Elida

This is an example of a listing for a violin you sometimes find on eBay. It is not a bad violin by any means but is it really what it seems to be? We have left out the payment and postage details and other fancy stuff that might come at the end of it, but otherwise it is a good representation of one kind of listing that you could easily come across:

SUPERB QUALITY! FULL SIZE JOHANN FREISCHTEIN VIOLIN OUTFIT!

Johann Fresichtein violins are new to the UK, and they offer superb value in a high quality instrument. Your teacher will be amazed at the quality of this advanced student / intermediate instrument, and especially at such a low, low price which we can offer because we do not have to maintain a retail shop and import direct from the maker thus saving YOU money.

The quality of the workmanship is such as you only see on good German outfits sold in the UK for at least Ł300! Just see if you can find a German outfit at a lower price! This superb instrument comes with a fitted maple bridge and a light alloy tailpiece with four fine tuners, so you can tune all four strings!

The label reads "Johann Fresichtein 12.2002" but this is a brand new outfit! No-one has used it, except in setting it up expertly for you. This violin is tested and guaranteed and you are sure to be delighted! One previous buyer said she could not believe the quality for the price!

Johann Freischtein is sure to a name that will soon become very well known indeed in the UK. Here is your chance to buy a superb advanced student / intermediate violin from a new maker at an unbeatable price!

There it is then - not at all unusual kind of eBay listing that you may find when looking for a violin. Possibly the seller has put a 'Buy It Now' price of Ł200 on it. What are we to make of it

Well, first of all, let's look at what it says and what it doesn't say. This is not a fraudulent listing even if the seller may have been a little economical with the truth, and you will have no more comeback against the seller of this than those who fall for listings which show pictures of consumer electronics when only a list of sources is being offered.

Note the seller wants you to think that the violin is German. Read if carefully: nowhere does he actually say that it IS German. The label has a German sounding name on it but that means nothing. Did you know that many violins leave China without a label so that the seller can glue in any label he likes? Even if it had a Chinese label are you going to poke around inside the violin to see if there is anything under the seller's label?

Descriptions like "advanced student / intermediate instrument" are rather meaningless because they represent someone else's opinion which might not agree with your own. What is an "advanced student?" I would suggest it means Grade 6 upwards, but other sellers may think differently. What is an "intermediate" player? The Associated Board used to call Grade 6 "intermediate", but since there is a huge gap between Grade 8 (the highest grade exam and as far as most amateurs will go) and conservatoire entrance level, it would not be at all unreasonable to suppose that it could mean somewhere between Grade 8 and diploma/conservatoire level. Is that what the seller means, and how did he decide what he means? In any event, common sense should tell you that you are not going to get a German violin suitable for post Grade 8 study for Ł200!

The seller says nothing of much consequence about the construction of the violin. You are left to assume that the fittings are ebony when they aren't. He makes a couple curious reference to the bridge and "fine tuners" and that is it! Of course the bridge is important but if necessary a new one can be fitted for around Ł30. Adjusters (which is the correct name for "fine tuners") can be got for little more than Ł1 each and tailpieces like the one on this violin are about a tenner. In any case, most high level players only use one adjuster. Curiously the seller says nothing about the more important matter of the strings.

What did the seller mean by "setting it up expertly?" The bridge came from the maker and putting it up does not require any real expertise, and nothing else needed to be done. The seller is trying to impress you by sounding more expert than he really is.

Of course we are very pleased to hear that a previous buyer couldn't believe the quality for the price, aren't we? Perhaps we would be less impressed if he told us that the dear lady said that before he put in his "German" label and trebled the price!

So what's the verdict then? Not worth the money? Well, it depends. There are posh violin shops which sell basic ebonised Chinese outfits for almost double this price. Having made up this dummy listing I can assure you that the violin being described is probably the best ebonised student violin currently available in the UK, but it so happens that it is NOT German, neither is it Romanian, but it is just a Chinese student violin. Yes, Chinese violins have improved dramatically during the last few years!

Here is that listing again but this time with a change of name and a more straightforward description. Compare the descriptions - it's the same instrument - and decide for yourself which you would be more likely to pay Ł200 for. If you would like to pay Ł200 for the "Happytone" we could oblige you! Seriously we wouldn't because we believe in fair prices and honest trading.

FULL SIZE HAPPYTONE VIOLIN OUTFIT

This is a good quality Chinese violin with a properly fitted bridge. Fingerboard and pegs are ebonised. This violin plays really well and is of a higher quality than any other ebonised Chinese instrument which I have seen. It costs almost as much at the factory gate in China as most wholesalers charge for Chinese instruments in the UK, so, as you can imagine, the quality is much higher. We have not found any mould on any of these (something which is not unusual with Chinese imports) and the tuning pegs work perfectly so that you can tune using the pegs alone if you want to. If only all student violins were made like this!