I like the classical violin and its beautiful shape, but I also like evolution and modernism in the world around me. One of the great things about the creations of electric violin makers is their total lack of conventions. Whereas the electric guitar world is dominated by shapes designed a few decades ago, which many guitar makers seem to copy again and again, the electric violin makers of this world at least try to be original. Is it the classic imago of the violin that pushes violinists seeking for an alternative towards the more drastic avant-garde shape? Or are the violin makers more eager to experiment and create something original than the electric guitar makers of this world? It seems that the only true limits that luthiers making electric violins are bound to, are the physical requirements of the violin player: a shoulder rest, some positional reference for the left hand, the conventional distances of strings and fingerboard.

As I promised before, I am definitely going to introduce a number of interesting electric violin players on these pages in the future. Today I'd like to introduce Tiit Kikas. I did not know Tiit before, just discovered him surfing on the internet. Born in 1975 in Tallinn, he started playing the violin during his early childhood, and got interested into the original music of various nations during the nineties, with a special interest into traditional Irish music. Tiit went to the Sibelius Academy in Finland, and has played many different styles with many artists in Estonia and abroad. He also composed music for movies, theater, radio and tv productions. He has an impressive record of achievements and now mainly focusses on solo performance. I don't know how his fiddling sounds, but his interest in "strange and new sounds" fires my curiosity.

MUSIC TO HER EARS

University of New South Wales student Tricia Ho has been selected as one of 12 finalists in Australia's leading student design award, the Australian Design Award-Dyson Student Award, for her revolutionary Ergonomic Violin.

The electronic Ergonomic Violin (EV) was designed with several interchangeable frames that allow the player to customise the violin to suit their style and reduce musculoskeletal disorders in player's necks and shoulders.

"Coming from a background of classical violin training I have many friends who experienced problems gripping a traditional violin", Tricia Ho, a Rose Bay resident, said.

As promised when the site was launched a couple of months ago, I've started to improve the navigation through the site. The site got a graphical update as well. I also added a number of bow makers: 

• Cadenza
• Glasser
• Incredibow
• J. LaSalle
• K.Holtz

After seeing a concert of the Trans Siberian Orchestra,  Bored but busy wrote some time ago: "I'm a Sucker for an Electric Violin". Her advice: "If you ever get an opportunity to see them - go". Well, I live at the other side of the ocean and their tour does never seem to reach Europe, but this Orchestra has got some power... According their website a lot of people have been playing with it, including Mark Wood. The band is a continuously changing group of people, the music is written by Paul O'Neill, Robert Kinkel and Jon Oliva.

Time for a little technical post.  

Recording an electric violin is something very different from making acoustic recordings. I've been experimenting a bit the last few weeks: with an amp and a microphone in front of it, directly without an amp, with different preamps. Recording the direct sound, gone through an appropriate preamp such as the Fishman ProEQII, is currently my favourite option, but a problem is that the recorded sound itself is then extremely dry. Your sound then largely depends on the quality of the effects you apply after recording. I experimented with my new Lexicon Pantheon reverb and this does quite a nice job in the end-result.

The violin offers many possibilities for  contemporary designers, and these possibilities are continuously explored by a growing number of electric violin designers and makers. Nevertheless it is still nice if someone comes with a new, original design. In this case, the designer was not an established luthier. It was industrial design student Tricia Ho who got awarded for her ergonomically designed electric violin. Ms Ho, who has just completed a Bachelor of Industrial Design at the University of New South Wales, designed her idea of the "perfect electric violin" using high-tech materials for her final year design project. Dubbed "EV" (for ergonomic violin), the prototypic instrument is to receive a German design award and is short-listed for this year's Australian Design Awards, to be announced in May. 

A couple of weeks ago, at the NAMM 2006 show in Anaheim, Fishman celebrated its 25th anniversary . Fishman is widely known for its excellent transducers for acoustic instruments, and is nowadays the world's largest supplier to acoustic instrument manufacturers. Fishman continues to expand its product line in the category of acoustic amplification. At the NAMM show, Fishman launched a new product in the Loudbox series of acoustic amplifiers, the Loudbox 100.

Some excerpts of the history of Fishman:

A Step At A Time is a blog which offers Reflections on the world post-9/11, by a writer, translator and musician who engaged for many years in the debates of the Cold War, and who tends to see the world's present troubles as a continuation of the old common struggle with tyranny and oppression.

David McDuff has been to the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) conference in New York city and describes his experiences and thoughts as a violinist. He attended a clinic given by virtuoso (electric) jazz violinist Christian Howes and shares his opinions about the consequences of amplification. Interesting posts well worth to read:
IAJE 2006 (1)
IAJE 2006 (2)
IAJE 2006 (3)

In his "Fact and Fiction" blog, Steve suggests that if you want to enhance your value as a musician, you should consider to learn electric violin instead of electric guitar. I must admit: some good points touched there in his original posts and the comments below it, comparing the values and problems of both instruments.