what do I do!?

[channe]

Hello violinnovators!

I have a brand-new keyboard amp with chorusing and reverb, and a mostly-brand-new electric violin, and I am trying to figure out just what to do with it all. What kind of bands do you play with? What kind of effects pedals/boxes do you use, and why? Jazz? Rock? Are there any recordings that inspire you?

I've been playing

Comments

[random_notion]

The best way to find out about effects is try them out. You might want to try a multi effects pedal. There's a bunch at http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitar/navigation/guitar-multi-effects?N=100001+304373&page=1

I chose the Boss Me-50 for it's easy tweak ability. I think I'm going to change to single effects soon to focus on certain effects.

[channe]

Thank you! You're one of two to recommend Boss to me, so I'll definitely check it out.

I definitely need a multi-effects pedal; this is a violin destined for effects, I believe, because the sound is so tinny funneled through a regular amp.

[neko_hime_lj]

I used to play in a punk-rock band 'til college got too hectic for gigs. Now I just jam w/ different musicians from all genres from jazz to techno. It's so fun to make weird noises with the violin. ^_^

I use a Boss GT-3 pedal. Boss stuff is great, I tell you. Built like a tank, and effects aren't awesome, except for distortion, which is mediocre, but good enough. Also, tweak, tweak, tweak!! I could go on and on about Boss... but the best way to try effects out is to borrow stuff from musician friends or bring your violin to a local music store and try out the stuff they have.

As for inspiration, go to youtube and look up videos there. There are lots of great videos, like this or this.

[channe]

... techno! That fascinates me. Doing techno on a violin, doing punk-rock. Now that sounds fun.

Thanks for the links. They are great.

[saltyfiddler]

Listen to Darol Anger, Mark Wood, and Christian Howes.

myspace music is a great place to listen, too.

[channe]

Thanks!

... myspace scares me, but I'll give it a try. :)

[saltyfiddler]

you don't have to be a registered myspace user to listen to stuff or view profiles of musicians! :)

[nathan_fhtagn]

Play everything! Literally. You've got the chops to sit in with any kind of ensemble with those many years behind you.

I use a POD XTLive Guitar effects processor for live shows and that's done very well for me. It's got all kinds of amp emulations, a bunch of really cool effects, and is very easily portable.

What kind of electric did you get?

[channe]

It was a gift from my family, who didn't really know what it was -- so I took it to the shop where they purchased it, and they couldn't name the maker! At any rate, it's black, shaped like an f-hole, and sparkly; a bit on the heavy side, so it's taking a bit of getting used to. I'll take a picture of it and see if anybody recognizes it, because after a month of searching on the Internet I haven't seen anything that looks remotely like it.

I'm really, really looking to "play everything." All I do now is Pachelbel and Air-on-the-G-String, and while it's lucrative I feel like I'm losing my chops. I miss playing with people.

I tried out a rather expensive guitar amp in a music store, played "Amazing Grace" on the distortion setting, and had everybody in the store with their jaws on the floor. It was... addicting. :)

[nathan_fhtagn]

Feed the addiction! It only gets better...

Personally, I get a lot of mileage with just a touch of reverb, a bit of delay, and the slightest bit of flange. Oh, and I have to use -lots- of EQ to make the tone less tinny. I haven't found the electric violin that didn't need a lot of EQ to make it sound better when played through any kind of amp.

[heliophobe]

I really need to start playing again. I got out of playing thanks to an overload of school. Now I am done and I have no real excuse.

I play a Fender electric into whatever is around. My partner has a steadily growing collection of pedals and gear, so I have a nice choice. I love delays and reverbs myself and I'm not too fond of distortion effects but that may be because I haven't tried the right ones (there's a BeeBaa in the house now, I really should try that). I tend to play directly into the computer instead of an amplifier, but again, there's some new amplifiers here I haven't had a chance to play into yet.

Inspiration:
A Silver Mt Zion. The violin(s) aren't always the most prominent in the songs, but there is some amazing stuff a lot of which is very angular and non-traditonal. I have a serious addiction to the violin line in their song "One Million Died to Make This Sound".

[channe]

.. angular! Lovely! I will look them up, thank you!

I am pretty much in love with the reverb setting on my amp -- which is very basic but very expandable. What can you do by playing directly into the computer -- do you record? Mix? Use the computer speakers?