Hello everyone,

normally you would expect an orderly set of products on this page, but I have over 50 violin, viola and cello models, and bows too. So it’s quite a daunting task to choose from them. Rather I view this page as a reply to if this is a chat with me over coffee and this will be my reply to you.

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The Chinese violin market is a very unique one. It’s the only market that there are more violins being made than violin players. Needless to say, finding the suitable maker becomes very difficult. But it will be unfair to say there aren’t any good makers.

It’s just that the market conditions is as such that good makers still have to make at least 10 violins a month to be in business, mostly because they don’t make as much per violin like the western makers. Because of this real world fact, sometimes it becomes harder to improve on violinmaking. But this is also the beauty of the Chinese violinmaking business. Once you have that improvement made, it is made for 10 violin players a month and at a lower price, it benefits more people. They bring more value to the market.

Finding the ideal violin is difficult. But finding the right violin for you may be easier than you think. Thanks to the 10 violin exhibitions held in china annually. Most wholesalers from other countries attend probably only one of the three more publicized exhibition : Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. But many of the smaller workshop makers goes only to the more local violin exhibitions. This is because their violins cost more since they make a lot less violins each year, and also they cannot meet the large volumes of the wholesalers who visit china for violin purchase.

This is where I come in.

I bring the lesser known violinmakers to everyone. The makers that serve the violin community in China, not the makers that service the wholesaler community of the world.

At my website, you can probably find violins from more than 20 violinmakers. I put their work online to showcase to the world what is available.

As a buyer, you probably are looking for violins that provide a good quality tone at a good value price, with the least hassle. And to achieve this, it is easy.

To buy such a violin, I only need to know three things
1) the price range you prefer
2) the tone you prefer, warm, bright or dark
3) the type of varnish you like

To put things into perspective about prices, a USD300 violin would be something equivalent to a USD800-1500 violin you see at shops. So resellers this will give you an idea of how to price the violins. Retail shops who buy my violins and sell at a much higher price because retail shops most of the time can maximize the potential of the violin through constant playing and tuning the violin, something only a local retail shop can do.

Basically I have a few price range
USD30 I don’t sell these violins anymore. But these are the student models you see at schools and shops which you buy for about USD100.
USD100 I don’t sell these as well now. These are intermediate models that sometimes have good flaming, but they’re still rather intermediate violins
USD200 This are good value advanced models. Retail value is about USD500-900. A note for resellers, sometimes you will be to find a real gem among this price range.

———–This point onwards is recommended if you are buying less than 3 violins————-
USD350 For individuals, your recommended starting point is here. Because any lesser, shipping is already a quarter of the total price. At this price, you give yourself more possible upside. It’s more worth the risk for buying from a mail order. The retail shop equivalent is USD800 upwards. So even if you have to spend USD200 on a custom setup with better strings, your effort will be pay off quite well because your violin quality is capable of becoming two times better.
USD550 At this price, you will be looking at a very capable violin with a reasonably good setup. I almost have no unhappy customers at this price range.
USD950 You get a master level violin, with a good setup, good strings and good bridge. For resellers, with some tweaking of the violin, you may be able to price this violin USD2000 upwards.

Now let’s take a break.

USD1500 Occasionally you need to stock a few really outstanding Chinese made violins. At this price, you will find that bench made violins from western workshops have some serious competition. This is usually the starting price of violins of new western makers. But the reason why the Chinese made ones offers good competition is because the materials used is better, often the best they can get their hands on. Chinese makers up to this price range priced their violins a lot based on the materials. Sadly the Chinese makers don’t quite value their own skills, not as much as western makers. So at this price, more than half of this price goes to the materials they use. This means the potential that the violin can go very far is very high.

USD2500 When you are spending this amount of money, you will be assured of a real masterpiece. Often these violins can sell USD5000-12000 at shops. You can even get a VSA AWARD maker to make the violin for you. I am probably the only place you can get a VSA award maker violin at this price.

USD3500 You get the VSA Award maker to take notice of your order. Your order becomes the highest priority. Many say this is a small price to get a award winner’s attention. He will use the best materials, his best expertise, and he will tune and tune the violin till it becomes the best violin he can make, just like he will make for the VSA competition. The market value of the violin/viola is USD12000 upwards. You will be able to verify the maker at VSA own website. At this price, I can almost guarantee you can bring this violin to any western retail shop, and they will give you USD3500 cash, plus another violin at their shop. I don’t know how long I can price such violins at this price, but their prices increase every year.

Ok. I think that about sums up my price range for violins. Violas follow a similar fashion, with violas 20% more than violins. Cello starts at USD1200 and goes up to USD1800 for the majority of my buyers so far. I guess this is the best price/quality ratio, taking into consideration of the shipping.

For bow makers, you can usually get a very good bow for USD250. For USD350, you can get a masters bow and USD800 and you are at the top of the quality.

Your next action would be to drop me an email and tell me which range you are interested in. After that, it’s a guided tour where you just relax and let me take care of you for your whole journey. I’ll give you some choices, and then show you photos of the stocks that you can choose from, and guide you how to choose the violin. At the end of the affair, you will know exactly what you will get before your payment. So when you get your item eventually, there are no negative surprises. So far, I have helped more than 3000 buyers. Mostly, they’ve returned for more.

Cordially, Jehpin
info@old-violin-house.com

Below is the old version of this catalogue page. I kept it for some of my older customers reference.

Opera Workshop Model 800: This model uses Austrian Spruce and Bosnian Maple. Comes in Guarneri and Strad. The Guarneri is slightly more mellow than the Strad and is better in terms of quality of tone overall. The Strad has a slight edge for projection. But they are quite close in quality. I list the (small) difference just in case you’re wondering what’s between them. They’re fitted with Dominant strings. I didn’t change the E string even though Dominant E is known to be unequal compared with their other 3 strings. I’ll leave the E string choice to you.Opera Workshop Model 700: This model also uses Austrian Spruce and Bosnian Maple, but the maple comes from another mountain in Bosnia. This is one of the top selling models because not only is the tone very good, the maple is beautiful. All comes with a one piece back. Tone wise, it is qutie similar to Model 800, although some fine that the 800′s tone is more full, while 700 is sweeter sounding, much like French violins.

Vecchio Model 420: This model uses the same woods as Model 800, but is made at the Vecchio workshop. This workshop has a very good technique in varnish. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. 5 different types of hue and colour – Italian golden brown, yellow ground with almond light brown (and a tint of green), dark brown, French red and Italian orange with pale yellow ground. This is by far the most successful antique techniques ever among my workshops. Tone is darker sounding compared with the Opera models.

Pro+ Violins

This level of violins provides the greatest value for the price paid. At USD350-550, it fits into the budget of most people. At the higher range of the price, it is fitted with the same fittings as the Master models. But the price is kept down by the use of Chinese or Russian maple. The price is lower not because they are inferior, but because they are nearer for me to buy and so the logistic costs involved is much less. We all know wood is heavy, and having to transport them from Europe to my workshop in Beijing by air adds quite a bit into the cost. But I must stress that European mountains still produces tonewoods that is more suitable for violin making due to their constant temperature and altitude. It’s an unfair environmental advantage. This is why I still use European spruce for this group of violins, so the tone quality is maintained as close as possible to the Master models.

Opera Workshop Model 600B: European Spruce, and fitted with Dominant strings and Aubert A bridge. This violin has a very good response and has an open tone right away when you start playing it. Many different designs are made – Cannone, Pietro Guarneri of Mantua, Cremonese Strad, Maggini & Vieuxtemps Strad are the earliest models. Later I got started on the Soil Strad,

Opera Hellier Strad (above): This is a copy of the Hellier Strad violin. It has intricate carvings filled with ebony powder, complete with bone inlaid purflings, just like the original copy.