Hi – my name is Susie Sneeringer, and I’ve been with Electric Violin Shop for over a year now. I’ve played in a number of bands with various types of amplification for my violins. Needless to say, some have worked better than others! Over the last ten years or so, I’ve gone from playing my acoustic violin outdoors at the San Francisco Ferry building in a bluegrass and old-time band (salt air, I found out, is not great for your acoustic violin) to using a stick-on guitar pickup in a blues band, to using a replacement bridge on my acoustic violin in a local country band. After all of this, it’s such a relief to have instruments – and sound — that do what I want them to do when I show up for a gig. I play in a fiddle band and a full-blown rock band, and while I’d like to have one of everything in the building here at EVS, this is a reliable setup that works well in most of the medium-sized venues I play with my two bands. It’s like a car that is fun to drive AND gets great mileage. Read the rest of this entry »
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How Can I Tune My Violin Like a Guitar?
By Ted Hardin
Any guitarist who has heard Jimmy Page draw a bow across the strings of his Les Paul in the Led Zeppelin song “Dazed and Confused” has wondered about the possibilities of trading their pick for a stick. The promise of seemingly infinite variation of string attack and virtually limitless sustain was solely the dominion of those who played classical strings before that particular moment in music history, and ever since then guitarists have wanted a better way to emulate the sound of a violin.
Here is the Electric Violin Shop conversion for a six string violin to be strung like a guitar and still have close to proper string tension. Some of the strings end up having greater than normal tension, and some less, but all are close enough to be safe for the instrument and still provide good tone. Read the rest of this entry »
Staff Picks: Duncan’s dream rig
Hi–Duncan here, from Electric Violin Shop. I’ve been with EVS since 2008 and have probably considered every violin we carry my favorite at one time or another. There is so much variety in our line that choosing just one is nearly impossible. However, if forced to decide I would probably own…
Violin: 6-string Vector Prodigy Pro with Barbera Twin Hybrid pickup. Nick Tipney’s violins are minimal, almost rustic in their design, yet the lines and shapes have a real elegance about them. The Vector Prodigy is among the very lightest weight violins on the market and the Barbera Twin Hybrid pickup bridge is agreed by most professionals to be one of the finest sounding transducers available. Nick has made a few of the 6-strings for us and our customers over the years and I’ve always enjoyed playing on them, finding the neck width and fingerboard curvature highly navigable considering the extra strings. And for as great as the Barbera bridge sounds anyway, something about the resonance of the Vector’s (Nova Scotia-grown) maple top adds a gorgeous character to the tone. Read the rest of this entry »
Electric Cello Hits the Classical Stage
Believe your eyes and ears — world-class classical cellist Johannes Moser is in fact seated behind a Yamaha SVC-110 electric cello, surrounded by an array of effects processors and flanked by two Roland JC-120 amps at center stage. The venue: Walt Disney Concert Hall; the ‘backup band’: the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel; the set list: a brand new electric cello concerto by Mexican composer Enrico Chapela entitled MAGNETAR. Moser gave the concerto its world premiere on October 20 in Los Angeles on a program that included John Adams’s Short Ride in a Fast Machine and Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony.
This is not the first electric cello concerto written, nor the first that Johannes Moser has premiered. In fact, just this April, Moser gave the inaugural performance of Electric Cello Concerto, a work written for him by French composer Fabrice Bollon… Read the rest of this entry »
A message made ‘Stronger’ with music
“Time For Three‘s epic music video “Stronger” (see below) is perhaps the most eloquent expression I have seen/heard about the journey of young musicians, and why I have stayed so long in a type of business that renders support to such dreams and dreamers.
“The best solid body violin I ever played.” –Jean-Luc Ponty
(L to R) Blaise Kielar, Jean-Luc Ponty
At EVS we always go the extra mile for our customers. Once in a while though, for a truly extraordinary customer, we go the extra 383 miles. EVS owner Blaise Kielar traveled from North Carolina to Atlanta, Georgia, to the Fox Theatre to show Jean-Luc Ponty the new Fourness Fuse electric violin by maker Evan Fourness. Read the rest of this entry »
The magic of the ‘Mini’ with the power an ‘Artist’ needs
As the old magician’s adage goes, you should never perform the same trick twice. In this case, musicians should be thrilled to hear that Fishman has done just that! The new Fishman Loudbox Artist amplifier brings the tone and portability of our best-selling Loudbox Mini to a more professional level. A power increase to 120 watts makes the Artist ready for most of the loud stage volumes a string player will encounter, and gives the cellist more oomph. The natural tone quality can be tweaked to your taste with very functional EQ controls.
To go beyond that, a nice variety of effects (including delay and flange) are easy to use, and flexible in assigning different sounds to each channel. Both input channels will accept an instrument or mic input, and phantom power can be switched on if needed. All this in a compact 24 pound box makes the Artist a multi-purpose tool for any performer!
The Fishman Loudbox Artist is available and ready to ship today. Add one to your instrument purchase to get the most out of your tone without going over budget!
Why we recommend against cheap electric string instruments
& + direct sunlight =
You may have seen, heard or played one. Perhaps as an affordable means of going electric for the first time you’ve been tempted to buy one. It costs under $200 online and looks kind of flashy, even if reminiscent of an ampersand that’s been left out in the sun too long (see picture). It’s clear that one of the coolest thing you can do as a strings player is to go electric (or so we at EVS believe) and the enticement to entering into electrification cheaply is certainly understandable. However, by purchasing a cheap solid body electric instrument you will likely end up disappointed, frustrated and all around discouraged from continuing your electric experiments for at least one or more of the reasons given below.
A great first PA system, and second, and third…
Versatility, portability, scalability, affordability—these combined make the Powerwerks PW100T line array the perfect small PA system for a band, quartet*, or electric ensemble on a budget. Solo acts and novice bands alike can now get great sound reinforcement inexpensively; then, as your act (and budget) grows, you can add new components for even better stage sound! You can start as small as one or two line arrays, adding the PW112-S sub-woofer if you need more bottom end for bass or keyboard. Or, if your band already has a PA, the Powerwerks doubles as a 100-watt personal amp as well (more on that after the jump) Read the rest of this entry »
Yamaha Silent Electric Strings
Yamaha has one of the most complete lines of electric bowed strings of any manufacturer on the market, ranging from the entry-level to the professional. While their program started with the now-famous SV-100 “Silent” Violin with headphone jack for personal practice, they quickly embraced the growing market for electric strings, offering wide range of color and feature options at a variety of price points.
Unless we’ve sold out in the last couple of days, we always have every Yamaha silent and electric violin, viola, and cello model in-stock, in every color, at any given time. We also offer the Yamaha SV-100 and -200 silent basses but due to their size (and the limited space in our small shop!) we don’t usually have one on hand, although we are happy to special order one. Read more below about Yamaha’s silent and electric violins, violas, and cellos and upright basses. Read the rest of this entry »
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