Welcome to the group (err family) of fiddlers here. Lots of us have been down the same road as you're on right now. It's fantastic that your GF will assist you in learning. That's a BIG help. How long has she been playing?

As to the violin, I don't know much about that except what I see on google, so maybe FM can shed some light on it. He deals with many different mfgs and violins and may know more on it.

It really doesn't matter too much whether or not it's a "good" violin, just so it sounds acceptable to you guys. Even my $50 Chinese violin I turned into a acoustic/electric sounds incredible after I put some time into learning how to play. It's all directly proportional to the hours of time you spend "in the trenches" with it.

Remember, 2 or 3 hours on Sunday don't make up for missed days during the week of practice. It's far better to at least spend 15 minutes a day on it than hours on one day.