This violin was recommended by online teachers and students alike, and for the few extra pounds, its worth getting the student 2 over the student 1. I also spruced mine up with a set of dominant strings, but its honestly not necessary and plays great with the standard strings it ships with. It is important to understand that in order to learn, progress and advance as a student violinist, you need your instrument to be able to sing for you - if you are fighting with your instrument to make it sound somewhat like it should (tuning every session or non resonant sounds on certain scales) then it will be difficult to progress - this violin won't fail you, and instead you can work on what YOU are doing wrong instead of figuring out what's wrong with your violin. Don't make the same mistake that I did and buy a "violin shaped object" as a non committal way of deciding if you want to learn to play. Buy one of these, and if you decide not to continue, i guarantee there will be someone out there who will buy it from you in new condition elsewhere!