I have played violin for over 30 years. I teach violin and conduct a youth string orchestra. I have played old violins and new ones. My previous violin, which I loved dearly, was a Sofia Master Art. When I decided to upgrade my violin, Shar sent me a few old and a few new violins to try. I immediately fell in love with the Ming-Jiang Zhu Artist violin. None of of the other violins compared to it as far as overall playability and even tone throughout all the strings. It has a gorgeous, deep, even tone that projects beautifully. I absolutely love this violin. Great violin, great buy!

We've purchased this violin a year ago and this is really good. Worth to spend some money.. :)

I've only been playing for a few months and I'm coming to this from a student-level instrument. Take that into account when considering my review. However, I play other instruments and I understand tone. Tone matters and this instrument delivers. It's hard to put into words: rich, full, complex, balanced. It projects so much better than my other instrument. It's a wonderful instrument. My other instrument now sounds flat and muted. I've owned this for a few weeks, now. I play most days. I think I play more often and for longer because of how this thing sings. I love it. No regrets.

we have this violin for almost 1.5 years now. We bought this for our daughter when she moved from 7/8 violin to full size. She has been playing for 8.5 years, now working on level 8. We had compared this violin to other violins, then specifically with two other violins, but my daughter has the "first come first serve" mind, so we stick with this one; however, with no regrets! Whenever my daughter had a recital, comparing her violin voice to other students' 4/4 violins (some cost way more than hers), I thought hers sound the best! When we received it, the sound post got shifted and we did have to have the bridge lowered a bit, but these are no big deals (Shar has great service!). The violin are even on all strings and the sound is focus and a little on the bright side. This violin came with Peter Infeld strings with goldbrokat E), after nine months we put on Corelli Brilliant vivace strings which sounds okay (more like dominant strings) and the A sounded whinny. Lately, I decided to switch to Obligato string and found that the Obligato strings makes it sounds a little darker, especially the G strings, which both my daughter and I like. This violin also makes vibrato seems easy and more conspicuous. At the beginning, I had questions about this violin, like does it come with a certificate, what model does it compare to (905, 909, 925, etc) but now I think the sound of the violin is what we care about; after all, it does have a label that says it's from Ming Jiang Zhu's workshop.

I'm coming to this from a student-level instrument. Compared to that, this sounds amazing. I don't know how to describe it in words: depth, projection, openness. My other instrument sounds flat and muted by comparison. That said, I have to take issue with the item description: "During a private visit with Master Zhu in China, our Shar professional violinists test-played and handpicked a limited number of these very rare Artist models - other than a personally-made Zing-Jiang Zhu violin, there is no higher model - only available directly from Master Zhu, and exclusive to Shar." The label in the violin I received is dated 2016, 2 years after Zhuís death. So, this statement canít be true. Also, I expect that the Zhu Workshop model S925 is a ìhigher modelî. Also, in a Q&A Shar makes the statement "The instrument's tone wood is selected by the shop and is most likely a Chinese tone woodî. This contradicts the item description which states "Handcrafted with premium European tonewoodsî. The model number ìMJ100î seems to be a Shar designation as I have not found any other reference to this model. No certificate was provided, which I was under the impression was standard practice with Zhu violins. If this is a a rebranding of a specific Zhu model, which model is it? I have emailed Shar about this and have not received a reply.

I bought this for my daughter as an upgrade from 3/4 to full size. It has a very distinct quality sound. It is loud and can hit low and high notes. Sale Price was good for the quality and level. Was an easy order.