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Reviews (1)
Aug 04, 2017
Beautiful violin let down by terrible workmanship and quality control.
2 of 2 found this helpful I bought this CVN-700 violin outfit because it seemed to be a great value with all the accessories ideal for a complete beginner to the violin. The reason I chose Cecilio's CVN-700 model instead of one of their much cheaper and lower end models is because I hoped that the upcharge would mean getting an instrument that has at least some care put into its manufacture in order to ensure a perfectly playable instrument without any critical defects in structure or workmanship. The accessories that come with the CVN-700 are almost identical to those that come on the cheaper models with minor variations to the bows and cases.
My review is written from the point of view of a guitarist and guitar luthier with formal woodworking education and years of experience performing setups, minor repairs as well as tonal adjustments on both acoustic and electric guitars. I have had the opportunity to personally inspect 3 CVN-700 violins as a result of my purchase.
The positive points of the CVN-700 outfit from my experience are as follows:
1. Beautiful wood that has been aged 7 years.
2. Plenty of accessories for a beginner to start out with.
3. Affordable price.
The negative points of the CVN-700 outfit are as follows:
1. Inconsistent workmanship on all 3 violins both structural and cosmetic.
2. Wrong case was shipped with the first violin and the replacement crescent shaped case arrived without a key and with defective workmanship on the bow locking latches that overlap each other and force the bows to be compressed when stored together.
3. Accessories included were of very poor quality.
4. All 3 violins were setup very differently from each other with inconsistent sound post locations to differing string action as well as bridge curvature.
5. 2 of the 3 violins had badly angled end button holes that forced the end button to sit at an angle enough to shift the entire tailpiece off center therefore requiring an exaggerated bridge location to compensate. This is probably caused by workers at the factory drilling these holes free hand without a proper jig and guide.
6. The fingerboards of all 3 violins have minor chips and have been stained black to make the wood darker than it naturally is, this is most evident at the edges of the fingerboard which points to a lower quality grade of wood.
7. The pegs on all 3 violins show signs of splintering with off center drilled holes where the string is inserted and are badly fitted to the pegbox making accurate tuning impossible without the use of the fine tuners.
8. The nut on one of the violins had poor string spacing and workmanship that affected playability and tuning stability.
9. The neck angle which affects the projection on all 3 violins were inconsistent with the first 2 being too low and the 3rd being ideal to allow for a lower action.
10. There are small chisel marks on the tops of the violin where it is apparent that the manufacturer hastily cut the purfling to size against the spruce top during the inlaying process. This seems to be common practice on some Chinese factory made violins and can be seen in various factory videos online.
11. The 2nd violin I received had a hidden crack or deep scratch under the fingerboard that might have been stained and varnished over to appear as antiquing.
12. Terrible quality control from Cecilio's factories that should have caught all these issues and rectified them before distributing these violins for sale.
13. Cecilio unfortunately does not seem to warrant defects in poor and improper workmanship, only damages such as cracks seem to be covered.
In summary, the negative points do seem to outweigh the positives at a glance however I would like to point out that my review is solely based on my experience with 3 of these violins and as a result of my experience, I cannot honestly recommend this violin. I suggest only buying a violin outfit that has a guarantee on being made geometrically sound with playing surfaces that are properly aligned and without any defects in structure or workmanship.
Buying a Cecilio violin would require a further investment in a proper setup at least in order to fix most of the the issues mentioned above. Major issues such as a badly cut nut, shallow neck angle, badly drilled end button holes would usually require a much more expensive repair if the work is to be done right. Please consider all potential and additional costs when buying a violin that might look like a great deal until the details are studied extensively. I hope that my review will help anyone who might be considering buying this violin as well as hope that your experience will be much better, thank you!