Electric Violin Amp?

Hoss

Hoss

Joyfulnoiseologist
I bought my wife something for an Anniversary present that she's been wanting for a long time...a Fender Electric Violin.

Now, the question is...what type of amp should i get her for it?

Tube = I'm thinking probably not...might color the sound too much?

Solid State Guitar = Something really clean...like a Roland JC series or something?

Acoustic Guitar amp = Would this be the logical choice?

Keyboard Amp = could kill two birds with one stone here when i buy her a keyboard in the future?

A small PA system = I'm thinking that could get pricey and too much to lug around?




Anybody have any clue about this...?
 
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Re: Electric Violin Amp?

Really depends on what she wants it to sound like, and what the electronics on it do.

I've heard of people playing them through modded Marshalls (sometimes refitted with steel strings and a magnetic pickup).

Really, only way to know is to try it. I'd probably start with amps designed for acoustic or clean play first, but try tubes too. Maybe the Soldano SLO will be more to her taste...

Keyboard amp might work as well. Might look at an acoustic preamp into a keyboard amp, many of them are designed to correct for piezo quirks and work into a full range audio system like a keyboard amp or PA.
 
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Re: Electric Violin Amp?

I would think a keyboard amp would be the most logical choice. Full range of sound, little coloring.
 
Re: Electric Violin Amp?

Trace Elliot makes some of the very best acoustic amps, ever. Artists that show up at Telluride with any other amp, get plugged into the venue's Trace amps. Not really cheapy, but it'll do the job right.
 
Re: Electric Violin Amp?

The answer really depends on what you want the thing to sound like... but honestly I've never heard anyone plug a fiddle into 'anything' from a twin to a full-on PA system and heard it still sound like a fiddle/violin. Its always rather un-natural...

IMO an electric fiddle into a Twin (or similar) is a rather ugly sound but very common in bluegrass/jamgrass. Quite a few people use keyboard amps or powered PA speakers... like Tim Carbone (railroad earth) has been using a smackie SRM450 with an FX box (verb & delay) for at least 10 years.

Maybe start by plugging it into an amp you already have and see how far that gets you... it won't destroy the speakers or anything. Might just be really really harsh.
 
Re: Electric Violin Amp?

I would think Hi-Fi would be the way to go. So a good balanced PA speaker would be my first choice. Add a touch of reverb, delay and chorus to taste.
 
Re: Electric Violin Amp?

I heard a violin player recently using an electric violin through a ZT Lunchbox amp and it sounded pretty good, and they aren't too expensive either.
 
Re: Electric Violin Amp?

I've heard a few electric violinists come through the blues club I used to run sound for and a couple of them used Roland JC-77's. Those amps really worked well for the violin. I was pretty impressed with the sounds they got out of them.

I'd bet just about any of the "Jazz Chorus" amps by Roland would sound good for it

RolandJC77.jpg
 
Re: Electric Violin Amp?

Just went through this with a Viola player. Plugged her into a couple different bass amps and Bingo. I suppose a bass amp is more similar to a PA or "keyboard" amp than it is to a guitar amp.
Good Luck
 
Re: Electric Violin Amp?

I should think that any keyboard amp you can find should handle the task quite well. If you want a name, I'd recommend a Fender Acoustasonic amp.
 
Re: Electric Violin Amp?

When an acoustic amp or PA isn't available, an electric amp's Low input is the second best option.
 
Re: Electric Violin Amp?

i had a pro violinist (she plays in a pretty loud gypsy band) come round to my place last year cos she wanted to try some guitar amps as she was tired of getting whatever sound the f.o.h. guy gave her. Violins work great with guitar amps, after trying a jazz chorus, a marshall, a musicman and a fender princeton reverb II she liked the fender the best. So she went out and bought a deluxe reverb and ran a di to the desk and well as plugging into that as her main sound and onstage monitor. Tube amps seemed to sound better than the ss, prolly for all the usual reasons like natural compression etc. Clean and fat is the order of the day for violins. The great thing about the guitar amps eq curve is that it is not flat like a pa system so the more vocal qualities of the violin push thru the mix nicely. Marshalls are too middy for vilolin because you lose too much of thje frequency spectrum, whereas the fender eq curve works great because its somewhere between that and the sterile total flat of a pa or keyboard amp. I guess she was looking for more fatness and presence rather than juts hifi loudness so a deluxe reverb was perfect. I imagine a fender twin may be just a little too loud so it cant run in its sweet spot to produce the fatness she was after. Hence the deluxe - 6v6 tubes running mostly clean.
 
Re: Electric Violin Amp?

gibson175 said:
i had a pro violinist (she plays in a pretty loud gypsy band) come round to my place last year cos she wanted to try some guitar amps as she was tired of getting whatever sound the f.o.h. guy gave her. Violins work great with guitar amps, after trying a jazz chorus, a marshall, a musicman and a fender princeton reverb II she liked the fender the best. So she went out and bought a deluxe reverb and ran a di to the desk and well as plugging into that as her main sound and onstage monitor. Tube amps seemed to sound better than the ss, prolly for all the usual reasons like natural compression etc. Clean and fat is the order of the day for violins. The great thing about the guitar amps eq curve is that it is not flat like a pa system so the more vocal qualities of the violin push thru the mix nicely. Marshalls are too middy for vilolin because you lose too much of thje frequency spectrum, whereas the fender eq curve works great because its somewhere between that and the sterile total flat of a pa or keyboard amp. I guess she was looking for more fatness and presence rather than juts hifi loudness so a deluxe reverb was perfect. I imagine a fender twin may be just a little too loud so it cant run in its sweet spot to produce the fatness she was after. Hence the deluxe - 6v6 tubes running mostly clean.
Click to expand...

This sounds logical. Best thing in my opinion would be to give her the violin, and then go amp shopping together and see what she likes.
 
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