A few years ago, one of my new students brought a Gliga violin to their lesson. I had never played a Gliga before, but as soon as I took the violin to tune it, I fell in love. The sound projection was strong and clear, the tone was bright, the quality and craftsmanship seemed top-notch. I found the violin comparable in many aspects to my much more expensive personal violin. I’m always on the lookout for good quality student violins (since there are definitely a lot of poor quality VSOs out there), so I decided to learn more about this violin brand. I purchased a Gliga Gems 2, a mid-range student violin. Overall, I’m extremely pleased. But before we get into the violin review, let’s talk a little bit about Gliga.

Gliga violins are made in Romania and shipped to U.S. customers from their shop in Nevada. One of my favorite things about this company are the options! It’s not just beginner, intermediate, and advanced violins. There are many different options for any budget. They also have every size of violin, even the harder to find sizes. I have small hands for an adult and I’ve been on the lookout for a 7/8 size violin for a while. Gliga is the only violin maker I know of that has many options in this size. You can also choose from a variety of varnishes and styles, which is a far cry from your typical, mass-produced, student violin. And if you’re in to hand-painted violins, there’s some interesting options. (I’m not a huge fan of the peacock violins, but to each his own!)

My violin is a Gems 2. I paid a total of $317 for a violin, case, bow, and shipping. When picking your violin, you can choose to upgrade your case, bow, and strings but I went with the standard option on everything.

Customer service

Gliga was easy to work with. Their website looks a bit dated, but ordering the violin was easy. My violin arrived in a timely manner and it was well-packaged. Gliga also offers a 10-day trial period with a 10-day money back guarantee.

*2022 Update: In the last two years I have seen a significant drop in Gliga’s customer service. They still ship violins in a timely manner, but they do not always respond to questions or phone calls. They still offer a good product at a good price, but their lack of communication may be something worth considering when deciding between violin providers.

Case

The case was fine. Nothing to write home about (few student cases are), but it was clean, sturdy, and lightweight.

Violin Appearance

The violin has a very beautiful finish, especially compared to other violins at similar prices. Most student violins look and feel like student violins, but the Gliga is visually appealing with a warm-red stain and an attractive back.

Tuning

The pegs on my violin fit very, very well. There’s definitely no slipping going on here. They are tight! To fix this, unwind the pegs a little and pull them out slightly. Not a lot, you just don’t want them pushed all the way to the end of the hole. I would definitely recommend purchasing your violin with fine tuners since the pegs on their own can make it difficult to get the string perfectly in tune. Student violins come with four fine tuners but as you go up in quality, it’s standard practice to only have one fine tuner on the E string. However, if you are just starting out and you are interested in the higher level violins, definitely spend the extra and get fine tuners on all four strings. Choosing the Wittner Space Age Tailpiece would be a worthy upgrade. If you’re wondering, it looks like a normal tailpiece, but the fine tuners are built into the tailpiece. It will also make changing strings much easier. I went with the standard tailpiece and trying to install new strings into the fine tuners was difficult.

You can also get perfection pegs installed. Perfection pegs are geared pegs that work like guitar pegs but look like traditional violin pegs. I have them on my professional violins and I’m planning to put perfection pegs on the Gliga. Right now, there is no option on Gliga’s website to upgrade to perfection pegs, but it wouldn’t hurt to call and ask them to install the pegs before shipping it to you. It would definitely be worth the extra money. If Gliga included the option for perfection pegs, this violin would be the absolute perfect beginner violin.

Chin rest

I have to mention the chin rest because this one is REAL wood. Most beginner chin rests are cheap plastic that feel uncomfortable. The Gliga chin rest is a good height and contour.

Bow

I opted for the standard Student Brazilwood Octagonal Violin Bow. Most wooden student bows are generally poor quality (it’s better to go carbon fiber at that price point) but I was pleasantly surprised by this bow. It looks and feels much nicer than typical student bows. When looking straight down the bow, it is ever so slightly warped, but I’m not able to tell an adverse effect while playing. It’s fairly lightweight and pretty responsive for a student bow. I’m able to use quite a bit of weight without getting a scratchy sound. It is a little more unforgiving at the frog and with string crossings. I think a beginner violinist would do fine with this bow, but I would be interested in trying the upgraded Rosewood or Carbon Fiber bow. Although I haven’t tried either of the upgraded options, if you can afford it, I would suggest going for the Carbon Fiber option.

Strings

I went with the standard Romanian steel strings and these left a lot to be desired. The E string is fine, and the A string is okay. But the D string is very metallic sounding (even after playing a few weeks) and the G string is muffled. The differences in sound qualities make the strings sound uneven. It’s especially bothersome when trying to play double stops. Definitely pay the extra for some better strings during the checkout options as this is a relatively cheap upgrade that can make your violin sound a hundred times better. After a couple weeks, I removed the Romanian strings and I put on Evah Pirazzi strings. It made this violin a completely different instrument. I enjoyed playing this violin with the better strings. I use Evah Pirazzis on all my violins. They are expensive, but so worth it. At the very least, upgrade to the Dominant violin strings (the standard in beginner-intermediate violin strings).

Tone

Cheap strings make the tone hard to judge. This is another reason to spring for the better quality strings. Once I put Evah Pirazzi strings on, this violin’s tone completely changed. The sound quality is even across the strings. It has a warm quality in the lower ranges and projects in the higher ranges without being shrill. The quality of tone for the price range is outstanding and outplays any other beginner-level violin I’ve played.

Set-up

This violin is ready to go out of the box. It needed tuning, of course, but the strings are the correct tension and the bridge is the appropriate height with the right amount of curvature. You would be surprised at how many beginner violins lack this basic set-up!

Rosin

This outfit does come with rosin. It looks fine but to me, but I just used my own rosin. It’s worth spending a little more for some good rosin. A cake of superior rosin can last you for years (as long as you don’t drop it).

Summary

All in all, this is a great violin for a beginner player. The price point is superb for the quality of the violin. I’ve seen lots of violins that are a little cheaper but vastly inferior. The Gems 2 could take a student all the way through the beginning levels into the early intermediate stage.

Pros

Easy to order
Lots of options on size, appearance, and quality
Good craftsmanship, beautiful appearance
Correctly set-up and ready to play
Standard Options allow for a great violin with a budget price tag.

Cons

Pegs can be difficult to turn at first
Romanian strings don’t have the best sound
Standard tailpiece with fine tuners made changing strings difficult

My recommendations

Make sure you have four fine tuners. Choose the upgraded Wittner tailpiece.
Definitely upgrade to better strings. I recommend the Evah PIrazzis or Dominants.
Go for the carbon fiber bow, or at least the rosewood bow.

Find Gliga online here! Gliga also offers a coupon code with the following discounts. Use the discount code VL1003 in the “Comments” section during checkout. Don’t put the code in the coupon section, make sure you enter it in the COMMENTS and your discount will be manually subtracted after your order processes.