Advice please. :-)

[ant_girl]

I'm after some advice regarding effects pedals for electric violins... Basically, I'm looking for something pretty basic, little more than an EQ pedal really, but if it did simple effects like reverb and compression that would be a bonus. Are there specific pedals made for violins, or do I need to buy a guitar pedal? And does anybody have any

Comments

[random_notion]

Well there’s allot of stuff you could use and it will have to be guitar pedals since there aren't really any made for violin. First of all what kind of sound are you looking for? EQ and reverb are good tools for making an acoustic sound. Compression is used more to even out a signal with heavier effects like distortion. Also what kind of violin are you using? Do you have an amp? Some amps come with effects built in wich could easily solve the need for reverb and maybe EQ depending on how much EQ you want.

[ant_girl]

My violin is a fender. I'm only really after an acoustic violin sound, nothing fancier, but I generally d/i the violin, so using effects on the amp is not an option. Besides, when I plug it directly into an amp, it sounds horribly scratchy, so I think I need some kind of pre-amp, which I'm told an EQ pedal would be able to provide. The reason I mentioned compression is because I thought it could be used to even out the volume (because at the moment the notes on the higher strings tend to be much louder than those on the lower strings, and I find myself struggling to hear what I'm playing when I'm on stage with the band), but I could be wrong about that.

I'm very new to the whole electric violin thing, although I have played acoustic violin for 20+ years.

[random_notion]

Guitar amps have EQ settings built right in them to boost highs for electric guitars. This can be solved by using an acoustic guitar amp which is basically a small P.A. Sounds like you are also experiencing what is called piezo quack. Fenders and most electric violins use piezo pickups that exaggerate higher frequencies. I don't know the science to it but the quack is created because most effects and amps are made to work with magnetic pickups that put off a different kind of signal (which I won't go into why magnetic pickups don't work for violin) A preamp helps by buffering the signal so that it works better with guitar equipment. I suggest a preamp made specifically for piezo pickups like L.R. Baggs or Fisherman. Pieso quack is also created form the pickup itself so there will still be some quack. Eq can be used to eliminate the remaining quack. Some of the L.R. Baggs and Fisherman preamps have Eq built right into them. I suggest using a parametric EQ for targeting the specific frequencies of a piezo quack. I use the L.R. Baggs

[ant_girl]

Thank you, yes that was very useful. I feel like I have a bit more background knowledge know. I will look into the pre-amps that you suggest. :-)

[ant_girl]

When you say the L.R.Baggs Parametric, is this the unit you are referring to?

Is it essential that I try it out beforehand, do you think? As it seems to be quite difficult to get in the UK, so I will probably have to buy it mail order.

[random_notion]

Yes that’s the one. The reason I thought you should try it out first is it has two parametric bands of eq optimized for most pizo pickup quacks but not all. They have a limited range and are specificly set to where most pizo quacks happen. I think music friend has a return policy but you'd have to pay for shipping. If the baggs doesn't work the fishman platinum has one parametric band for all frequencies but if your pickup has pizo quack in two different frequencies it will sound like only half of the quack is being cut. Again the baggs is built to work with most pickups though so it should work.

[random_notion]

Don't know if these are close to you but seems there are two locations in the UK that do sell them.

http://www.lrbaggs.com/html/dealers_int/england.shtml

[ant_girl]

Yup, had seen that -- both several hundred miles away unfortunately. (That's probably no distance at all to an American, is it? ;-)

[random_notion]

Not when you spend all your money on Electric violins and amplifiers. ^_^