Cremona SV-800 Violin

I bought this violin as a backup for my late 1800s Mirecourt. I travel between two locations due to my job and was tired of lugging my violin on a plane every few weeks. Well, now I have a bit of a problem because this violin is kinda sorta my favorite right now. I didn't want it to be this way. I also have a student violin, which I was using as my backup, though it was not up to the task so I decided to buy another one. I did NOT expect the SV-800 to be so amazing. The SV-800 sounds fantastic with a nice rich, warm tone. It contrasts with the strong bright tone of my Mirecourt. This violin responds very well and all notes are spot on and crisp. The spacing of the strings above the fingerboard is exactly where I would expect them to be. Not only does it play extremely well, it looks quite amazing too. The purfling looks fantastic. Some things to beware of with violins, especially from China, is the claim of having inlaid purfling, which usually turns out to be drawn on instead of cut into the violin. This is the real deal. In fact, I am not sure I have seen any violin in this price range with real purfling. But it is legit real and I took some pictures added below. The color is nice, with a bit of antiquing, plus the finish is wonderful. One would assume the varnish is sprayed on, but you can't tell, meaning there are no runs or heavy spots. It likely isn't hand varnished, but if it were the price would probably have another digit someplace. The description is a little vague in that area, saying... "attractive golden brown imitation-old hand applied varnish." I admit it may be hand varnished, but it would be hard to imagine so in this price range. Either way, they did it right and it looks fantastic without looking like a think heavy glossy clear coat. Instead the wood grain comes though quite well, with a slight orange hue. It looks exactly like the photos honestly, described as a dull patina and I could not agree more. The back and sides are a beautiful flamed maple and the top is good quality spruce. It really looks gorgeous, just like the photos. The strings are excellent quality Thomastik Dominant with a French-made Aubert bridge. Both are excellent quality and I was quite happy to see them on this violin! Those are signs of good quality and are not cheap by any means. In fact just those two items are about 5-7% of the purchase price of the violin. The fingerboard is ebony, which can often be faked by other manufacturers. Nice quality materials matter and it shows on the SV-800. There are a few things they need to take care of to really step up the game. The decorative disks on the pegs were loose when my violin arrived. It is not a big deal, and I just added a bit of epoxy and secured them in place, but you expect everything to be secured at the factory. I will add a few photos so you can see what I mean. Not a big deal in the scheme of things, but if not secured they tend to buzz when playing the violin. The pegs are nice and quite decorative. I wished they exited the pegbox on the ends, rather than terminate slightly inside. It would add quite a bit to the look if they protruded a bit. Instead you see the raw wood which sticks out to my eye as a new violin rather than looking like the antique patina they are striving for with this model. Minor comment that really doesn't matter much but the minor details count when trying to portray quality. The most important item that needs to be corrected is the bow, which in the description says, "deluxe Pernambuco bow." It is actually Brazilwood in the kit I received. They come from the same tree, but the Pernambuco is very tightly grained and comes from the center of the tree. My bow is very clearly Brazilwood and that was a huge letdown. I was really looking forward to the bow! Enough about the negatives... the case is quite nice and there is plenty of room for music books on the outer zip pocket. Inside the colors are nice and there is plenty of support for the violin body so the neck does not have to bear any of the load. There are spots for 4 bows, a large pocket for a shoulder rest, plus rosin and other odds and ends. There are carry straps on the sides and one on the end so it can stand vertically, which is quite nice. One of my little support feet fell out right away, and I took a photo of why. Not that big of a deal to me, but the little things matter if you want to appear to be top notch. The violin sounds top notch in my book, so a few odds and ends polished up and this violin can compete with others at easily twice the price. It is that simple! This is a 5-star review because for the money I paid, this is an amazing instrument that sounds just beautiful. It looks great and is wonderful to play too. I am extremely satisfied. It makes me a little sad that my real antique violin is now in the position of second fiddle.

I gave this 4 stars for the fact that the one I received plays well and sounds really good for this price point. The chin rest is borderline horrible and when I removed it the cork just fell apart. There is a ding all the way through the finish beneath the front of the tailpiece and near where the tailpiece attaches the is a dull, rough bare spot which almost looks as though it had a piece of tape on it that stripped the finish. However since it plays and sounds good, I replaced the chin rest and at some point, since it's well made otherwise, I'll probably strip the lacquer finish and finish it properly and it will be fine as a second violin. Since it was 30% off when I bought it, so 399.99, it's worth keeping and refinishing.

My daughter’s violin came out great. It has really good tone which I’m glad about. The tone is clear and strong. She’s been playing it daily with no problems and she’s had lots of fun with it.

The quality on these violins is extremely variable. The first one I bought was excellent - really good value for the price: a nice sounding, attractive, and very playable violin, a decent case, and a perfectly usable bow - so I bought another one (I live in several places and it saves traveling with the violin each time). The second one arrived (from the packaging it was obvious it was a previous customer return), and when I attempted to tune it the A string immediately snapped, then I realised they had shipped it with the A and G strings swapped (!!!) so of course the G string could not support being tuned over an octave higher. So much for being set up at the workshop - it had obviously never even been tuned. Also part of the case was missing. The violin itself looked ok just the setup was wrong and piece of case missing. So I sent that one back and got a replacement. The replacement was really poor quality: terrible varnish (they completely missed large areas), very sticky pegs (untunable really), and the bow could not be tensioned more than 1/3 of the way before jamming. It's a real shame, because if you get a decent one, these can be very good violins for the price. If they had all been like the first one I would not hesitate to give it 5 stars, but the quality control deserves a zero. Being amazon, if you have the patience and stick with it you can return the bad ones and end up with a nice violin (I did, in the end), but it's a pity they can't get it right from the start.

I bought the Cremona SV-800 after watching a Youtube demo from the Strings magazine. I also did a lot of researches online to decide on the best value in this price range. What set it apart from the other choices is that the violin is made of carefully selected high quality materials ranging from the beautiful flamed back to the Aubert aged bridge and Dominant strings. I was not disappointed after I received the violin and tried it out. The violin has a very beautiful warm tone particularly with the Dominant strings installed. It is also very well hand-crafted with the appeal of violins in the $1000 to $2000 range. The bow is a good quality Pernambuco with horsehair. I also took the violin to a local violin shop and received quite some positive feedback from the luthier on its construction and light weight. For the price, this violin makes a nice choice as an intermediate / advanced violin. I also encourage those who are considering this violin to search for the Strings magazine demo on Youtube. The sound quality is quite impressive indeed.