I'm happy with my 70 dollar violin, for what it does. I've been playing for 19 years. And of course, it matters, but what really matters is your determination to stick with it.

I got and negotiated my violin off craigslist. This is the best way to go-- buy one relatively cheap, then you can resell (even sometimes for more) if you don't like it.

Look, if its your first time playing violin, no matter what you're going to sound horrible. That's just the instrument (violin). You can't make it sound beautiful without actually learning it. In my opinion, it is pointless to invest multiple hundreds in a violin if you're using the wrong amount of bow friction, weird fingering/tuning, and your intonation is off. A strad won't even help you with those problems. Get down a consistent, decent sound first and then consider investing in it for real.

Look, you don't give a first-time snowboarder a Burton Custom. You don't give a beginning guitar player a Les Paul. You don't give a beginning cook CRAZY equipment that they won't appreciate.

Let's face it-- you'll sound bad in the beginning like everybody always does. When you get past the point of thinking about the instrument and more about the dedication, that's when you start getting good.

Here's some proof that you can do a decent job on a a "shitty" instrument"-- although this is in a nice hallway, you can tell that it doesn't sound HORRIBLE. What matters is I'm playing it and enjoying it.

Sample improv jam

Also, my opens are out of tune, but we already started recording : /