A VSO is a term that has enter the strings community’s lexicon over the past few decades. It’s an acronym , more specifically a TLA (Three Letter Acronym) meaning Violin Shaped Object. It’s arisen in popularity, dare I say infamy, because of the growth of very poor violins in the lower end of the strings market place.
Where once the skylark or dolphin (it it swims or flys don’t buy it) from the PRC (Peoples Republic of China) from the late 1900’s were regarded as bad instruments, unfortunately they have been surpassed in the race to the bottom by the VSO. These days it’s possible to buy pressed plywood instruments with plastic pegs….and now even worse plastic fingerboards, necks and scrolls. These instruments, need a lot of work to even hold a note, so that you can even hear how bad they sound and how difficult they are to play.
The term VSO arose as a way to describe these violins, quickly to parents and to make a distinction between them and something made from spruce, maple and hopefully ebony that has been setup to play well by a student.
They have risen in part because of the popularity of buying online. Violins on online marketplaces advertise “solid wood” and “quality” and often offer a violin for unbeatable prices of $99 or less for the undiscerning or new to string instruments buyer.
You see a violin takes around 200hours to make and so prices start from around $200-300 depending on where you live for something made in China. However you can make something that looks like a violin for a lot less if its from pressed plywood and uses plastic extensively. Buyer beware, if you don’t know, these violins look great – but its not until your poor child tries to play it, then you teachers tells you or it makes its way to a shop like mine, that you discover its not a violin…but a VSO.
I’ve wondered where the term originated from and a scour of the inter-web finds the first mention on the luthier forum “Maestronet” back in 1998. Where Bill T looks to have first coined the phrase “Violin Shaped Object” in this context. And from there it started to become a term more widely used in the luthier community and today is often used and described on specialty string music stores and by teachers alike.
“(and, incidentally are probably trying to copy a 17th century violin, not a plastic telephone-like violin-shaped object)”, Bill T, 1998, Maestronet
Here’s an at time humerous discussion on Maestronet in 2007 that sought to define what makes a VSO as it slowly started entering common vernacular in the strings community.
Anyways heres a look and comparison of the inside and out of a VSO and a regular violin
VSO
0:00 Introduction to the Violin Shaped Object (VSO)
0:29 Outside/Inside an actual violin
1:48 Outside/Inside a VSO Violin Shaped Object
3:00 The plastic VSO (the horror)