Good violins have traditionally had ebony fittings--nut, fingerboard, saddle, tailpiece. The rise of the Chinese violin industry has replaced ebony with less expensive non-black wood on almost all the least expensive Chinese violins. The wood is then dyed black to look like the traditional black ebony. But for the beginning violinist, it's OK to have non-ebony fittings as long as the violin setup is decent. I take that to primarily mean the nut is not too high, which has the most effect on how easy the violin is to play. And uinfortunately just about every inexpensive Chinese violin I've tried (in the under $200 range) the nut was too high. Sure, the violin can be played, but all these come with inexpensive steel strings, and steel strings tend to cut into the fingers more, and having to press from a higher height just increases the problem. The nut can be sanded down and new string grooves made, but not everyone knows how to do that, nor wants to tackle the job. (And the non-ebony wood shows its true non-black color then, too, though a black Magic Marker makes the wood black again.)

So the beginning fiddler can certainly make do just fine with a less expensive violin--it could be played for a long time before any signs of the non-ebony parts became obvious (apart from the nut being too high, and making it lower, and seeing the non-ebony wood without the dye.) And the new fiddler wouldn't notice that the inexpensive fiddle didn't have much low G string bass. But if that new fiddler had two fiddles to compare, then with a little experience, it might be easily discerned that one fiddle sounded better than the other. Ginnyg mentioned recently that she played a better fiddle and could tell the difference between her fiddle and the better one--so she was already able to discern differences comparing fiddles.

I like to browse fiddles on eBay, and every now and then buy one. About 6 months ago I happened to see an ad for a complete violin outfit, for $29--that's a case, bow, fiddle and rosin, and even more amazing was it claimed the fiddle was all-wood construction. Usually in that price range you get a mix of plastic and composite wood construction. Shipping was about $25 so for a grand sum of about $55 I ordered one. It was indeed all-wood, no plastic anywhere. It could be tuned up and played, and even the bow was straight with a decent curve when the hair was tightened. The violin nut was too high and the Chinese integrated tuner tailpiece's fine tuners didn't adjust very easily, but the violin was certainly adequate for a beginner, with nothing else done to it. I shaved the nut down to proper height, put a good Wittner composite integrated fine tuners tailpiece on, put a new soundpost on, tweaked the bridge, put synthetic strings on it--that all vastly improved the playability of the violin. It didn't help the poor G string bass response much, but at least the violin was easier to play from its stock configuration. But still, the original violin was entirely adequate for a beginner, so you can definitely find some inexpensive violin outfits to learn on. Wookieman mentioned he uses a $40 violin; I don't know if that included shipping costs, if so then he really got a good deal.

So what do you get when you pay more? You get full-ebony fittings, you get some attention to set up, where the nut is the correct height to start with, the bridge feet fit the top of the violin properly, the tailpiece's fine tuners work properly. And even if the violin was made in a factory, more time was spent on it compared to the less expensive violins. And probably better finish too--all the cheapest ones have a sprayed on finish that gives it a very glossy look but definitely isn't a varnish finish that the better violins get. Some folks are happy with inexpensive violins, and never see any need to upgrade. Others like myself are always on the search for a better violin--in my case, better sound. I treat it as a hobby and don't mind spending money every so often to try out a different violin! We all have different priorities, that's all. If you're happy with your present violin, that's what matters most!

PF, as noted, ebony has been the <traditional> choice for violin fittings. Now these boxwoods and rosewoods have become fashionable for pegs and tailpieces, and they work just fine for that plus look really nice. You'll get years of use from the pegs, so go ahead and change your ebony pegs to rosewood if you're thinking of doing that.

I am only a "shade tree" luthier, having had some lessons from a local "real" luthier then practicing what I've learned on my own fiddles, as a hobby for fun, but with practice anyone can learn to do things like make and fit soundposts, bridges, nuts and saddles, fitting pegs and so forth. And the real luthier had to learn all that himself with the same practice. Our own Kevin Healey on this Forum is a real luthier.