I bought a fiddle in the spring of 2009. I had kicked around the idea of learning to play, and I finally decided to just buy one and start learning to play it.
I bought it off Craigslist, it was $300 used, a Yamaha 4/4. From the internet I learned that it was a full size fiddle, and being a regular-sized adult, that would probably be fine for me.
I arranged to meet the seller, and I decided on a public place between where we both lived, which turned out to be a movie theatre. I opened the case, looked at it, and realized I didn't know anything about violins. I tried tightening the tuning pegs to see if there was anything wrong with them, and I snapped one of the strings. I was taken aback that it was wood on wood, I have an acoustic guitar, and the tuning pegs are firmly held on with screws, whereas the violin tuning pegs are a friction fit. The seller's first language was not English, he said "you can get new wires" they are indeed wire, but they're called strings. A bystander, whose first language sounded like it was English, said "yeah, you can get new wires, I know what I'm talking about!" Um yeah, okay, alright. I gave the man his money, and my boyfriend and I drove off to Long & McQuade to get new strings. There I discovered rosin as well, and how much strings cost. I took piano lessons for many years, and learned acoustic guitar later on, so I was familiar with Long & McQuade, just not the band instruments section.
