The Sydney String Centre

Violins

We stock a wide variety of violins to cater for all types of players from beginners to professionals. Please use the menu on the left side of the screen to browse through our selections of violins, bows and accessories.

Choosing your Violin

Choosing your violin can be a difficult process but we aim to make as simply as possible for you. Whether buying online or through our store our staff are there at every point to help you with any questions or queries.

Our Violins

Our overseas and local contacts allow us to stock a wide range of good quality insruments from Europe, Asia and Australia. As a matter of policy, we do not sell any of the cheaper range of Asian violins that you may find on ebay or other similar sites. This, combined with our comprehensive set-ups, ensures that we only provide quality instruments in excellent working order.

Our reputation as providers of quality stringed instruments means that we have exclusivity in both Sydney and Australia of many fine brands. Instruments are selected by our team of buyers who are either players, makers or both and wherever possible we work directly with the manufacturers to ensure the best possible quality at the lowest possible price.

Our Workshop and Set-ups

We have a comprehensive workshop allowing us to personally inspect each instrument to ensure a high level of quality. Each instrument then undergoes a complete professional set-up ensuring the highest level of playability.

Our Store

Our store, located in Chatswood in Sydney Australia has everything you need as a violinist. We have a huge range of violins on site, a comprehensive workshop for set-ups, repairs and restorations, two dedicated testing rooms as well as the largest range of string music in Australia.

Our Staff

All our staff are trained musicians and or luthiers with many years of experience in the industry. Please click HERE to find a particular staff member.

Choosing Your First Violin

Choosing your first violin can be a little confusing but our aim is to make it as simple as possible.

1.Choose Your Size

If you are a parent buying for your son or daughter, the first thing to work out is the size that your child needs. It is very difficult to do this without some experience so we would suggest getting advice from either your teacher or from one of our friendly staff. It is equally difficult to give advice about size over the net so we would suggest coming into our store with your child.

2. Choose The Quality

Once you have worked out what size you need, you will next need to decide what quality violin you want. You may have noticed on ebay and some other sites that there are some very cheap violins on the market. In our experience it can be false economy to spend less, especially if it is your first violin. Cheap violins are plagued with problems such as bridges and soundposts that aren't fitted properly, pegs that don't stay in tune and bows that aren't straight and don't tighten just to name a few. We therefore don't sell any violins that don't at least meet our minimum requirements. Also rest assured that all our violins have been professionally set-up. A set-up involves reshaping the bridge, fingerboard nut and sound post so that they fit and function correctly, servicing the pegs for ease of tuning and generally testing the playability and functionality of the violin to ensure that you wont have any problems.

As a rough guide we recommend the Kreisler #120 violins as ideal for absolute beginners up until approximately an AMEB or trinity 3rd to 4th grade standard. The Kreisler #55c and the Raggetti RV5 have a much more rich and powerful sound and are also ideal for begginers but we feel they are capable of performing up to approximately an AMEB or trinity grade 5 or 6. If you have already passed beyond an AMEB/Trinity grade 5 or 6, or if you think that you're after something a little better, then we would recommend looking at our range of intermediate and advanced instruments.

3. Choose Your Accessories

Its important to have everything you need to start playing. Unless otherwise stated, all our student outfits come as a package with the instrument, bow, case and rosin. In addition to this we recommend you also purchase a shoulder rest. We stock all the popular brands including Kun, Wolf and Fom. You will also of course need music! We stock many different tutors as well as instructional DVDs and other learning tools to get you started. Having difficulty tuning? These days electronic tuners are available, relatively inexpensive and take the hassle out of learning to tune.