We bought a WWII era violin. The brand is not considered high end. I liked the history behind the US company that made it, and I liked the looks of the violin. It was being sold for $20 and was within driving distance of where we live. It was left to the seller by his uncle. The seller plays guitar and knows nothing about violins.

The Violin is lovely. It was obviously lovingly used. It has a couple old cracks that did not go all the way through the wood. They look superficial, although maybe repaired by a good luthier. They are very stable and are hard to spot. Adds character, as far as I am concerned.

To me it was worth more than the $20, so I gave the seller $40 for it. We did not need the hard case. We left that and he is going to donate it to the local school. They have an orchestra and some student might like it to transport her or his violin around, instead of using a soft case on the bus.

When we got the violin home, we cleaned it up and it was even more beautiful. I was putting a set of Fiddlerman strings on it. I had the strings on and was tuning it up. It really has nice, strong tones! Great sweet projection. Then the tailgut broke. It was the red cord type. Probably the original. We ordered a new tailpiece from Fiddlershop. It is being delivered today. Cannot wait to try it out with a longer period of playing!

The seller also had a very old Tourte model bow. It was made in Germany. By the looks of it, probably around the time of the Violin. I know it is absolutely not a true Tourte. They were not branded with “Tourte” on the bow. Plus, they are few and far between. We bought the bow. It is perfectly straight with terrific camber, and the balance was so nice and comfortable in my hand. I kept putting it down because we did not go there to buy the bow. But, I kept picking it up. We bought it for $35. He gave me $30 off what he was asking because I gave him $20 more than the asking price of the violin. That kind of defeated my purpose of giving him what the violin was worth to me by giving him that $20 more than asking price. That was nice of him.

My husband just rehaired it with hair we purchased from Fiddlershop. Wow! That bow is fantastic! When it needs rehairing, we will take it to the Sullivans Violins and get it rehaired professionally. We did a good job and it works fantastically, but, it does have some hairs that didn’t stay put. It was the first rehair we did.

I can see the seller’s uncle playing this violin. His family, according to the seller, has always been into music. Given the time frame and talking with the seller, I suspect it was used for fiddle music. The seller had to get to work, so I didn’t ask specifically. It was used a lot, not just sitting around collecting dust. It is a lovely little violin from the WW II era and made in the USA.

It is not a violin that will be a collector’s item. It will not grow in value. It is the story of the violin and the look, with a lovely old bow. Plus, it did not even break a piggy bank.