Advice on eBay violin listing & 7/8 violins

[Carolinafiddler]

Hello, I’m fairly new here. There’s a violin I’m interested in on eBay, but more about that later.
 

I’m hopeful someone can pitch in and give advice or point me in the right direction. (I’m around musicians all the time, but have no string players to bounce things off of. Other instrumentalists have little care or knowledge about the perils of making acoustic violins sound good in unnatural environments.)

Here’s a bit about me and what I’m looking for:

I’m a professional gig player of violin/fiddle. I usually play plugged in with a full band using an LR Baggs piezo pickup. Most fiddles that don’t have a naturally huge projection in a strictly acoustic setting, sound better plugged in. High quality violins that are loud and project really well can often sound like nails on a chalkboard when plugged in because they lack a low end warmth, and it’s hard to get EQ correct through a PA system. There might be exceptions, but I haven’t found one (preamps can certainly help). Violins with natural projection and brightness are usually better sounding when played into a high quality microphone, but that’s not practical at this time. My current setup works well and sounds good. In addition to the Baggs pickup, I run my signal through a Baggs acoustic preamp. 
 

I’m looking to purchase a backup fiddle, and ideally a vintage 7/8 (I’m tiny and have no interest in trying yet again to make a full size work). These instruments are incredibly hard to come by, as I’m sure you know, especially ones that sound decent and are made well. And to make my demands almost even more impossible, I’d like this backup fiddle to have a nice warm tone acoustically.

 

My preference in sound is dark, warm, mellow and I love a responsive fiddle. My budget for a backup is no more than $3,000 USD, and I’d prefer the lower end of that. 
 

I’ve been eyeing this one on eBay. It’s in Europe somewhere. I’m in the US. It has been listed for months. That may be a red flag? That’s why I’m hoping for your opinions. I am not thrilled about spending that much money without playing it first, but also it’s not so much money that it would be devastating to receive it and not be completely satisfied. Worst case, it’ll more than likely sound better plugged in. But if it’s just a known low quality fiddle, I’d rather not go there. I don’t know fiddles by label names. I’ve only ever gone by sound and playability. Seller says if buyer pays outside of eBay using a bank transfer he will give me $500 off (this was agreed to in a private message). I told him that would be a great way for me to be scammed, and he said just look at his reviews, which are good but don’t mention paying for items outside of eBay. 
 

Besides all of the money stuff, can someone look at the labeling and construction of this fiddle and tell me if the asking price is within reason? Is this a fairly inexpensive fiddle worth taking a chance on? Are there better options for the asking price and if so, where? I’ve always been really against new instruments because they have all sounded like tin cans to me, but someone recently mentioned I may want to look into having a fiddle made for me. I expect that will be entirely too expensive for my budget, and may even still sound like a tin can. 

https://ebay.us/m/JthL9y

Any thoughts about the entire situation would be super helpful as I try and decide what to do. If there is a better place to have his discussion, let me know. Much appreciated!

[Violadamore]

6 hours ago, Carolinafiddler said:

Hello, I’m fairly new here. There’s a violin I’m interested in on eBay, but more about that later.
 

I’m hopeful someone can pitch in and give advice or point me in the right direction. (I’m around musicians all the time, but have no string players to bounce things off of. Other instrumentalists have little care or knowledge about the perils of making acoustic violins sound good in unnatural environments.)

Here’s a bit about me and what I’m looking for:

I’m a professional gig player of violin/fiddle. I usually play plugged in with a full band using an LR Baggs piezo pickup. Most fiddles that don’t have a naturally huge projection in a strictly acoustic setting, sound better plugged in. High quality violins that are loud and project really well can often sound like nails on a chalkboard when plugged in because they lack a low end warmth, and it’s hard to get EQ correct through a PA system. There might be exceptions, but I haven’t found one (preamps can certainly help). Violins with natural projection and brightness are usually better sounding when played into a high quality microphone, but that’s not practical at this time. My current setup works well and sounds good. In addition to the Baggs pickup, I run my signal through a Baggs acoustic preamp. 
 

I’m looking to purchase a backup fiddle, and ideally a vintage 7/8 (I’m tiny and have no interest in trying yet again to make a full size work). These instruments are incredibly hard to come by, as I’m sure you know, especially ones that sound decent and are made well. And to make my demands almost even more impossible, I’d like this backup fiddle to have a nice warm tone acoustically.

 

My preference in sound is dark, warm, mellow and I love a responsive fiddle. My budget for a backup is no more than $3,000 USD, and I’d prefer the lower end of that. 
 

I’ve been eyeing this one on eBay. It’s in Europe somewhere. I’m in the US. It has been listed for months. That may be a red flag? That’s why I’m hoping for your opinions. I am not thrilled about spending that much money without playing it first, but also it’s not so much money that it would be devastating to receive it and not be completely satisfied. Worst case, it’ll more than likely sound better plugged in. But if it’s just a known low quality fiddle, I’d rather not go there. I don’t know fiddles by label names. I’ve only ever gone by sound and playability. Seller says if buyer pays outside of eBay using a bank transfer he will give me $500 off (this was agreed to in a private message). I told him that would be a great way for me to be scammed, and he said just look at his reviews, which are good but don’t mention paying for items outside of eBay. 
 

Besides all of the money stuff, can someone look at the labeling and construction of this fiddle and tell me if the asking price is within reason? Is this a fairly inexpensive fiddle worth taking a chance on? Are there better options for the asking price and if so, where? I’ve always been really against new instruments because they have all sounded like tin cans to me, but someone recently mentioned I may want to look into having a fiddle made for me. I expect that will be entirely too expensive for my budget, and may even still sound like a tin can. 

https://ebay.us/m/JthL9y

Any thoughts about the entire situation would be super helpful as I try and decide what to do. If there is a better place to have his discussion, let me know. Much appreciated!

I'm seeing a low end JTL much closer to 1900 than to 1860, and have seen nothing in the ad or video (including the price) to positively impress me.  The bank draft thing didn't sound right at all.  To quote Monty Python, "Run away, run away.......". 

I just did a look all over eBay, and found a number of 7/8 in the US already, for a few hundred to around a thousand dollars.  One might possibly suit you.

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