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If you are a parent buying for a child, I know you will want to check out your purchase with your child's teacher and sometimes the summer break is long.  Well, customer service always has been my priority and at this time of the year I extend the no quibble return period to September 30th.Just one note about this - one year someone tried this when her real reason for return was that she had found herself unable to sell the instruments on at an inflated price under a false description on ebay.  That is the only time I have...

I don't do repairs so I have no axe to grind on this one. I saw these two violins in an online auction (not ebay but one involving a specialist auction house).  I liked the look of the violin on the left and the price was good. Or so I thought until I collected it. What should have been quite a nice violin from the 1930s had been repaired by an amateur, badly.  My neighbour who has zero knowledge of musical instruments but is good at general DIY would have done a better job.  For a start, a lot of...

Following the demise of Omega Music the liquidators put a catalogue online of all the stock that was up for auction and called me to alert me.  Well, naturally, once I had looked at that catalogue it made sense to see if there were any other violins.  And other auction sites.  And so it went on. It is something like 15 years since I had any dealings with antique violins, and those were either ebay finds or ones I had found locally.  They needed a lot to be done to them and I didn't make enough on them for it...

If you are buying for a school pupil and want the teacher too see the instrument, or want to use the AIPS scheme, please read on. I cannot allow instruments to be out on approval over the summer holidays or hold items over the summer waiting for a school order through AIPS.  Please check the last lesson date (if applicable) and work back from the end of term allowing for the following: 1. If you want a Gliga that I don't have in stock, you need to act NOW if not sooner - even then you may be too late. ...

Unfortunately the UK wholesaler who distributes Coda bows has changed policy and is now giving only a very tiny margin to anyone who is not a main dealer.  In fact because at the moment I am on the flat rate VAT scheme, which means that I cannot reclaim VAT, right now some of the coda bows would cost me exactly the same, to the penny, as the cost to the end user before VAT.  Since everything I supply is post free, that would mean taking a loss.  Stuff that!So, if you have your heart set on a Coda bow, thank...