I would have given this 5 stars except for the fact that in less that a week of use a string broke so I had to have it replaced. No biggie, I'll probably go back and replace the rest of the strings (I would have done so already but my local music shop was out of the sets). I didn't expect a top end piece for the price but my daughter absolutely loves this violin and was dying to go back to school after the winter break to show it off! Also, I was just told by my daughter that we'll need to replace the bow it is hard to tighten properly to produce the correct sounds. But all in all I would by it again.