Helping others through the journey of buying a violin, viola or cello.

Buying a violin can be extremely challenging for a variety of reasons. Starting with the sheer amount of choice, it’s often hard to know where to begin. Other factors then come into play such as budget, tone, sound quality, etc. MyLuthier started during my studies at the Royal Academy of Music and its goal is to help address this issue.  

Like many other students, I was privileged enough to be loaned an instrument by the Academy Becket and Calleva collections. These helped me through my studies and proved to be a valuable tool in shaping my musical life.

However there is a time in every musician’s life when they must find their own instrument and that time invariably came for me. I was finishing my studies and had to give back my violin to the Royal Academy after which I would start my quest to find a suitable instrument.

Buying an instrument is a tricky endeavor and it can be very hard to know where to start. Luckily for me, I was acquainted with some of the main dealers in London and therefore had a starting point.

I decided on a budget and proceeded to try as many instruments as I could within my price range.

The quality of the instruments varied greatly as my budget wasn’t extremely high which sometimes makes it hard to know what the instrument is actually worth both in terms of an investment as well as from a musician’s point of view.

While this was a useful experience and gave me a good overview of what was available in the shops in London, I felt there were lots of instruments that I was missing out on either because they weren’t with a dealer, or because the sellers didn’t have a platform on which to advertise themselves.  

During my instrument search, I started getting very interested in modern violins and their makers. As a student, one doesn’t come across them very often – we mainly hear about the great old Italian or French masters.

Wanting to try some, I looked for them both online and in person.

To my disappointment, they were extremely hard to find. Dealers tend to favour instruments that are worth more (i.e. older instruments) and the resources to find modern makers online are very limited and very difficult to find.  

Nowadays, most people are very eager to find as much information as they can online that can help narrow down their search and save them a considerable amount of time.

This is where our platform comes in. It offers an easy-to-use, streamlined way of finding contemporary instruments from today’s best luthiers. This enhances the customer experience and has the potential to connect you with many new makers.

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