Should I go for an antique or modern violin with a budget of USD 10,000-15,000

[Newman]

Hi guys,

My 9-year old child is a conservatory youth violin program in Montreal. He is an advanced student and is currently using a 3/4 Mirecourt France workshop violin worth 3,000USD which I bought from Carriage House Violins in Boston surburban area. I'm thinking of upgrading his 4/4 violin in a year. My budget is not so high (10,000-15,000 USD), should I go for an antique or modern violin? On the one hand, I tend to believe that antique violins are expensive mostly because of their value in investment instead of sheer tone quality but on the other hand, I am also afraid what if a modern violin will "close" one day or sound drastically different from the trial if we are not lucky? Any one here has suggestions or recommendations? Thank you in advance

[Geoffrey N]

You have to see what you can find, but you are likely to find a better sounding modern violin than antique one in that price range. The other thing is that you are much less likely to have condition issues to worry about with a recently made instrument. I would not personally worry about violins suddenly changing their tone quality, although you should definitely take any instrument out for a trial to hear what it sounds like in a variety of different acoustics, outside of the dealer's rooms. While it probably won't be a top-caliber professional instrument in that price range, you should be able to find an excellent sounding violin. It's probably best to keep an open mind and look at both antique and modern instruments in that range and see what you like best!

[joerobson]

You have excellent luthiers in Montreal. Contact Forum de Fabricant

[GeorgeH]

17 hours ago, Geoffrey N said:

You have to see what you can find, but you are likely to find a better sounding modern violin than antique one in that price range.

I don't think there is any evidence for this. There are good and bad sounding violins in all price ranges, from the thousands to the millions of dollars. Violins are not priced on sound.

On 1/25/2025 at 10:15 PM, Newman said:

On the one hand, I tend to believe that antique violins are expensive mostly because of their value in investment instead of sheer tone quality

Older violins in your price range are not "investment" type instruments.

On 1/25/2025 at 10:15 PM, Newman said:

Any one here has suggestions or recommendations?

Try many violins, old and new, expensive and inexpensive, to find one that works for you. Try to get out of your mind that higher price means a better sounding violin. It doesn't. Hopefully, you will find a violin that delights your daughter every time she opens her case. The best violin is the one she wants to play.

[deans]

On 1/25/2025 at 7:15 PM, Newman said:

My 9-year old child is a conservatory youth violin program in Montreal.

I suggest consulting the teachers there. I dont know about this program, but in in similar programs here the teachers are quite  knowledgable about what types of instrument are successful for their students.  What you might be told is to just move up to a similar price 4/4 (under 5k-it may even be a Chinese instrument) and save up for when they are getting closer to college.

[FiddleDoug]

6 minutes ago, deans said:

I suggest consulting the teachers there. I dont know about this program, but in in similar programs here the teachers are quite  knowledgable about what types of instrument are successful for their students.  What you might be told is to just move up to a similar price 4/4 (under 5k-it may even be a Chinese instrument) and save up for when they are getting closer to college.

I would agree with that. There's no telling if a 9 year old will still be interested in violin in 6-7 years, and as has been mentioned, violins in the price range you mentioned are not investment grade. Spend the 5-6K in a decent instrument, and invest the rest for college money.

[JonnyFW]

Just throwing in my ha'peth on top of all the other good advice above.

If you go to a well-stocked violin shop and tell them your budget, they're likely to have a good number of instruments in your price range, including older ones and contemporary ones. If the shops local to me are anything to go by, the balance could be something like 25% new/new-ish/living makers, and 75% older ones (although I'm in the UK so it may be different where you are, and obviously some shops specialise more in certain things).

That being the case, I wouldn't make new vs old your only, or even main, criterion. You'd be instantly ruling out a sizeable proportion of potentially quite nice instruments, before you've even tried them.

I'd be looking more at kind of sound (bright/sparkly/silvery vs warm/rich/dark according to personal taste), complexity of sound, resonance, playability, condition - and I think most importantly whether your child finds the instrument inspiring and exciting and will want to keep coming back to it.

A good trick is to get your kid to play the same thing (short piece say 30 secs or 1 min) on a load of instruments and put them into yes, no, maybe piles (not literal piles obviously!)

Go through them a few times, come back and re-assess the no's and the maybe's once he's played all of them to make sure none went in the wrong "pile". Narrow it down to his favourite few. Then see if the shop will let you take his top 2 or 3 home on approval for a couple of weeks (in that price range, they really should let you).

Also when he's still in the shop, take a phone recording of each one he plays, so he can go home and listen to them and mull it over in his own time, whilst he's got the others on approval, in case that changes his mind at all.

Hope that helps.

[Newman]

On 1/27/2025 at 4:21 PM, FiddleDoug said:

I would agree with that. There's no telling if a 9 year old will still be interested in violin in 6-7 years, and as has been mentioned, violins in the price range you mentioned are not investment grade. Spend the 5-6K in a decent instrument, and invest the rest for college money.

Very nice advice. That's what I thought. Thank you for reinforcing this.

[Newman]

On 1/27/2025 at 5:47 PM, JonnyFW said:

Just throwing in my ha'peth on top of all the other good advice above.

If you go to a well-stocked violin shop and tell them your budget, they're likely to have a good number of instruments in your price range, including older ones and contemporary ones. If the shops local to me are anything to go by, the balance could be something like 25% new/new-ish/living makers, and 75% older ones (although I'm in the UK so it may be different where you are, and obviously some shops specialise more in certain things).

That being the case, I wouldn't make new vs old your only, or even main, criterion. You'd be instantly ruling out a sizeable proportion of potentially quite nice instruments, before you've even tried them.

I'd be looking more at kind of sound (bright/sparkly/silvery vs warm/rich/dark according to personal taste), complexity of sound, resonance, playability, condition - and I think most importantly whether your child finds the instrument inspiring and exciting and will want to keep coming back to it.

A good trick is to get your kid to play the same thing (short piece say 30 secs or 1 min) on a load of instruments and put them into yes, no, maybe piles (not literal piles obviously!)

Go through them a few times, come back and re-assess the no's and the maybe's once he's played all of them to make sure none went in the wrong "pile". Narrow it down to his favourite few. Then see if the shop will let you take his top 2 or 3 home on approval for a couple of weeks (in that price range, they really should let you).

Also when he's still in the shop, take a phone recording of each one he plays, so he can go home and listen to them and mull it over in his own time, whilst he's got the others on approval, in case that changes his mind at all.

Hope that helps.

Thank you so much for your detailed advice. Really appreicate it. I'll definitely take your words to trials.