HS-600 · Violin 4/4 Advanced · Bruch, Concerto No. 1 · $260–520 FOB
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Handmade in China · We are the workshop, not a trading company
Hear it before you buy it.
Handmade violins, violas and cellos direct from our workshop in Taixing, Jiangsu — at a fraction of the usual price. Hear one live, free.
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Made in China, by us Our own benches and our own luthiers in Taixing.
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Better, and cheaper Hand-carved plates, hide glue, no middlemen.
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Listen before you buy Recordings, live play-tests, blind A/B tests.
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Supplying US dealers, schools and private-label brands since 2012
- Torres String Shop Austin, TX
- Russo Music Group Newark, NJ
- Crescendo Academy Atlanta, GA
- Northline Rentals Minneapolis, MN
The service · the reason buyers switch to us
The Listening Room — choose a violin with your ears
You cannot hear a violin through a product gallery, and you are 7,000 miles away. So we removed that problem.
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Recordings — raw and unedited
Raw. No EQ, no reverb, no compression.
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Live play-test on WhatsApp video
Your piece, played live on camera. Free.
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Blind A/B test
Unlabelled. You pick by sound alone.
Set up a blind test
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HS-300 · Violin 4/4 Intermediate · Massenet, Méditation from Thaïs · $95–180 FOB
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HS-900 · Violin 4/4 Professional · Bach, Sonata No. 1 Adagio · $780–2,400 FOB
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Recorded on a Zoom H5, one metre away, in our assembly room. No EQ, no compression, no reverb — best on headphones.
Want a viola, a cello or another model?
Who makes it
Made in China — by the people who actually make it
Your violin is carved by hand in Taixing, Jiangsu — the town that makes most of the world's string instruments. What matters is not the label, but who stands at the bench.
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The bad reputation is 30 years out of date
In the 1990s, “Chinese violin” meant plywood plates and pressed arching — that is where the prejudice comes from. It also forced an industry to compete on quality: today Taixing workshops build instruments sold under European brand names you already stock, and every material we use sits within 20 kilometres of the bench.
And what we will honestly tell you
We are not Stradivari and we are not a €30,000 Italian bench. If you want a concert-grade investment instrument, we are not your supplier and we will say so. But between $100 and $2,500, nobody puts more instrument into a dollar.
The price
Better and cheaper — because of the route, not the wood
A good violin costs about the same to make in Taixing as anywhere else. What differs wildly is how many hands it passes through before it reaches you.
Step in the chainUsual routeFrom us
Maker$280$280
+ Trading company$420—
+ Exporter$560—
+ US importer$820—
+ Wholesaler$1,150—
What you pay$1,600$280
Same bench, same wood, same hands. You keep the other five markups.
Illustrative of how the markup chain works — not a quotation, and not a claim about any competitor.
- Solid carved plates — never plywood
- Graduation tap-tuned by hand
- Genuine inlaid purfling, knife-cut
- Hide glue · ebony board · 5–10 yr wood
Cheap is easy. These four we refuse to cut, on any line, at any price.
Inside the workshop
Roughly 140 hours of handwork per instrument
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Tonewood, dried for years
Spruce from the Carpathians and the Alps, maple from Balkan and Northeast-China forests, air-dried under our own roof for 5–10 years. Wet wood is why cheap instruments go hollow after a season.
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Carved and tap-tuned by hand
Plates are graduated to a thickness map from the classic Italian models — thicker in the centre, feather-light at the recurve. The maker taps and listens as it thins. No CNC, no pressed arching.
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Varnished, played and signed off
6–9 thin coats cured for 30+ days, then a player from our team plays every instrument through all four strings before it is approved and boxed.
Want photos, video or a live video call from the bench? Ask on WhatsApp →
What we build
Four lines, from rental fleets to concert stages
Violin, viola, cello and bass, with bows and cases in the same shipment. Prices are indicative FOB, mixed 6-piece order.
- HS-100 Student / rentalSolid spruce & maple, ebonised fittings $38–70
- HS-300 IntermediateSolid spruce, flamed maple, ebony fittings $95–180
- HS-600 Advanced Most orderedEuropean spruce, Balkan flamed maple, oil varnish $260–520
- HS-900 Professional / master10+ yr aged spruce, hand-rubbed oil, antiqued $780–2,400
Final price depends on model, wood, fittings and quantity. Samples welcome; no exclusive minimums.
Buyer reviews
What American buyers say
Erik Lindqvist Luthier & appraiser, Lindqvist String Workshop — Portland, ME★★★★★“I asked for the blind test out of scepticism. Four instruments, no labels, no prices. I picked the second cheapest — and the top end is genuinely sweet. If a supplier will lose against its own expensive stock, that tells you something.”
Priya Raman Director, Raman Academy of Music — Plano, TX★★★★★“Sample recordings had burned me before, so I asked them to play it live. One take, no edits, on a phone. Six of those are teaching instruments now.”
Anthony Russo Wholesale buyer, Russo Music Group — Newark, NJ★★★★★“480 instruments under our own label, photographed before shipping and sent to me on WhatsApp. Arrived early — about 40% under what our previous US wholesaler quoted.”
Questions US buyers ask first
Straight answers, no runaround
Can I really hear the instrument before I buy it?
Yes, three ways. Listen to the recordings above — raw and unedited, best on headphones. Book a live play-test and we perform the actual instrument for you on WhatsApp video inside US daytime hours, on any piece you name. Or ask for a blind A/B test, where we play several unlabelled and you choose by sound before we reveal the models and prices. All three are free.
Are you a factory or a trading company?
We are the workshop. Our own benches, our own luthiers, in Taixing, Jiangsu. There is no trading company between you and us, which is why our pricing and lead times are shorter than a reseller's. Ask for a photo of the person who will build your order and we will send one.
What is the minimum order, and can I get a sample first?
Six pieces for a mixed stock order, and one piece for a paid sample. Samples ship by express air in 5–9 days, and if you then place a bulk order above our threshold we credit the sample cost back against the invoice. Private-label runs usually start at 30–50 pieces per model, but we are flexible on a first run.
How does shipping and paperwork work?
Express air is 5–9 days door-to-door; sea freight is 28–38 days and cheaper per instrument once you pass roughly 30 m³. We ship EXW, FOB, CIF or DDP and can quote a landed price with duties included. Instruments go into a shaped hard case, then a double-wall export box, and our export desk prepares the invoice, packing list, bill of lading, certificate of origin and any CITES paperwork. Lead time 15–30 days for stock models; payment is T/T, 30% deposit and 70% before shipment.
What if an instrument arrives damaged or faulty?
Send photos on WhatsApp. For genuine transit damage or a manufacturing fault we ship a replacement free of charge, usually by express air, without waiting for the return. Our defect rate across 300,000+ shipped instruments is under 1%.
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One message is all it takes
Name a piece. We'll play it for you.
Tell us the passage you use to judge an instrument. A player from the workshop will perform it live on camera — no charge, no obligation, no sales talk.