First off I want to be clear I had to take a couple years away from playing violin due to troubles with my left shoulder so I'm playing catch up with everything,and I know I sound like I'm complaining sometime but I want to share information in hopes new people can learn from my mistakes or rather experiences.

When I first started learning to play I knew nothing about Fiddlerman I had bought a violin from Ebay all I can say is this instrument was way off and that was likely more the strings than the instrument I then found out about the Gliga violins and bought an intermediate model having heard the recordings the company had up on their web site.

I had latter found fiddlermans video's and found he had a store and ordered dominants for the Gliga and a set of of D'Addario Pro-Art'e strings for my first violin,but before the strings came I put that violin in a yard sale and was rid of it.

In March I purchased another violin from Ebay as a video project I figured it would be as bad if not worse but this back fired on me I ordered from someone I've never met with no other information but the usual promises and a few pictures turns out the seller was honest and actually set this violin up properly but I did have to repalce the strings they were coming unwound at the nut.

So I decided on the D'Addario Ascent'e strings for this one,these certainly mixed well with this violin they sound even better than in the Fiddlershop video's and sound more balanced in person than in the video this cheap $118.00 violin sounds absolutely alive with a vibrant projection that is not overly harsh even with them being new strings.

Now the D'Addario Pro-art'e strings were a huge mistake for the Gliga I mean this is something absolutely freakish its like there's been an invisible shield put in place on this thing to snuff out projection all together if I put a mute on this thing it would sound like an electric violin being played without any amplification.

I have read a lot of comments since purchasing this instrument about the dark nature of their sound and I certainly didn't do myself any favors by using strings formulated to project a darker tone such as the Pro-Art'e strings dohhh...