This violin was a Christmas gift for me as a beginner young violinist! It produced good quality of sound for it's rather small size, and was fairly light to carry around when in it's case! This violin was good for orchestral playing as it didn't draw to much attention to the player, and didn't make too much noise! However, it's also good for soloists because of the good sound quality and because the level of sound is just about right! I would say that the colour of this violin was slightly darker in it's shade of brown than I would have hoped for, and personally I prefer orangey brown coloured violins, but it still looked fairly good when you wre playing it! As I was only a beginner, this was an excellent instrument for me as it was sturdy, of good quality, fairly light, and had fairly good sound quality. All in all, I'd give it an overall percentage of 70% for a beginner like I was when I accepted this violin as a generous gift at Christmastide! My mum bought this violin for me from Forsyths in Manchester! By the way, they have a website, except that you can't by anything off the website, so you have to phone in on the phone number landline provided!