I dont play violin as of yet, but im hoping to buy one and start learning in a few months, after my exams im hoping to start. does anyone know a good website, or shop in north-west england, where i can get a second-hand violin which wont break as soon as i pick it up, for under eighty quid?

I'm not from England but I was in the same situation a few years ago and I can suggest you do what I did. If you're not too sure you will want to play violin in future I'd suggest first renting one for a month or two just to try it out. But otherwise Pawn shops all have cheap violins with cases and bows. I got mine (understand that it is a peice of crap) for $125 Canadian at a pawn shop with a case, bow, and chin rest and then spent about double that on an electric pickup. But for about another $70-100, I put on a new tailpeice, strings, bridge, and chinrest. Either way, I'd really suggest calling up a few pawnshops and seeing if any of them have any violins I don't really know how much to spend in pounds but 100-300 would be my limit in Canadian. Also remember that when you go to buy a violin it usually won't have strings, if you already have a bow bring it and test out the instrument but remember to rosin (a lot of times the bow that the pawnshop will have will never have been rosinned in years and thus won't make a sound). Also when it comes to violins the shinnier and more laquered the instrument is the crappier it is (usually). Also, understand that you have chosen to learn the most expensive instrument. Strings rosin and other accessories will  be costly so even if the violin is cheap, you'll probably end up spending a bit of money regardless restringing and buying chin and shoulder-rests. Don't let that discourage you though, it just means that once you start to learn the violin you have to get good. Good luck, hope this helps and hat's off for wanting to learn violin, it's a great instrument.

I picked mine up off of eBay about 2 weeks ago.

it's a blast to play.

It's completely new, comes with a case, bow, strings, resin, all the good stuff.

And to top it all off, it was only $43 including shipping.

It's in perfect shape, has a beautiful sound, though the bow is really cheap.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7338065761&category=10180&rd=1#ebayphotohosting

there's the guy selling them^^