Glasser Carbon Composite 5-String Violin

good for what it is

On the whole, I quite like the instrument. background: I play 5 string violin (classical pieces as well as non-classical). I took my wooden 5 string camping and it did not do well with the heat/cold and needed repairing. I started looking into carbon instruments as a woods option. pricing of available carbon 5 strings is uneven: there's the Glasser, then the next step up in prices seems to be in the several thousands range, which is a bit on the high side for a strictly camping/outdoor option. On the plus side: - indestructible for any reasonable uses. no worries about heat/sun/cold/wet damaging the instrument. also, not as worried about loss or theft - wouldn't be happy if it were stolen, but not nearly as bad as a 5k fiddle walking off. - does fine for the price, certainly fine for playing in the woods. - geared pegs work great - doesn't have a proprietary chinrest (like some of the more expensive carbons) so that you can use any standard mounting chinrest. - playability is excellent On the negative side: - a bit on the heavy side, but most of the weight is toward the body, so not held out in the hand. not particularly problematic. - some QC issues: the first glasser I received had an unevenly notched nut, with the A and D strings close together. there was some back and forth with fiddlershop and glasser about it. fiddlershop exchanged the instrument and the replacement had no issues. Some thoughts: - strings sound a bit bright to me, but is likely just a preference thing, and they are new and might need some break-in time. if they don't change much, I'll try a set of darker strings when they need changing. - the scale length was set up shorter than on my wooden instrument. readjusted the bridge for a longer scale and the sound improved noticeably. would definitely recommend doing this before judging the sound. - the bridge was cut flatter across the A string notch than I like (makes it impossible to play above 3rd or 4th position on the A without playing double/triple stops with the D and E). this was very easy to fix with a trip to luthier. some might prefer the initial bridge cut for easier double stops. - the wooden 5 string sounds better and is lighter, however is also more expensive. wouldn't prefer the glasser as a primary/only instrument, but for what I need, the glasser is great.

my Glasser 5-string fiddle

Well, my fiddle came in and I was very excited to start playing it. The first thing I noticed was that the bridge needed some tweaking so that I had a little more room on each string. No problems there. Other than that, It's all good. I like it very much.