Bought as a practice instrument. The bridge is poor quality and quite thick, I replaced it with a extra I had. The strings seemed alright but I installed some new Preludes to cover all bets. The case, the bow and the earphones are of low but fair quality, no real complaints about these items. The pickup amplifier electronics are cheap but in my case work for what I need. Overall, the violin the worth the money spent with a few upgrades as long as you understand what it is. A practice violin. The sound is quiet enough to play without much of any noise escaping the room. I also have a very heavy mute to use on my regular violin and the sound from it is just a bit louder than this unit. I would buy again based on what I have received.

It's actually a wonderful violin once you do three things to it: (a) replace the rosin; (b) replace the strings and (c) replace the bow. Once done, the violin will sound completely different and be much easier to play. Sounds great through my Sennheiser headphones. Perhaps I'll buy a Fender amp one of these days!

Strings: Thomastik Dominant 4/4 Violin String Set - Medium Gauge - Steel Ball-End E
Bow: Presto Audition Violin Bow Black 4/4 Size
Rosin: Pirastro Goldflex Rosin For Violin - Viola - Cello

Enjoy!

I was gifted a $1000 Knilling violin a couple years ago and finally decided to start trying to learn to play. I immediately feared that I would end up doing something to damage it while I taught myself, since I knew nothing about playing, tuning or maintaining a nicer violin. I saw some video reviews for these cheaper violins and figured I would buy one to play until I get better. I also wanted something that was quiet to practice on so I would not drive my family crazy having to listen to me. I must say, for the money, I am pleasantly surprised.

The first thing I noticed is the weight of this Cecilio electric instrument is significantly heavier than the higher-end Knilling acoustic violin. This doesn't bother me much, but it is noticeable. I would suggest a shoulder rest if you have prominent collarbones.

The second thing I noticed is that the pegs slipped while I was trying to tune the strings. I read online that you can just rub rosin on the peg shaft to give it some "bite", and this worked perfectly. No more slippage.

The third thing I noticed is that the strings seemed cheap and were difficult to tune even though the violin comes with fine-tuners on the tailpiece (The fine-tuners are a nice included feature; you will end up loving them). The E string never came into tune and eventually snapped just above the nut. I tried playing with only three strings, and compared to the higher-end violin, this one sounded absolutely terrible. I ordered some D'Addario Prelude strings from Amazon, and installed them two days later. What a HUGE difference this makes for only $15 more. I would suggest throwing some in your cart if you intend on buying this violin. With the new strings, this Cecilio now sings, but quietly. Remove and keep the $6 Cecilio strings as emergency spares in case you break a string and need to get by until another set of D'Addarios come in (yes, a new set of Cecilio strings costs $6, which says a lot).

Lastly, the electric amplification function of the violin works decently, but can give some distortion when using long bow strokes on the G and D strings. Making sure the bridge is positioned correctly helped it some, but it never completely goes away. This doesn't concern me much because I mostly play it without headphones. Even without amplification, it is still loud enough for me to hear that I am a lousy violinist and need to practice more. It is quiet enough that I can practice without waking the kids in the next room, even with both doors open.

The case is functional for storage and protection. The bow is noticeably cheaper than the higher-end Knilling, but only in the quality of the hair. The rosin must be broken in to properly adhere to the bow hair, which I now see is normal. The headphones work, but you will likely toss them for your favorite set. The overall build quality and appearance is satisfactory.

My last piece of advice is to buy a tuner/metronome combo because this set comes with neither.

I have now been beating this thing up for almost a month, and I have gotten noticeably better. When I feel like showing off, the family will now actually listen to me play "twinkle twinkle little star" and "Mary had a little lamb". The violin has not failed in any way and actually sounds better as the strings break in. I am happy with my purchase.

After waiting over a week for my 'free two day shipping' the violin arrived. I opened it to find the rosin had shattered despite it being packed within the violins case. I ordered new rosin, started to tune the violin only to find the peg for the E string is broken, completely loose. I dont know much about the instrument but I can see that the colored string that holds the peg in tight is snapped in half.
The bow is not very comfortable, there is no space to put your thumb, if you are new and want to learn to play I would not recommend this product. I am returning it and plan to order the Stentor 2 or I may go to a local shop and buy something I know is not junk.
If it had not been broken I would have simply ordered a new bow and kept the violin.

this electric violin is of decent quality, it does what its supposed to do, and for the price it is not bad. I have had a positive experience with another one of cecilios acoustic violins, so I thought why not give this a try. This is great if you are trying to practice and maintain minimum noise as to not disturb other people that may be living in your house or apartment. the sound quality without earphones is horrible, with ear phones they are a little better, but still no where as good as an a caustic violin. the case is excellent, rosin and bow are usable. ear phones that it comes with are trash, but hey, its a starter kit so thats cool that they even threw those in. the cord it comes with to connect this thing to an amp is good, if the sound quality isn't what you expected out of the headphone jack to amp cord, its most likely just the quality of this violin. do not buy this violin for the coolness factor of the "electric" violin if thats what you were planning on doing. the sound quality is not that good.