Bz.Raad said
Hi everybody.

I live in Iran and there aren't many choices to buy a violin here.actually the best brands you can find are karl-hofner, stagg, strunal, glaesel, roderich-paesold and yamaha(silent) also hand-crafted which sounds great.

I don't like the silent violins at all so there are 2 violins that seems better and I can afford : Stagg XHG, Hofner H5G.

I like the stagg sound (based on the preview on thomann.de) but the name hofner seems more promising and people here buy  hofner violins better if you want to sell your violin.

thanks for any suggestion.

Hello Raad,

I know nothing about the Violin market in Iran but if it's anything like the local market here in Argentina, it's dismal at best. Argentina "doesn't play nice" on the world stage when it comes to commerce and trade. As a result the countries "aggressive industry protective" policies levy heavy tariffs, taxes and import fees on anything into the country that isn't made here. So, this means that quality Violins from anywhere are very difficult to get here, most of it's the worst quality that you can get and very overpriced.

Also if you purchase online a Violin from anywhere outside the country, Arg's gov't charges you a 35% tax ( 35% of the price paid ) right off the bat, like a penalty for buying overseas. Then to have it shipped, after you wait to get it 6 months, they charge you another huge fee just to get it out of customs. It's a nightmare!

Is Iran the same as Argentina in this regard? Are you able to get any decent European or Chinese imported Violins in Tehran?

I say this because "Stagg" is another Chinese brand that is very common here in Argentina as well. The ones I've seen here are VERY inferior quality, but if it's all your budget can afford, you can make them work after a decent set up. I started on a VERY cheap poor quality Violin but with some work was able to make it work.

It's sad because I see some good musicians here that could deserve, and want better instruments but just have no way of getting them.

The other brand you mentioned I've never heard of. Actually, I looked at the Hoffner, don't know much about it but it looks like better quality. I can tell you by looking at it it's MUCH better quality than any of the Stagg Violins I've seen here in Argentina. Avoid Stagg at all costs if you can IMO...but I don't know about this model Stagg, I've never seen it here in Arg.