Orchestra?

When our daughter started orchestra we rented a violin from Williamson Music. It was sufficient for the year and a half but I would not buy from Williamson. I just did not like the store and staff very well.

Our daughter ended up being a natural with the violin and we purchased her violin from Dallas Strings in Allen. Dallas Strings takes care of a lot of instruments for the Allen and McKinney schools with rental plans.

Ron and Cara Gilbert (owners) are fantastic and very knowledgable on instruments. ###-###-#### www.dallasstrings.com

They have instruments that are high quality. Keep in mind... a cheap instrument will sound cheap.

We paid around $3000 for her violin and it sounds wonderful. Her orchestra teachers would play hers all the time.

They had wide price ranges with insruments.

Good luck!

We rented our daughter's violin for three years before we were sure she was serious about playing. We also wanted to rent the smaller ones and purchase one when she graduated to full-size.

Our local high schools here have a sale every year of used student instruments. Maybe you could contact some in your area to see if they do this. Otherwise, we bought ours where we rented from and got a pretty good deal.

Can't you rent one? Seems like the best way to go. Ask her music teacher, or google music stores in your area.

estate sales? craigslist, ebay, etc? but transporting a cello is risky becuase it's so fragile, and also if you switch from a dry to humid climate in can wreak havoc on the wood. so find one close enough to pick up yourself.

Cheap instruments well just sound cheap. We are renting and my son hates it, but to purchase a decent cello that is not full size is out of the question. Most rental places have rent to own. Technically we our purchasing this one we use, but what they actually do is take your credit When you bring the cello back and you can use that towards a decent one. And the cello we are renting, is decent but not awesome. He loves to play but in one year he knows the difference. He is grudgingly being patient waiting to go up in size so we can purchase one. Once he is on a full size we will be looking to buy a really nice one.

We pay $46 a month with Williamson Music co, in plano( I belive they have other stores) about $33 goes to future purchases, the rest is insurance and repair fees. Been very happy with them, they have fixed his bow, will graduate him up to the appropriate size until we are ready to buy.

Unfortunatly if he sticks with it we will be dropping a fortune. But, I would like to see him continue and that will not happen unless we give him the proper tools he needs.

Look on your community classifieds.
Or Craig's List.
Or look up your local University or High Schools or local Symphony to see if anyone there has a used one, to sell.

Does her school orchestra, not have, instruments for the students to use? My school did, when I was in middle school.

Many times there are music stores that rent them.. Ask the Orchestra Director or google it.

Yup, check out the Musician's Friend website or order a catalog...my husband and I are both musicians, and have bought everything through them for at LEAST the last fifteen years. They run GREAT rates, way under list price, they have closeouts, refurbs, etc...a huge selection, great return policy, great customer service...I can almost guarantee that for the price, you'll get your best quality and best deal through them.

We rent my son's cello from the school. Have you talked to her orchestra teacher about it?