Welcome to your fiddle journey. Aside from having a decent instrument, properly set up and a teacher that you like/trust, I'd say listen to as much of the fiddle music that you admire as you possibly can. the players you like. Then you'll know how you're progressing. In many ways being a guitar player gives you a leg up on rank beginners; you should understand chord structure and scales already. But you will also have a hinderance from being a plectrum player - fiddles have unlimited sustain, unlike guitars. There is a world of technique for your left hand to learn. And using a bow can be counter intuitive for those used to a pick.

Playing a fiddle is not easy! At first, even for experienced musicians, what you will get at first is mostly noise! Guitar at first you push down on the strings and strum - viola! - music. SO not true of the fiddle. Just be very patient, and stick to it!

Good luck!

There are good quality violins made in Romania. The makers there have a style that tends to be a little fuller in the arching with more pronounced edges channel. If they’re varnished and set up well, they often have a very strong presence in the lower registers, something that especially appeals to old time and bluegrass players. The downfall of most of the Romanian violins I’ve seen that came directly from factories has been in the varnish, which tends to be very hard and in some cases quite thick. A varnish that’s like that can really choke the sound out of a fiddle. The setup from any factory tends to be mediocre, as a lot of corners are cut to maintain production speed; fortunately, unlike the varnish, it’s simple to change the setup.

The price seems rather high to me. Compare this to the Martin Beck violin, also made in Romania but hand varnished in Bethesda. These violins sell for $1600 or so and they are good quality in appearance and sound. I’ve had customers pick a Beck over violins in the $3000 range, so their lower price does not indicate a lesser quality in any way. If your violin does everything needed and pleases you, you haven’t necessarily made a bad purchase; I just don’t think you’d have a very easy time reselling it if you ever wanted something different. As people have become more and more comfortable buying violins online, prices for factory instruments have increased substantially. Since the online retailers don’t have to deal with taking things back in trade, they can ask higher prices and put the burden of having to explain why their resale value is so low to local shops. If the customer realizes what’s happened and is angry with the retailer, there’s no recourse, as trade-in was never offered and the sale is final. On the other hand, if the customer doesn’t realize, the anger may end up being mistakenly directed at the local shop, which will be accused of trying to gouge the customer on the trade, and the customer will end up placing even more trust in online retailers and repeating the same mistake or encouraging others to do so.

I hate to sound pessimistic, but I think any description of the wood or origins or a factory violin should be taken with a mountain of salt. A lot of deceptive or outright false advertising is used to attract buyers. How can you be sure that a top came from the Carpathian forests? I see violins from Chinese factories that are graded based on using European wood vs. domestic wood, but the differences are not always apparent (if they even exist). The more I see, the more I just completely ignore the marketing and judge a violin on its workmanship alone. If the price is reasonable enough, I don’t really care where it was made, whether it was done with machinery, or what forest sourced the wood. This is why I tend to steer clear of the higher-priced factory violins. Having seen a lot of factory instruments, I’m fairly convinced that the difference in level often comes down to which varnish is used to spray them and which fittings and strings are put on.

Eastman is a huge company that supplies shops all around the country. Their products are generally reliable. I think that at the higher end you end up paying a little too much for what you get, and they can also be impossible to resell (buyers often don’t want a used model when a new one will be pristine). Again, the commercial varnishes that are sprayed on have limitations when it comes to aesthetics and sound.

As far as the strings, I wouldn’t recommend Zyex for classical or bluegrass playing. You would find a lot of improvement by switching to something else. I’d also suggest having a good luthier look at the setup. That can make a huge difference in how it performs.

Well, welcome to the world of fiddling. As noted above at first it will be noise not music, buy a good mute. Yes, a teacher to help you get started is good. Play daily, each time you pick it up tune it, play scales with your tuner on, it will help develop muscle memory. A bow is not a pick, take time learning which grip you prefer, how much rosin to use and how to smoothly pull and push the bow. Fiddling is way cool. And fifths tuning is great Enjoy the journey. R/

Well if my teacher doesn’t think the fiddle is any good Sweetwater has a great return policy and yes I do take the description with a grain of salt. I was just repeating what was on Sweetwater and the Knilling website. As long as it’s good wood I don’t care where it comes from. Like my Martin D28 I have no idea where the wood comes from but it’s a great guitar. Thanks for all the advice. I know at first it won’t sound good but I plan to stick with it so hopefully I progress at a decent rate.

Memphis Soul - Your choices were limited a bit because you wanted to use your store credit at Sweetwater, but given that I suspect you made a pretty good choice (you could have chosen a less expensive violin and a nice little tube guitar amp, but that's not what you wanted). Diminished resale value is always going to be a problem when you buy new at retail, just like a car, but hopefully the pleasure you get from the instrument will be worth it (and used or vintage instruments, just like cars, can have their own problems).
Zyex strings are a bit of an outlier. They are named for the material they are made from, which is similar to Kevlar, and I think are unique in that respect. My late luthier hated them, and I don't know anybody who uses them, but they've been around for awhile, so somebody must. As you know, strings are consumable items, although violin strings are expensive. Your teacher can help you with this.
I bought some audio equipment from Sweetwater years ago and it was always a good experience, but its not where I would think of for instruments, especially orchestral strings, but as I said, your situation is unique.
Starting with a teacher is a good idea. I would also ignore the people who tell you how hard it is to play the violin. One of the very best musicians I've ever known had the attitude that "If this person (like Earl Scruggs) can do this, then I can too," in the belief that we're all human. I'd recommend that approach.
Hope you enjoy your new violin and musical journey.

Thank you Doug. Yeah when I returned the guitar I ask for store credit instead of a refund because I knew I’d want something down the line and I finally found something. I’m not worried about resale value much because I know I’m never gonna be a professional violinist and this fiddle will probably last me a long time as long as my teacher gives it the ok. I’m not 100% sure those strings are what’s on the actual violin as the Knilling website list these strings. D'Addario Kaplan Amo. Sweetwater has been known to to get specs wrong in the past or they may have changed since Knilling posted the specs on their website. Who knows. I will get my teacher to help with that. Again thanks for the words of encouragement. I know I can do it. I taught myself guitar 40 years ago and am still at it so this will be the same except I’m not teaching myself this time.

Turn your fiddle buying urge into an excuse to visit a major city. Wander into violin/fiddle shops, give 'em a general price target, and let them put fiddles/violins into your hands. Ask the salesperson to play 'em so you can get a notion of how they sound. If a couple of the instruments ring your proverbial chimes, try to play them yourself and see if the passion continues to occur. Don't over-think it. Don't fret(!) over the various who/what/where details. Ignore brand names. Think with your heart and ears. Not your mind.

Welcome indeed,
You have an advantage of knowing and listening to tuned a string. You're already used to hearing intervals. So when you put a finger down on the fingerboard you can hear the harmony with adjacent strings. Some don't cotton to playing two strings early on. I found it the best way to find my starting points (doe).
Best of Luck! As been said, it's far from impossible.

My first fiddle came from Sweetwater through their rental program. They are a great company to do business with. I have learned how to play several other instruments in my lifetime, and fiddle has been the most difficult one to learn. The learning curve, especially in the beginning, is steep. My current fiddle has the D’Addario Zyex strings on it. I just got another fiddle from Royce Burt that has D’Addario Helicore Medium tension strings on it. I am loving the Helicore strings. For me, they are easier to play. Good luck on your fiddle journey. I’m 9 months in, and loving every minute of it.