This is an electric violin. I am not much of a violinist but I have a friend who is, and I asked him to try it out after I did personally. First I tried it, and I immediately noticed that the bow that comes with this instrument is lackluster at best. When I borrowed my friend's bow, I found I had a much easier time playing it. The tone when unplugged is very lifeless and scratchy, not a great acoustic instrument. I found I had much better luck when I plugged it in. At first I tried my Fender twin amp, and I found that I didn't like the sound (it really made me sound bad, all the flaws were dramatically highlighted). It's better with acoustic guitar amps, they don't color it the same way an electric guitar amp does, and they'll respond better to effects and manipulations than an electric guitar amp would. I could tell that there were a lot of flaws with the instrument, as there wasn't a lot of room for tone control or anything like that. I found that once my friend played it, it sounded far better, simply because his tone control is way better. He too, however, had some of the same complaints as me. On the other hand, it's only about $250. For such a cheap instrument, I can't even describe how good it is. I would say that anybody not looking for a beautiful, rich sound, but is rather more interested in producing foreign or unusual textures (think George Crumb's "Black Angles") or is looking for crazy sounds like Warren Ellis or John Cale are used to doing, this might be a worthwhile investment. Keep in mind that you'll need a ton of effects to really get your money's worth, assuming this is your end goal. If you're looking to play stuff that's closer to traditional violin sounds, you'll have to invest in a higher quality instrument. However, for $250, this isn't bad even as an alternative to an acoustic violin. While I've found cool uses for it, I don't think I could recommend to anybody immediately, though I would suggest that they check it out.