Thank you very much for the trace, Denny!

The strings it came with are "Overture Premiums".  I'll quote the description:

Our Best Selling Strings! See why for yourself - Our secret is in combining the high quality of precision German aluminum and magnesium alloys with the low cost of Chinese manufacturing. The result is a high quality string that our play testers found to be better than other popular student brands.

They're a 10$ a set string, but they feel nice, so I figure they'll do for the initial playing in.  I was intentionally playing about as loud as I could for the test trace, but the Hoffman does have some nice softer sounds as well.  I think after it is played in a bit and a new set of better strings goes on it, it will sound nicer.  With aluminum/magnesium alloys, it doesn't surprise me that it is a bit bright/harsh when played hard.

It definitely can do loud, and the overall tone sounds fuller/richer to my ears.  I'm making it a point to take it to the basement (earth sheltered walls) and play it as loud and hard as possible for 10 min or so a day for this first month.  Figure that will give it a good "shakedown", and any problems it has should show themselves within the 30 day window where I can return it for a full refund or exchange.  I wear earplugs for that, though.  LOL

She sure doesn't sound muffled or "dead", and the vibration through the instrument is quite strong.  Some nicer strings and adjusting the afterlength, and I think she may end up sounding pretty good.

Thanks again for the trace!

I understand what you're saying, Fiddlestix.  I tend to view my violins as my "luxury" items and as such I have a hard time justifying to myself putting a lot of money into them. 

But if you were playing out and making money, most audiences are going to react to the sound, since they won't even know what you paid for an instrument.  If the audience is more than a few feet away, most violins are going to look a lot alike to most average listeners. 

From what I have heard, and speaking strictly from a music listener point of view, your violins aren't any slouch when it comes to sounding nice.  If you had said that you paid thousands for them decades ago, I wouldn't have known any better. 

Probably an expert could tell.  But there are darned few (if any) real experts in any paying gig audience, y'know?  So it never makes much sense to play for *them*.  They won't be who's paying your rent on paid gigs. LOL

I've looked over this violin quite closely many times over the past week.  I haven't found anything yet that is enough of a problem that I'd send it back.  Well, maybe more accurate to say that I'd be afraid that any replacement I got might have flaws that were worse.  This one isn't bad at all, and the imperfections are minor enough to overlook or fix myself at some later point.  And minor enough that it will probably be a while before I get around to doing anything about them.

First flaw I noticed was a spot on one side of where the neck attaches to the body where they went a little light with colour. 

At this magnification you can see the teeny dings and the small chisel scratch right next to that light spot.  In person, those are almost too small to see without a magnifier.  The light spot can be touched up with a little myrrh or dragon's blood resin dissolved in alcohol and put in with a small microbrush.  The finish is ok there, just a little spot that got missed when hey were doing a color coat.  Also they were just a little sloppy on cleaning up the dye they used on the fingerboard, but again, in person it is just not noticeable enough to worry about.

There is also a very small gap between the neck and the top plate on the other side.

It is actually less than 1 mm.  It would take about half a drop of hide glue (or a little less) to fill that and make sure it isn't a weak point for trouble to happen somewhere down the road.   

Those are the most obvious "problems" I noticed, and it took looking very close to spot them.  I doubt either of them is anything serious enough to actually worry about, but sometime when I get bored enough, I will probably attend to them.

I'll also likely paint the inside of the pegbox when I change strings after this set wears out.  I just like the look of a painted pegbox interior better.  And I'll probably also touch up the paint on the inside edges of the f-holes, since I'll have the color mixed anyway.  

The only shortcoming I actually notice when playing it is I can tell the afterlength isn't tuned right.  Among other things, that affects where some of the "sweet spots" are on the fingerboard.  That isn't something I expected to be adjusted on a beginner level violin at this price anyway, though.  It is a picky bit of tuning that requires repeatedly taking the tailpiece off.  But having done it with my electric and with the MV300, I can tell when it isn't right.  Mind you, it sounds and plays good, but I know that there is a bit more sound in this instrument that could be coming out, and I will get it.  But it is a fairly minor thing comparatively, so it can wait until these strings wear out.

Overall, I have been very pleased.  Sounds good, plays good, looks nice, and seems to be a very solid little instrument for the price.  Holds tune great and tunes up well.  Peg action is smooth enough that I have been mostly touching up the tuning from the pegs and that has been working fine.  

From having inspected it very closely, I can tell that at least the final finish was applied with a brush, not sprayed or dipped.  The top and bottom plates are two-piece, but nicely bookend matched.  There's even a bit of flame to the back and other maple parts, though nothing so dramatic as to get any "flame fans" excited or anything..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....Qo5IOBuPgo

I am not personally a big believer in flame as any guarantee of good sound.  But it's pretty when you can get it, and is at least an indicator that the tree the wood came from probably wasn't the softest maple in that forest.

So I'm quite happy with this violin, and feel it was definitely a good value for what I paid for it.  I could recommend it to another beginner looking to spend around 160$, at least as a good one to try.

Thanks, cdennyb.  Photos, like recordings, can find details that one would likely miss "in person" on things like a piece of finished wood.  But really, "in person" with the naked eye is what really matters.  Even the finest craftsmanship would show flaws and little telltale signs if one used enough magnification and tinkered with lighting and camera angles. 

Kind of like doing "forensics" or something. 

I'll try not to go on about it too much, since it's very little stuff, but for example if you look close at this pic where I've circled a section..

You have a sharp eye, so you'd probably already spotted it.  The slight bevel on the edge of the fingerboard ends in a tiny (less than a tenth of a mm) square "ledge" where I marked with the red arrow.  Sandpaper or a power sander wouldn't end like that.  That work was done with a scraper, and I would guess it was done after the fingerboard was on the instrument because it stops right about where one would stop  before the scraper could hit the body.

There are a lot of little signs of hand-work on this instrument if one knows where to look and looks *very* close.  Some would probably consider it "over analyzing" but to me it is just one of the levels of appreciating that it is a pretty darned good job.  

For this instrument being the least expensive of Hoffmann's beginner range?  I must confess to being rather impressed.  Someone showed some pride in their work and did a pretty good job on this violin.  As soma5 and Fiddlestix mentioned, instruments made in China aren't necessarily bad.  This one was definitely made in China, as is clearly indicated on the inside label.  

@Fiddlestix:  You could be right about it being a bit of splinter control.  I do not have any past experience in cabinetry, and I haven't ever worked full-time at instrument repair.  But I will stick with my own hypothesis in this case, since there are similar but lighter "lift off marks" (for lack of a better term) on the bevel on the other side of the fingerboard as well, and in just about the same place.  In either case, it would support the conclusion I have come to that at least some of the final touches on this instrument were done by hand.  I hadn't expected that at the price, actually.

I'll keep my microscope out a bit longer, since to me it is part of the fun of a new instrument.  Figuring out everything I can about how it is put together is one way to learn a trick or two sometimes.  Also it is part of getting to know this particular instrument. 

The only things I would actually call imperfections would the the one light spot and the little gap that I was originally showing with the photos.  Quite acceptable and easy enough to fix if I feel like it at some later point.  Things like the little inconsistencies along the edge of the fingerboard are so tiny they don't even warrant being called flaws, in my opinion. 

I have been over this instrument in considerably more detail than I will list here.  I just don't think most people would find it that interesting.  But I felt it in my own best interest to do so because I could still return it for a full refund or replacement.  The past couple of days, I have been doing the hardest critical evaluation I can on the instrument, because within a few more days I think I will be too attached to it to send it back even if I did find something wrong.  I like it a lot.

To some folks, 160$ may be nothing to spend for a musical instrument.  But on my budget, it is more than I usually spend on something for myself.  So before I get too attached, I have had to decide if I think there is much of a chance that a replacement would actually be better, if the flaws are anything where I would take that chance.  No, I've pretty much decided at this point that this one is a keeper. 

They sell the violin itself for 109$.  I got the standard outfit with it (case, bow, rosin) because my wife was right when she said one should never even ship an instrument without a proper case and that I could use another bow, at least for backup.  So the case, bow, and rosin represent about 50$ total.  Nothing wonderful, but they're probably about worth that.  The bow is at least as good as the A. Breton I bought for 20$ at the local music shop.  The rosin isn't quite as good as my Hill dark rosin, in my opinion.  But it's decent, and I may as well use it.  Both are far better than what came with my cheaper violins.  I decided to give it a try on the bow that came with the Hoffmann, and I don't the idea of mixing/switching rosins on a bow.  I'd say the case isn't actually much different than what came with my Mendini.  Typical inexpensive case.  But far better than the old chipboard or thinly covered sheet metal cases that some guitars used to come with.

If I am actually trying to justify anything, it would be the decision to keep this instrument.  Having played it for a week, I like it a lot, and it would already be hard to think of shipping it back and trying another.  Even taking "new toy effect" into account, I would say that I enjoy playing it almost as much as I do my electric.  

Now, so far as YOUR new violin.. I sincerely hope you get it today.  Is there a better day than the day a new violin gets delivered?  It always feels like it should be a national holiday with a tickertape parade or something!  Waiting for them to get there is as bad as being a kid at Xmas.  LOL

Congrats in advance on the new violin, Fiddlestix!