Overall Comments

Recently my excellent luthier (who I must travel a very long distance to see) did a setup on a "flea market" fiddle I bought. Tone is now excellent, and the low action (he slightly shaved the top of the bridge thus lowering the height of the bridge and lowered the string slots, I believe) is just so easy to play, so much so that I wanted all my other fiddle bridges adjusted for lower playing action. But since he lives far away, I thought I would try this "self adjusting" Glaesel bridge designed for low action as a temporary measure until I can have my luthier adjust my other fiddles. The Glaesel Self-Adjusting Bridge has feet that can pivot to conform perfectly to the fit of the violin's top, and the bridge is available in three different models for High, Medium, or Low action,. I chose the Low and am perfectly satisfied with the results. No change in the the fiddles' tone at all that I can tell, but much easier to play with the slightly lower action. This product can clearly serve as a "stop gap" measure to allow action adjustments until one can get a fiddle to a luthier for some setup work, although I actually doubt now that I will even need to re-visit my luthier for that purpose; I'm that satisfied with the results.

Overall Rating

10

Sound

Excellent tone and volume for Old Time music. I am extremely satisfied with its tone and volume as compared with three other fiddles/violins I have. It's the best of the bunch, and one of the others I'm using is an Eastman VL200, clearly an intermediate model, and this Luger exceeds that instrument both in terms of richness of tone (absent the brash, overly bright tone one usually finds on beginner models) and volume; it can be very loud. The lower-level Luger brazilwood bow that came with the outfit is superior to any other bow I own -- much better than the ones, even a carbon-fiber, that came with my other fiddles. Those fiddles sound better and louder when played with the Luger bow as well. Typical soft case with well supported sides, back, and top.

Sound Rating

10

Appearance

Beautiful, smooth matte / satin finish, very much unlike the cheap glossy finishes one often finds on beginner student or lower-level intermediate violins.

Appearance Rating

10

Customer Service

The store where it was purchased -- Barr's Fiddle Shop -- has always been extremely helpful and friendly toward me when I have talked with them. I am confident that if there ever were a problem I was having with the instrument, Barr's would take all necessary steps to insure my complete satisfaction.

Customer Service

10

Overall Comments

I seriously will probably buy [updated as of Feb., 2012, I did purchase a second one] a second CV300 (one to keep in standard, another for cross tuning), even though I've been considering a a CV500 as well. I actually prefer the matte / finish. In addition, I now use this violin / fiddle as the standard I'm using to measure the quality of tone of any of my other fiddles or others I may look at in the future.

Overall Rating

10