Fit and Finish issues
First, the violin sounds lovely. No issues there.
I have two concerns with it overall. I bought this for my 12 year old, because carbon fiber is resistant to climate issues (we live in a zone 2 which is hard on wood instruments). Also, children do occasionally drop things, bang things, forget what they're doing and leave things out where the cat can jump on them... that sort of thing, so the general sturdiness of the instrument was a selling point. Additionally, being able to buy a luminous blue violin with a matching blue bow was a big deal for my artistic child, and continues to be a motivator for him to pick it up and practice.
The first issue is how heavy it is. I expected it to be weightier than a typical wood instrument, but it's really significant, especially for a child. It took a lot of angst and getting used to, and he's still struggling with correct posture after nearly a year. The weight is focused on the chinrest where the pickup is, which is a logical place for the extra weight to be, but still it's a lot for a kid. I think a larger, well muscled adult wouldn't notice it as much, but for a child with the arm and finger length to play a 4/4 but a slender build really has to work at holding and playing the instrument.
My other problem is the fit and finish and some of the ergonomics. The fittings that attach the chinrest are at exactly the spot where a shoulder rest attaches, and we went through several different shoulder rests, even unscrewing one of the chinrest attachments so we could get the shoulder rest on there. The chinrest is sort of unattached at one point, and flops around. It's not an issue when its actually being played since the player's chin presses it down against the instrument, but it's still an inelegant solution. We bought nearly half a dozen shoulder rests to find one that would work - turns out the Play On Air ones work ok.
The A and D tuning pegs are loose. The planetary thing is fine, but they aren't set into the box firmly, so we still have to go through the process of really pressing the peg in while we tune it, like a traditional peg. It's something we can work with, but it both those strings have a tendency to dramatically loosen, not because the planetary gear failed, but because the thing the gear is set into suddenly came loose.
The bow is completely unusable, which is a shame, because it's very cool looking. I've taken apart and reassembled plenty of bows, but I can't figure out what went wrong with this one. The screw piece at the end, the one you turn to tighten and loosen the bow, has completely come out, and the frog is still attached, unmoving, in a 'not quite tight enough to play' position. It's like the threads were stripped or something.
The concept of this violin is cool, and the sound is good, and the kit is well thought out and worth having, but all the little details that make an instrument playable are a mess. I wouldn't buy one of these unless you live someplace with a luthier who can fix random stuff.
