I have a violin that I absolutely am in love with, and adore his tone. I feel blessed to have a relationship with him, but today I realized just how lucky I was to have found him. Knowing what I realized today, I still would have chosen him, but that purchase would have been based more solidly.

This post is likely to become rather long winded, but the TLDR comes down to something much more simple. An instrument won’t allow or help me to play any better. The right instrument for me just won’t impede what I try to play.

EDIT: @Mouse had a good point, and I should have phrased that as “An instrument won’t make me a better player than I am.” — I put this edit in because he had some good points on health and ergonomics.

Looking back at my history of playing guitar, piano, and now violin, I realize just how true that is. It is a subtle and important distinction. And one that could have saved me so much money on guitars and amps, and luckily one that I luckily avoided spending thousands of more dollars buying my second violin rather than an endless series of upgrades and changes had I not found the right violin for me.

Well, to be honest, that only applies to acoustic violins, I have spent far too much on bows and electric violins that I would no have spent knowing what I know now considering this realization. I got really lucky with Snuffles.

This is my story. I will jump around in time a bit, since I will start with the violin, and go back in history on guitar and other instruments showing my revelation with my initial point here.

So, back in Dec 2019 I decided I wanted to learn how to play the violin, and I wanted to get a good violin to start with. After watching a number of videos and reviews, I decided to get a Fiddlerman Soloist, and that also led me to this forum. I played it for a couple of months, learning from videos and books, and then decided to take some lessons. Unfortunately by that time COVID hit, and after just two lessons with a local teacher, those stopped.

Shortly after that, my mother died. I dropped in to a state of pretty deep depression. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I did. I stopped playing music entirely, I didn’t play guitar or anything. For those that may remember my initial excitement and foray into here or elsewhere, that is what happened.

It was November 2023 when I finally realized where I was and tried to start coming out of it. Christmas season was coming, and I realized I needed to do something to make it through the holiday season. For some reason, violin was the instrument I wanted to pick up, even though it was the instrument I knew the least and I started learning Christmas songs on it, trying to bring myself out of my depression.

It helped, a lot. Even though the songs were simple, and I was not producing the sound I wanted, it helped. But I still ended up in the hospital with a second heart attack before Christmas. I think that is a good thing though, I still had a will to live. My grandfather, an uncle, and several cousins had died before they were 55 due to heart attacks. Not a great family health history, but at least I still had the will to live and seek help.

I wish they had that will as well, or maybe they did, but did not heed the warnings come from our family.

At any rate, what does this have to do with violin? For me, it has everything to do with it. After getting a couple of stents, I wanted to learn to play the violin with even more vigor. And I decided that if I was going to play, life was too short and if I was going to play, I wanted to play on the violin that was mine, and sounded like what I wanted it to sound like.

So while the Soloist was a good violin, and I was not anywhere near the point of exceeding it’s capabilities, I wanted something that would make me weep hearing the sound of it. And so me, an absolute beginner set a stupid high budget and went violin shopping.

This brings up another point, if you can afford it, there is no reason to buy a ‘beginner’ instrument. Get the best instrument you can afford. Also, I am not saying the Fiddlerman Soloist is a beginner instrument - I still have it an play it, it just not gravitate to the sound I was looking for at the time (more explanation on that later). I am not bagging on that violin at all - it is a fine violin and I love it and have no intentions of selling it.

But given my health, and family history, I wanted something that could give me what I was looking for *now*. Also, it’s not fair to compare a $1.5k violin with a $7.5k violin.

So, for those who followed my story on Snuffles, this is why I searched for a new violin.

And, at least for me, Snuffles is easy for me to get the sound I am looking for from a violin. I want to pick him up every day and play, and practice. And I am always inspired to hear just how much better he can sound.

My teacher loves his sound too, but also says Snuffles has a definite ‘personality’. There is no way he cannot sound like Snuffles. Which for me, is fine, because it happens to be the sound I am looking for. He will do other sounds, but I have to work for them.

Which is the point of this post. Lately I have been playing the Soloist again, and while a great sound, not the sound I am looking for. I have to really work for that on the Soloist. Maybe if I were a much better player, I could get there on it. Time will tell on that one.

But, again, it’s not so much that Snuffles gives me that tone and sound, it’s more like Snuffles fights me less to achieve it.

And on guitars, it took me going through dozens of guitars, and dozens of amps to get to the sound I was looking for on guitar. At this point, I have 30 guitars, 4 amps (and many more with the modeled guitar amps I have). And while I can get than sound on almost all of them, there are only a couple of guitars and a couple of amps I play all of the time because I get the sound I am looking for on them easily.

Also looking back when I bought my piano, I chose the one that produced the sound I wanted based on how I tickled the keys.

Thus, my epiphany.

My favorite instruments don’t make me play any better, they just interfere less with what I am looking for.

Just a little food for thought, and perhaps a different way to look for a new instrument. A subtle, but meaningful difference.

BTW - this is how I ended up with Snuffles - there was a second contender that was close in sound as well, it just came easier for me on Snuffles. I am glad I came to that at the time.