I wish I could put 4.5 stars as I don't want to give the impression that this is a perfect instrumment, but it is quite nice for a $100 piece.The first one I ordered had a warped and cracked fingerboard and had to be sent back, but the second arrived in good shape. I've only had it for a day and I am by no means a good string player, but this viola seems to keep itself in tune fairly well and it also has decent tone. The fine tuners are not great, but function just fine. The case is almost as good as the case my fairly nice violin came with. I've heard in other reviews that the strings are poor and should be replaced quickly, but they aren't terrible and if you're a beginner like me, they'll do for awhile. I had to score the rosin with a pocket knife before it would apply to the bow, which I'm given to understand is common, but not ideal (still, it worked). This brings me to the bow. The bow is very poor. Both violas I recieved came with warped bows and I can tell a big difference when I play with my violin's bow.In short, this is a good instrumment with some fixable shortcomings. The construction and tone are good, and I'm very happy with this purchase.