I sometime wonder about whether as a left-handed musician, choosing an instrument is actually a lot easier.
As a guitarist, I often walk into guitar shops, and the first thing I do is scan the walls, full of guitars, sometimes hundreds of them, but within 1 minute I have walked out the door again.
"Nope, no guitars in there".
What must it be like as a right hander? How can you choose from that myriad of options?
So when it comes to looking for a violin, years ago when I first looked I went through the usual:
- "Such a thing does not exist"
- "There is no such thing as a left handed violinist"
- "I advise you to learn to play the violin 'properly'" etc, etc..
Fiddleheads already had my attention just by OFFERING left handed violins, I REALLY appreciate that.
Next comes initial contact, a few questions, and I am delighted by Rhiannon's responses to my emails. (even checking, to be sure, that I do really want the left-handed model)
I don't know so much about violins, when you're left handed you don't always get to try out other people's instruments.
My first violin was certainly very old, the seam on the back was coming apart. I flipped the strings, fashioned a new bridge for it, swapped the bass bar and sound post, yes, I unglued the back and carefully removed the bass bar... But it never really sounded very good.
Some years later I bought a 5 string left-handed model on ebay from china, then I found out just how much the 1st string peg on the wrong side was getting in the way of my right hand. This new one didn't sound so great acoustically, but anyway I "optimised" it for pickup use and mostly played it through guitar pedals.
All this rant about this past is kind of a "full disclosure" if you like, because otherwise what is my opinion on the VN-103L worth?
But even so, I'm going to tell you, this is a really, really nice violin.
I'm finding tones, noises, feelings in there that I simply cannot put into words.
Originally, having gotten separated (certain events of 2020-2021) for the time being from those other two violins (maybe a good thing) - I decided to look on line for a something affordable, anything at all that I could use to improve playing, or at least not allow it dis-improve.
As I said, I found Fiddleheads left hander section and starting talking to Rhiannon. She inspired me to up a level to the 103 (and the rest of the kit) - with the great value packages, free advice, and throwing in a few gifts, and assurances about shipping and import to Mexico - that all came good.
Yes, I ended up spending about double what I had envisaged. I am really, really happy that I did, that she helped me see the wisdom in that.
I think this VN103-L is a very special instrument, and I have not even broken it in yet!