Hi Leeneia,

I am still playing the Fairfax violin as my main instrument. It's mellowed out some, but the tone is still a bit too bright in my opinion. It originally came with Pirastro Obligato strings. They are good strings and I stayed with them until the price went up to $75/set. So recently I tried the Pirastro Violino at $32/set. To my ear, they're just as good, perhaps a little less bright (more mellow), and much more affordable. I'll see how they hold up.

A few years ago I was given an older violin by a friend. It had a sad and traumatic history. It was in pieces and I paid $500 to restore it. It's a ca. 1900 German student violin, but I think it's probably worth three times what I paid to restore it. Not as nice as my Fairfax, but not bad either. Here's an article I wrote about it - Soul of a Violin.

Cheers, S. in Seattle