Hi Vincent,
Maybe you can have a look and listen to Ithaca.

Which instruments did you try?

Hi Vincent

Electric fiddle can sound very rich with effects, try reading the Effects topic on this website (i learned a lot from it

Also, to get warmth you might run thru a tube preamp

here's my setup

Yamaha EV205
Berber chinrest
Bon Musica shoulder rest
DBX 586 Tube Preamp
Yamaha Magicstomp
RMC PictureWah
Yamaha MS400 SpeakerAmp

hope this helps

auf wiedersehen

liddlebearfiddler

Thanks for the Tips,
the Ithaca look like ordinary violins. You'll probably hear not only the effects but also the violine itself - the same as with my violine and the fishman pick-up.
Till now I only tried some Yamaha and Fender Violins (of course not the very expensive Yamaha EV 205, but I will try I now, thanks to you), but the videos with electic violions didn't "sound" much better. For example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUO6kYLb6As
so I was afraid, that maybe a electric violine couln't sound as rich and warm as a normal one.
Thanks for the Setup. That one looks pretty good. Have you made experiences with midi-violins?

Thanks for the help
Vincent

It is very important to have a (decent) preamp. Directly connecting an electric violin may also cause a harsh sound. Personally I like Fishman.

Hi Vincent

Been a while since I have been on here. The Bridge I own / mention & show on this forum has a warm natural sound. Has a built in pre-amp. It is hollow bodied, carbon fibre composite. This gives it a slightly 'woody' sound, like an acoustic. Unplugged you do get a bit of acoustic sound, enough for private practice. If you play it through an effects pedal/unit, you can get a metallic electric sound, but play it direct into a decent acoustic guitar or keyboard amp & it sounds lovely. I am using a German AER compact 60, a brilliant little amp, it has the sensitivity to pick up the violin's wide ranging frequencies, unlike some of the cheaper guitar specific amps by Behringer, Fender & Marshall. An electric guitar amp is a 'no no'.
Hope ive helped

BAZZ

If its me you are replying to, the violin I use is an 'Aquila'. It is Bridge's 4 string electric model. The Soviet Union has a nuclear hunter killer submarine called an Aquila, which I believe in Russian translates to "Shark".
I have never tried an attachable pick up such as Fishman or L R Baggs on my acoustic so cant advise you on how they behave, maybe others on here can?
I have a lovely acoustic model built for me by Bill Smith of Worcester. Maybe one day I will try one. Loads of artists in the folk scene (see my photo's) use LR Baggs etc.. very successfully.
Regards effects, I have only used acoustic type effects really, as used on acoustic guitars. Reverb, delay, chorus etc... as well as volume.

I have a CD by Abigail Todd called "Rock to Baroque". She plays one of the Yamaha electric violins, probably the top end one. She does an ace version of Storm, made famous by Vanessa Mae & composed by Vivaldi from his "Four Seasons". She uses a Yamaha effect which gives a lot of distortion like a heavy metal guitar effect. Its been on here on You Tube, nice one Kris! She describes the effect, called something like "Monster Sound", cant remember now.

BAZZ

Take away the acoustic violin body, or find one made in another shape or material
all that makes it sound much less like an acoustic violin -

If you want no acoustic sound go for a solidbody (actually hollow- or they´d be too heavy)
Some are made in wood- like Jordan www.jordanmusic.com
some in carbon fiber - like Vi-Vi from VLM : www.vlm-augustin.com
These are both available with StringAmp(tm), or some cheaper piezo pickups

the StringAmp has a both warm and clear sound.
Most Piezo based violin pickups have a synthetic edge and harshness to the sound plus they make a loud thump when changing bow direction.
You can hear a StringAmp fiddle in: www.stringamp.com
I make the StringAmp for violin, viola and Cello

I make the StringAmp for violin, viola and Cello

I bought a cheap violin off ebay (made in china) expecting to have to run it through many processors to get a decent sound.

It sounds great on its own and I would highly recommend them. The store that sells them is called planet violin.

You can hear me playing it (not a great video but you get the idea)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=TK6tOnXcIQM

Nice link for Vi Vi, musiklab.
Looks an awesome piece of kit, rather like the Skinbow.
Do you make the pre-amp for the S1??
BAZZ

I tried 8 different violins before buying the EV-205. Yamaha SV, Yamaha EV-204, EV-205, Zeta, Knilling, Fender, conventional with fishman pick-up and one that looked like a small coffin but cannot recal the name. I chose the EV-205 because of the rich lower frequency sounds it can generate without that "politeness" that conventional violin has; I need this when the other guys in the band use their electric guitars. Another advantage of the EV-204 and 205 is the high sound insulation between the strings. If you bow the middle string, you only hear the middle string, this is because of the pendulum system in the bridge. For the same reason, the handling noise is very low.

All the other models that I tried have a pick-up or two that sense the vibrations of the wood, not the vibration of the strings so even though they would pick-up more handling noise, the violin sounds more natural, but since I already had a natural sounding violin (conventional with fishman), I wanted an electric that sounds different and strong; the EV-20x is just that.

I hope that helps.

Its a Yamaha EV205 that Abigail Todd plays, it looks & sounds awesome!!BAZZ