. I've been a violist for almost 30 years, my daughter plays the violin and has been interested in trying the viola, since I didn't want to let her have mine, we often practice at the same times I thought I'd see about something cheap to see if she would want to continue to pursue it before dumping a ton of money into another viola. My main viola is easily worth over a grand so I know what a good solid made viola is like. This viola is much lighter than a professional instrument, however the craftmanship is much better than I would have expected for how cheap this instrument was. The pegs are strong the fine tuners work well. It stayed tuned easily even without using peg grease. The sound, with the given bow is decent and fairly rich. That being said the bow is extremely low quality, and has about half as much hair as it should. When swapping to a better bow the sound was more fluid. Keep in mind a decent bow generally costs as much as this viola so personally I'm glad they put more quality into the instrument itself. Strings are cheap but yet again decent strings are going to run you as much as the price of this instrument so no big deal. I think this instrument is decent enough for a student that wants to find out if they are truly dedicated before spending money on something higher quality. If you invest in a better bow and some better strings to go with it it is actually fairly decent, especially considering the price is unbeatable.

My 5th grader decided to join Strings class at school this year. Rather than rent all the items for over $100 a month, we decided to just buy all the things she needed. The positives: The case is sturdy and inside is soft for the viola. There were extra strings included. Negatives: The rosin was completely dry and broken into pieces. The viola had to be tightened and tuned (as to be expected) but the biggest disappointment is that neither of the bridges are cut. We have to take it to an instrument repair shop to have them cut, which is going to cost more than the expense of the viola itself. And it takes multiple days to have done. If the seller had mentioned that the bridges would have to be finished, it would have helped make it decision. Now my daughter will not be able to participate in strings because it is taking too long to have a working instrument. Edited to add: I was able to find a local shop to help drill the bridge piece. (It was actually a quick fix at his shop.) Only to find out that the sound post had to be adjusted, the string posts and holes were not drilled correctly, and the strings all had to be replaced. (They were very cheap strings which would only give the screeching sound that you do not want to hear). We are now at a decent viola that can make a very pretty sound. But it was another $85 investment to get to this. It is still considered a "practice" instrument. If I had time to get a new one, I would have just returned this. But I was VERY short on time so we just sunk more money in it to make it workable.

I wasn’t sure about getting this viola because its price was so inexpensive. However, I am very impressed! I used to play viola years ago and wanted to get back to playing it. I purchased the 16 inch viola. It isn’t a high end instrument but it looks and feels good. It also has a much better than expected sound. The strings are easy to tune and very responsive to the touch. The bow is mediocre. It takes a bit of work to get it to the right tension, but once that tension is achieved, it stays throughout the practice session. Eventually I plan to upgrade to a carbon fiber bow later. The Cecilio rosin is good enough for someone who is beginning or returning to the viola, like myself, after many years of not playing. For the first few times, used a flat, cardboard type nail file to scratch the surface of the rosin to get to the point where it would stick to the bow. Of course this can be normal with new rosins and bows. The look and finish of the viola is better than expected! (I got the antique finish). I am very happy with my purchase.

Well, here is an honest review of this product. Our 11 year old daughter started playing the Viola this year and she really enjoys it, so we thought that it would be great to get our 7 year old son a low-cost Viola that he can use to pick up some basics from our daughter as she continues to learn. We ordered the 12 inch Mendini MA250 and did not intend to spend a lot of money since we know that he will likely grow out of it in a year or so. The pros: - the cost is good and makes it less painful if he quickly grows out of it. - the case is nice The cons: - The bow is bent to the side. We have been told that if the hair on the bow is too tight for too long, it will cause the wood to naturally bend to the side. While this is not a show stopper for a 7 year old just learning, it is disappointing. - the fine tuner for the C string does not like to stay in place so that if tightened, it pushes down on the lever to fine-tune the C string. For some reason, it continually slips off the little plastic lever (not sure what the lever is called). I have been given the opportunity to get have many chances to help tune my daughter's Viola which is made by a different manufacturer and have not had that problem with hers. I am not going to go through the hassle of returning the Viola because of the issues mentioned above, but if we intended to continue to pass this down to several kids through the years we would return it just to make sure we had one that had less issues. Other than that, if you are looking for a low cost Viola for a starter Viola, this is a good deal. If you are a really small person that can use a 12 inch Viola or have a small child that is a Viola prodigy and intend to use this Viola for professional performances, look at spending a bit more money.

Let me preface this review by saying, this is written after a frustrating and enlightening few hours tuning my new instrument, on the same day I received it. Was ironically heading out the door when it was delivered. I purchased the purple finished viola. Visually, looks great. Not much different from the viola I had in elementary & middle school. Aside from being purple, if you're unsure about color options, you'll fit right in with one of the wood vanish colors. I haven't played much since I dropped the viola. [idiom] Saw this was on sale, I have amazon prime so the price was probably better than what non prime members pay. For under 100 bucks I was pretty enticed, so I went ahead and bought one. A non-musically trained person might take one look at the bow and decide that the piece is crap. Yes and no. This is not as high quality as a 500 - 1000 or so instrument. There can be no debating that. But even with a high end instrument, (especially if it is shipped) your bow WILL have some loose hairs. Just cut them back at the tips carefully, this is normal. Not an indication of defect or poor quality. That said, as far as my semi-amateur eyes can tell, this is just as good. And it's great for beginners, BECAUSE BEGINNERS TEND TO WRECK THEIR INSTRUMENT IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. Not true of everyone, but a slightly lower tier instrument is in my opinion a better investment especially for beginners. If it gets destroyed, or it's used for 2 years and abandoned. That's several hundred dollars "saved." As far as the tuning. I'VE NOTICED A LOT OF NEGATIVE REVIEWS. Mostly around the change of seasons. I'm assuming most of these reviews come from north america. Thing is, when the humidity changes, (it gets cold outside and thus people run their heaters) it changes the moisture levels of the wood in the instrument. It is entirely possible that some people received an instrument that didn't meet quality standards for one reason or another... But this seems unlikely, given the volume of negative reviews. It seems that these people didn't know how or had little patience in tuning their instrument. I spent at leas 2 hours tuning mine, not even fine tuning pray mind. Towards the end I was getting frustrated, and was tempted to call the piece crap and send it back. Bit more time and research led to better awareness and a nearly perfect pitch. Based on my impressions, I'd recommend this to any beginner or aspiring musician. It's a very solid entry level instrument, but tuning and care lead this to be a FINE ART. Something most people seem not to have patience for. I'll update this review in a few months should any of my feelings change significantly, else some material defect becomes apparent. I WOULD RECOMMEND however, a bit of time spent on YouTube and the internet researching the instrument. This is NOT A TOY and should respected. Like I said, string instruments are a fine art, the internet has lifetimes of experience and free information. Use it. Learn. Grow.

I am not a violist, but I have been playing the violin for about 7 years. `1.) This viola came on time in perfect condition. It is a beautiful instrument, and it is the correct size. Not a restrained violin as some of the other reviews suggest. The bridge was already on the instrument as well. It came with an extra bridge, but the second one is uncut. As in it does not have the notches. I don't know if the one on the instrument is that way, but it is in the perfect location and standing up properly. 2.) The bow isn't the best obviously, but it isn't that bad. It came with a few broken hairs due to the way it was incorrectly put in the case before transit. Other than that, it is really not that bad. I have used both the crappy bows from Amazon, and a $300 bow my teacher had to go to a special convention to buy from a special maker from South America. It has one area where it is missing hair, but it holds the rosin pretty okay. Speaking of which, I don't use the rosin provided. I just use the dark rosin I already own from my violin, and it sounds great. 3.) The strings are fine. I use pretty high quality ones for my violin, and have terrible quality ones for my cello. these sounds fine. I was amazed at the beautiful sounding C string, and the beautifully mellow G through A strings. Much prettier than the violin in my opinion. 4.) In regards to tuning, I have been doing it with yours on the violin. First time with this viola took 5-10 minutes just as the manual that comes with it suggests. Other than that, it hasn't gone out of tune. It gradually gets flat day to day, but nothing the fine tuners can't handle. 5.) The case is okay. It is really simple, but does its job. I really like the blue color. Note: iT WILL NOT HOLD A SHOULDER REST DO NOTE HOWEVER: This instrument does not come with a shoulder rest, so you will need to purchase one. The cheapest I have seen on Amazon was about $15, while the music store had one for the same price. Buy it from the music store, as the quality is much better. All in all, this is a beautiful instrument for an amazing price. I am very happy with my purchase, and enjoy playing it even more than my violin.