Testimonials

We would like to thank you and your dedicated staff for helping to choose something that for some people is just an instrument, but for our daughter, it is THAT violin. We were very grateful for the time spent with our daughter, and for the professional suggestions, which helped us to choose the right violin from the many you presented to Alex. Despite the need to make some changes later on,  we did not find it difficult to return some things. Thank you again for the extra free violin case you sent to Alex which will allow her to travel in a more comfortable way. We all had a fantastic experience whilst visiting your shop in Cardiff. Thank you for your kindness.

Cardiff Violins saved me from a musician's worst nightmare: realising in rehearsal, on the day of a concert, that my cello had been damaged in transit! I can't thank them enough for lending me a lovely instrument for the concert and being so calm when faced with a very, very agitated cellist in their shop. The repairs are first rate, as is the new bridge, and the soundpost adjustment has the instrument sounding better than it has in many years.

I just wanted to send my thanks one last time. The bow arrived today, and I couldn't love it more! It looks and plays beautifully!

The bow arrived - FOUR MINUTES LATE!!!!!!. A beautiful bow with no distracting decoration. Intelligently rosined, this plays well. As expected, I prefer Coruss to traditional horsehair but will retain pernambuco and horsehair for my gut strung instruments.

I want to thank you and Chris for all the help you gave me yesterday and last week to choose a viola.  I was pleased that you had so many instruments in my price range, and that you were able to give me time to try them out.  You have a lot of really lovely instruments, including a good dozen in the size range that I need for my relatively short fingers, and I was able to choose a bow and a case to suit. Having played 15 or 20 instruments of yours over two days I found there were at least 10 violas that I would have enjoyed buying, but I was particularly taken by two: firstly one made by your husband, Chris, which I brought home to try out for a few days, but had to eventually admit to myself that it was too big for my relatively little fingers, and then you showed me the one I eventually bought, which was made by Paul Harrild and which I could not help wanting to pick up time and again yesterday after trying another.  Paul's instrument is a gorgeous amber colour, a real beauty to look at, and has the richest tone, even and smooth throughout the register.  It has a sonority which is one of the things I would look for in a viola, and a much better C string than many others, then it will sing with that baritone voice through the G and D strings where the sound simply bounces out, and is brilliant (but not strident) higher up the A string.  I love it to bits, and my wife is just as pleased as I am! Perhaps one day I will meet Paul, I would like him to know how much pleasure his instrument is giving.  I would recommend Cardiff Violins to anyone else wanting to buy a good quality instrument.  I am delighted with the one I bought, and look forward to playing it for decades to come.

I am very happy with the new set up and work done on my viola. It is so much easier to play and tonally satisfying. I'd like to thank the team for all their hard work; also your generosity and the warm welcome I felt from Cardiff Violins. Here is David playing four violas at the same time! 

I am a beginner and have just bought a 7/8 cello and bow from Cardiff Violins. Buying a new instrument was made so easy by Cardiff Violins who made sure that Katja was available to play all the available instruments. Hearing a lovely cellist play your proposed instrument is such a luxury and a great way of helping one to choose. My teacher was very pleased with the quality and set-up of my new cello, and thinks that it is a really good buy. She is also delighted to now have a source of 7/8 cellos to direct her pupils to (even though we live in the SE England!) I did not feel under any pressure to purchase an instrument and was given plenty of time to decide. Everyone is very welcoming and kind. I would highly recommend the professional, and kind approach of everyone at Cardiff Violins.

I could not be more delighted with the service I received at Cardiff Violins. As an enthusiastic fan of “Sherlock BBC”, I’ll admit I wanted to see the shop that had supplied the violins for the TV series. As soon as I walked into the shop, I told Cecile and her assistant that I couldn’t afford to buy a violin, but despite that they readily brought out two of the “Sherlock” violins and even allowed me to play them. Because I am a beginning violin player, I was self-conscious to play in front of other people, and Cecile and Katja were kind enough to let me have the practice room to myself for as long as I wanted. Alone in the room, I closed my eyes and squeaked out a few notes on these beautifully crafted instruments. My heart soared. Of the two violins I played, the violin I fell in love with was the one used in the final episode of “Sherlock.” (For “Sherlock” fans, this was the violin Eurus used, then passed to Sherlock. Eurus then plays it for the finale piece “Who You Really Are.”) The instrument was so smooth in its tones and the craftsmanship so superior that I found myself in tears just from playing it.

This exact violin was particularly important to me, because the song that is played at the end of the final episode had inspired me to learn the instrument despite being 40 or so years older than an average violin student.

In my wildest dreams, I couldn’t have imagined owning this precious violin, and you can imagine my shock when Cecile was willing to work with me on paying for the violin with which I’d fallen so deeply in love. She was even willing to ship it to me in the United States, and it arrived just a few days after our return to the United States. (I was so nervous while it was en route, but it arrived in absolutely perfect condition. It was even mostly in tune!)

As my violin and I get to know each other better, I realize that its outstanding craftsmanship will really help me move to the next level in my playing. Several problems I’d had in my playing disappeared simply because this instrument is so intuitive. I predict I will have many years of joy, thanks to this violin and the kind expertise of the staff at Cardiff Violins.