Here is my baby (don’t tell my kiddos I said that)

I purchased her in Oct 2018. She is a Rudolph Deutsch. My first one that I purchased was a Mendini MV 300. Do not thumb your nose. I put Tonica strings on her and she sings. It is not rich like Rudolph, Dini is hollow sounding, and eerie. I rewrote a cello song, Moon Over the Ruined Castle (A spooky sounding song)in treble clef and that song is very cool on Dini. I just don’t have it down pat yet. 

Dini was purchased not expecting much quality, I just wanted to see if I could hold and bow, and like it before spending more money. I could and did. I was so surprised after I put the Tonicas on. I still use her.

After finding a violin store 1 1/2 hours away, we went there. I tried some violins and ended out with one that was a little more money than we had figured on, but within budget. It was a Revelle XQ500 or QX500 (something like that). After playing Revie for a month, I decided I wanted a mellower sound, it came with new Dominant strings. We could trade in Revie for a violin of equal or greater value, so we went back before I had the opportunity to scratch. Any repairs for eesale would be deducted from tradein amount. I got full trade.

We tried more violins and upped our desired pricepoint. I love Rudolph. She came with Dominants and a Passione E. Love that E. Rudolph was a bit over what we planned, but she (guess I should be saying, “he”) is so worth it. They have a 3 month payment plan with no interest. Wow. I had thought I was going to get a Scott Cao. That is what I was intending by reading about it. I liked Rudolph better and could play Rudolph easier. They did not tell me which violins were which.

Both visits, I tried about 10 violins. Some were repeated for the second visit because the low end, price of the Revie trade, had more violins at the same price and the high price range from that first visit was inside the second visit. Rudolph, though, was not in the first go round, neither was the Scott Cao. They were both too much over my first price point.

Scott was within my second visit price point. Rudolph was over. The luthier apologized for the one I liked being slightly above my price limit, LOL. It was still within limits, or I would not have purchased it. Our high price point we went in with was lower than we could afford. We were prepared. We kind of figured we would need to spend more to get a good sounding violin, after the first visit. Revie was nice and I would recommend one, but not quite what I wanted. Rudolph feels so much better when I hold her, and sounded so much better with the Dominants. They all had Dominants. I so not think rhet out the Passione E on the Revie price range violins. If they did, it sure sounded better in Rudolph.

I also have a viola. I purchased it at that store a week after purchasing Revie. That is when we found out about the 3 month plan. We did that with the viola. She is all paid for and I love it. I think Rusolph is paid foe now, too.

Will switch to viola lessons after I smooth out the violin and then decide which one I want to take official lessons for and which one I want to do on my own, and get help when I need it. 

So that is my fiddle story, and I am sticking to it.