So I have been considering an electric violin. I currently use a mute, which is ok for the evenings, but for night practice or early morning I need something with headphones. What do you think of the one I am listing below? Just as a cheap one, and its on offer, for those late night practice sessions

http://www.normans.co.uk/p-657-stagg-evn-4...llic-black.aspx

whooooooooooooooo, I like it I like it!

well, I like the price!!!!

in fact, I might even buy it myself!!!! it's so cheap that even if I only use it a couple of times a year it will be worth it

Just a week ago I had to go out for dinner with my colleagues (yes, you read right, HAD to, what a nuisance ), well, I work in cenral London, finish at 4pm. Dinner was in cenral London at 8pm.

Now my dilemma was: I WON'T BE ABLE TO PRACTICE VIOLIN! NOOOOooooooooooooo

My colleagues said to bring the violin to work and practice in my office before dinner. Trouble is my office is right next to a waiting room full of pregnant women waiting to see the midwife

So, decided to go ALL THE WAY HOME (one hour in traffic and an hour back to London) so that I could practice one hour violin!

Sorry about this long story, it's just to say that if I had this I could have practiced 2 hours in my office without having to travel the 2 hours to get home!!!

Let's buy it Aesir, you and me

ok, just 2 little problems:

- have to check bank account and make sure I don't go in the red if I buy it, might have to wait 2 to 4 weeks (let's hope the price stays the same)

- Nobody tells my teacher I am buying this or he'll have a fit (ok MIFFY?????)

Lol I am very very tempted! But I have read confusing stuff. Have heard people say that even if I have the headphones on, it will still give out as much noise as my acoustic, but with a mute. Which is what I have at the moment. In which case there is no point as I want it for late practice lol.

mmmmmmm I see, if that's what you've heard I'll hold my horses then.....

If no-one on this forum knows I can find out for you (whether it is loud or not).
There a shop in central London selling them.
I can go there and try one out during my lunch hour on monday or tuesday
They do sell exactly the same one but not discounted so at the full wack of £169!

ps: I can't see how it can be loud (or as loud as a normal violin with the mute on) as there is no 'box' for the sound to vibrate into (by box I mean the hollow violin body), so to me it would seem that it is virtually almost silent. Anyway, like mentioned, I could go and try it out on Monday.

Lol it has me confuzzled too. To make matters worse, I was gonna check my account online to check money situation to see if I could get it.....and the stupid site isn't running properly. So I can't! lol

I have one of these. It's not silent -- you can play it without plugging it in and you'll hear it -- but to me it's a bit quieter than my acoustic fiddle with a mute on. I still don't play it at night in this flat, though. The main advantage is that compared to a fiddle with a practice mute, the sound is much better -- it doesn't have the weak, strangled sound the mute produces.

The Stagg has a built-in preamp that runs on a 9V battery. If you play regularly, you'll probably need to change this one a month or so. Like all low-end electric fiddles, it uses a cheap piezoelectric pickup under the bridge feet, which produces a characteristic nasal sound accompanied by a high-pitched "quack". I use mine with an amplifier (Roland Cube 30X - about £130) that has a built-in equalizer to take the highs off, and add some reverb to give the sound a bit of depth. After that, it sounds fine -- good enough for practice, and I sometimes take it out to jam along with an electric guitar + bass, which it's okay for.

As you'd expect, it's not really comparable to a good electric fiddle, like the Bridge. I had a change to play a Bridge Aquila a few months ago, and that was much nicer. Of course, it also costs £700 ;-)

If you use one to practice with, don't use it exclusively. It's not the same as playing an acoustic fiddle, and in particular there's a tenancy to play too quietly, since you can just turn the volume up.

or another good electric violin:
HERE

at the mere price of £3000, this is where vengerov bought his electric viola!

hee :-)

Sometimes I feel like saving up some money for a nice electric fiddle, but even an entry-level one like the Bridge is more than I can justify for something I'd rarely play except at home... I guess it'll have to wait until I form a celtic-rock-fusion band and become an international superstar.

My youngest daughter has a pink one of these and a couple of my pupils have them too.
In my opinion they are great little electrics for the money and better balanced than most electrics that cost hundreds more which means even lower grade violinists can swap to then without problem. Also, a Kun or Wolf rest fits easily to it.
When I was testing electrics for myself years ago I found many were too heavy or balanced wrongly which made them difficult to play.
2downsides to the Stagg -
The bridge is AWFUL, and it's easy to hit 2 strings at once. Very easily sorted for a few pounds by a luthier.
Secondly, it's made of that squished together reconstituted wood (which is why it's so light!) so don't drop it! This happened to one of my pupils, it just fell off a chair and the 's' shape broke. My Luthier stuck it back to gether and used nail varnish to match the colour of the violin!
I've got to say they are the best I've tried in the £500 and lower price though.

Hope that helps.

Aaaarrggghhh I am so uncertain! To buy or not to buy! Lol

To buy if you are serious about becoming a decent violinist.

I am pretty sure decent violinists existed before electricity ;-)

I upgraded my violin a few months ago and as my older violin is perfectly fine with decent helicore strings it seemed a waste to just leave it be. I bought a pick up which clips inside one of the F holes for about £10, a pre-amp for about £25 and a cheap guitar amp for £25. I now have an electric violin. The pick up does not damage the violin and is easy to put on and take off.

How ever this does not make the violin silent as I guess that is what you really want. There are electric violins out there that state silent electric violin. Get googleing and where ever posible try and get a review of the instrument you are interested in. I was checking out electric violins a while back and some of the problems people have would do your head in.

A decent violinist....time will tell! Lol. I want to teach violin and piano in the distant distant distant distant future. Probably when the OU music degree is finished in about 4 years (if I am up to teaching standard by then!)

I want to be able to practice for more than an hour after I get in from work. I would ideally like to do three short sessions a day - 20 mins before work, twenty mins right after work, and 20 mins during the night about 10pm after piano practice is finished. I live in a thin walled flat though, so can't practice unsocial hours. So I would use my acoustic just after work and at weekends during the day, and my electric before work and at night....if that makes sense lol

If it helps at all, here's a recording of what it actually sounds like: stagg.mp3. That's unprocessed, i.e. what you'd hear if you just plugged headphones in.

Please excuse the quality of the playing - in my defence, I can't plug the fiddle and the headphones in at the same time, so I can't actually hear what I'm playing ;-)

Lol thanks very much for that. No need to defend yourself it sounded good

I have bit the bullet and bought an electric violin BUT not the one listed above. I bought one that was a little cheaper, but had more than 200 reviews, each one positive, none negative (while the one posted above has reviews on several sites and they are all either voting 1 star or 5 star...confusing!). It was from e-bay, so not ideal, but he has been rated a 'top rating seller' and with not one negative review, and for the cheap and cheerful instrument I wanted, it seems worth it. He has his own workshop, so its not like a production line with dozens of workers, and he 'says' he spends 2 hours setting the violins up, fitting strings and bridges, lots about peg pastes and stuff. He seems very reputable...has his own website. So check it out if you like, just google Paul Michael Stanton.

Anyway, shall shut up now

What you've bought there is a Sojing - these are very common Chinese electrics that are frequently rebranded and sold on eBay. I've not seen very many good reviews of them, to be honest... although having it set up properly is going to help a bit. It's probably fine for practice, but these things often sell for $50 (£30) or less, and you know what they say about getting what you pay for... ;-)

Yeah I know lol. I didn't want a good one, especially since I'm only beginning. I'm focusing more on being able to get finger positions right and bowing properly rather than good sound quality. Thats what my semi-decent acoustic is for

Was it the white one you saw?

After this, I think I WILL buy one to practice where practice is forbidden

I have this violin But in blue haha
It's hardly like amazing but i think considering the PRICE it is amazing. Definately worth the money

Well Jojo I have bought an electric, though as you can see by other posts it wasn't the one I originally enquired about. I checked around the web and there were either really good reports or really horrendous ones. Was just too inconsistent.

The one I got gets similar reviews on different sites, but they are all based on mass-produced models, while the one I got is tended to by a violin maker before he sells them - new bridge, pegs fitted, pasted and chalked etc so hopefully the bad won't be too bad. And it was only £59.99

Fantastic Aesir!
I hope you get lots of fun and 'quite practice times' with your new 'baby'

I have spoken to a few people.....they ALL said that yes, electric violins are NOT silent, BUT they are less noisy than an acoustic with a rubber practice mute on and they sound better than the acoustic WITH the rubber practice mute on.

So, it seems you cannot really go wrong, as your practice will be less noisy to neighbours and you have the option to wear headphones to hear your screeches as loud as you like

You have 'spurred me on' with this thread and I have contacted my 'usual music shop' where I originally got hold of a clarinet a couple of months ago, I went into a frenzy back then and got the clarinet thinking I was going to get hooked on it, but it proved that it was just a 'fling', I have not touched it in ages and don't feel the desire to, so I know it is 'not my thing' deep down.

Anyway, called the shop today, explained the above....they are going to take the clarinet back from me and swap it with an electric violin (and I will get a few pounds back too! as the clarinet was quite a good one!).

A week from today I am getting a Yamaha SV200 in blue

This is a higher price range electric violin, but I thought I can't really go wrong as the clarinet is gathering dust and the violin is definitely the love of my life, been playing it for 3 years and will play it to my grave! I am highly addicted to it!!

So now I will have a violin to practice on at work if I want to (without disturbing patients in the waiting room and/or ward next to my office) or anywhere else where they don't enjoy 'my playing' (and where would that be?? )
And one day I could buy an AMP and then go out in the street with it at full volume and be my neighbours' joy!!!

Sounds really exciting, both of you!
I have a Skyinbow electric, the flat solid one, not the hollow one, in dark red. Amp-wise, I have a little practise one for headphones which is about the size of a cigarette packet but much slimmer, and it slots onto my belt. My daughter has a little cube shaped amp made by 'Orange' that she carries round with her on a guitar strap! It sounds lovely for violin.
I also have a baby Marshall stack left over from my wild days but daren't plug it in because of the poor neighbours!
Another thing you can have fun with is effects pedals, I have a multi effects board. The digital delay is great as you can create a loop, then build on it and kind of accompany yourself..

hooooooooooooo MIffy!
it sounds like great fun!
I will buy a little amplifier eventually and pedals etc and ask my teacher to join me on the electric violin

Think I will have killed him with Carmen long before then...

It is an odd looking thing.

Which one?!

It's fun to have different colours or shapes for a change. Just important at the same time to check it feels 'normal' enough to do your normal stuff on, especially if you are using it as a practice instrument.
So checking the shape will allow you to have your shoulder rest on if neccessary, that the top end of the body is ok for position changing (some are easier for that, but will then throw you when you play on your regular violin), and that the top end isn't heavier than the bottom end as it makes it unbalanced and tiring to play.

YEP, that is why I am happy with the yamaha sv 200, as the shape is the same as an acoustic violin (not just the sv 200, there is some cheap-er ones like the giordano with this shape too), so now that my teacher is making me go to 5th position and higher I won't get 'confused' if I practice on the electric as it is the same shape and size as the acoustic so my hand will be touching the same spots when I am in higher positions!

Tried it last night, it 'feels' the same as my acoustic on my shoulder/under my chin and under my fingers, it obviously sounds different, tried it with headphones, I have to say with the headphones I don't like the sound much, but if its to practice where I need to be quite then it's ok as it is much quiter than the acoustic with practice mute on.

Oh the 'pain' of new strings!!! I had to re-tune every few minutes, plus a couple of the pegs are very slippery, no matter how much I pressed them IN the box as I was tuning they would 'unwind' quite a lot, my D string from D went down to BELOW G in just 2 seconds!!!! it would not stick!! then it did and no, I don't have any peg paste at home nor chalk before you ask! and won't get any until this christmas break is over (so maybe next tuesday I can go to my music shop to buy peg paste, until then I'll put up with slippery pegs).

I am now on stand-by and will buy one of those marshalls 'mini-amps' you mentioned Miffy, they are only 1W but I have read many good reviews of what a fantastic miniature practice amp it is so I think I will get it for the fun practice days

I have bought a second hand in great condition Marshall 40watt amp off e-bay for only £15!!!!!

I will collect it tomorrow and have a play in the evening, will let you know....

if it's not that good I've only spent £15 on it so no hard loss, it will still be good for practice

Blimey, hope your windowpanes are securely stuck in!!

Tell you what, if we both open our windows at the same time I might be able to hear you

hehehehehe

I am not planning on playing full wack




(not planning, but wonder if I'll be tempted to??? )

If you do play full volume maybe I can hear you from east croydon where I study IT?

Unfortunately the windows on my floor don't open, I presume it is so nobody can fall out of the 22nd floor!

you might, I am in south croydon, not far at all
any requests on what I should play during your IT session?

You could crank it up to 11 and play Smoke on the Water

I would be happy with that.

Also something a little more soothing for when I have to work out the answer to MCDST questions "the Microsoft way" aka often a very stupd way.

I agree

I agree. for example if you have software that is incompatable with the XP operating system instead of buying some suitable software that is compatable the microsoft way is to downgrade to windows 98. Stupid, especially in a business enviorment.

Oh well, enjoy your new amp.

I know EXACTLY what you mean, that is why I've always had apple macintosh computers from as lons as I can remember, these days apple runs windows very well anyway, in the UNFORTUNATE cases I HAVE to do something 'windows based', I just boot up my apple mac as windows!

If I ever get paid to maintain a company network they are unlikely to be using MACs.

yep you're right, but not if it's an big 'truly american' company or if it's a company dealing with graphics or a USA based one

but yes, unfortunately in europe you have to do microsoft for better job prospects

Ok,
just had an hour playing away on my electric violin HOOKED UP to my NEW AMPLIFIER (well second hand ebay marshall amplifier but a nice one )

it is COOOOOOLLLLLLL!!!


BUT

I will NOT use this violin for regular practice as I think it is SO easy to play loud and accentuate dynamics on it, it won't do me any favours on the acoustic

SO, I have to restrict myself and just fool around with it once a week or so and maintain my regular practice on good old Figaro (who sounds nicer anyway, I DO prefer acoustics deep down, the electric is 'good fun')