Talk:Electric violin

(see Pickups section for discussion that was here)

Referencing Electric Violinists

An increasing number of players listed here are as being famous. Can this section really adequately provide a fair and unbiased overview of the wealth of non-classical styles and genres? There is already a growing number of notable electric violinists listed in a seperate section and a good number of these too are classically trained...

BAH —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.29.27.98 (talk) 20:32, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

Any thoughts on alphabetizing the list? Morfusmax (talk) 00:42, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

There are loads of names on this list who are clearly NOT notable/famous electric violinists. This is a misleading list and needs serious editing. Unless anyone else joins this debate I will start deleting... It's spoiling an otherwise useful article. BAH — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.42.180.122 (talk) 19:43, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

This list of electric violinists is misplaced under the heading of genres. As there is already a Wiki page for Electric violinists I don't understand why they need to appear here...BAH —Preceding undated comment added 12:36, 15 January 2018 (UTC)

Terms

The term "sharper" sound should be ommitted. That would denote the tone is tuned higher than normal.

External links

I cleaned up the external links and removed one commercial non-maker site (Electric Violin Shop). Please consult http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:External_links#Links_to_normally_avoid if any questions - Sites that primarily exist to sell products or services is a link to normally avoid per Wikipedia guidelines.

RosinDebow 15:14, 9 May 2006 (UTC) RosinDebow

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Perhaps a reference to this book that was published around 2000 should be added:

Electric Violins: Design and Technique of Electric Bowed Instruments, edited by Hanno Graesser in collaboration with Andy Holliman. ISBN 3923639325

There's a review of this book here: http://www.stringsmagazine.com/issues/strings83/MarketReport.shtml

RosinDebow 15:30, 9 May 2006 (UTC) RosinDebow

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What do people think about dropping the makers section altogether, since Bowed Electricity already covers most makers? The list of makers alone could rival the vertical size of the article text. As an alternative, makers that have pioneered certain innovations (e.g. Zeta for MIDI compatible violin) would be mentioned in footnotes or in a timeline. See Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not for guideline on external links. RosinDebow 04:06, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

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Bowed Electricity has not been updated for a number of years now, and it doesn't look like it ever will be (I spoke to the site owner perhaps 3 years ago). This would be as good a place as any to keep the list up to date? madfiddler 02:36, 17 June 2006 (GMT)

I think it's fine for now to keep it in the article, but down the road we might want to split out the list into a separate article if it is getting too large. Note however that Wikipedia does have some guidelines that advise against making large lists of external links. I suppose this gets into the realm of what the purpose of an encyclopedia is - should an encyclopedia contain a comprehensive list of makers, or just the notable ones? Perhaps someone is interested in creating articles for notable electric bowed string makers as a pet project. It would be great if Bowed Electricity were a wiki and we could update it ourselves! RosinDebow 03:19, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

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Just a suggestion for the external links: there is a new -non-commercial- website that aims to cover all electric violin information, including all makers: http://electricfiddler.com . I will not add it since I am personally involved in it, but maybe someone else could have a look at it? Kommisja 09:04, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, it looks like an excellent, much needed resource. I added it to the external links. RosinDebow 15:26, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

Pickups

I don't understand what is intended by curved string arrangement. Taut strings travel in a straight line, at least on my violin :-) RosinDebow 15:01, 10 May 2006 (UTC) RosinDebow

That refers to the other plane (the arrangement of strings across the bridge and nut). ==ILike2BeAnonymous 18:05, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

ok, I see - I could suggest as an alternative, "arrangement of the strings in an arc", arc being more precise than curve and so that it isn't ambiguous whether it modifies "string" or "string arrangment".

RosinDebow 01:57, 11 May 2006 (UTC) RosinDebow

The section on pickups could be a little clearer about the string materials used. The first sentence may give some the impression (clarified later) that only ferrous metal core strings work. I'm not even sure if there is any restriction on the string material for piezoelectric pickups, is there any? I do appreciate the added clarification on ferrous content, but since many readers won't know what strings contain iron, I think that steel strings should be given as an example.

How about this: Electric violins commonly use either magnetic or piezoelectric pickups. Magnetic pickups require the use of violin strings that have ferrous (iron-containing) metal cores, for example, steel strings...etc. etc.

RosinDebow 03:54, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, that's better. I went ahead and made the edit. I had some concerns that the initial entry was biased towards magnetic (and specifically the stringamp pickups). This seems to rectify most of that. --Nulldevice 20:03, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

(following three paragraphs moved from top because they concern pickups)

"Piezo pickups have a very high (capacitive) output impedance, and require a powered preamp (a charge amplifier is best) to avoid signal loss, filtering, and excessive noise pickup in the instrument cable." Are valve pre-amps ever used for this? Are electric violins ever played on overdrive (like guitars) and if so, what do they sound like?

I'm sure there are suitable valve amplifier designs.

Yes, electric violins are commonly overdriven. In the external links section, you can find clips on Bowed Electricity. — Omegatron 02:20, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

Is the bit about "some prefer a valve amplifier to solid state" strictly relevant? You could say that about any user of an amplified instrument - and conversely some prefer solid-state to valve. --Nulldevice 20:01, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree that it isn't adding anything. I think the reference is to preamps, right? The following sentence A solid body provides room for this circuitry suggests that it is possible to put a tube preamp inside a violin body, which I didn't think was possible - can someone confirm otherwise? RosinDebow 01:54, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, tube preamps are not done internally even on guitars and basses - a full tube pre would require ghastly amounts of power and generate large amounts of heat, for one thing. Almost all active piezo systems run on 9-volt batteries. External preamps are often tube or solid-state, but the choice of each is strictly a matter of personal preference. --Nulldevice 20:58, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Howsabout something like this -

"excessive noise pickup in the instrument cable. Preamplification is often done by an external signal processor, but some body designs can provide internal housing for preamp circuitry." I'm not sure of the accuracy of the phantom power bit - there are phantom-powered external preamps, but I've not yet seen an electric violin that has a balanced output jack for 48v phantom (which doesn't mean they don't exist, but they don't seem common). --Nulldevice 21:08, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

sounds fine to me. I have not heard of an internal phantom powered preamp either. RosinDebow 00:04, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

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I just removed the citation tag from "Generally, piezoelectric pickups are more common." As far as I can see, this simple fact falls in the class of "things so obvious that nobody bothers to write them down in scholarly sources." As such, it is useful in an encyclopedia article, but chasing a citation for it will be a forlorn hope, in my estimation. The only quibble I see might be the lack of "as of the late 20th/early 21st century" but adding that would be senseless pedantry, since the article already carries a revision date. __Just plain Bill 13:00, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

MIDI violin

Wow, a lot of editing going on. I'm going to let the dust settle first. But I think that the Zeta violin does not actually send MIDI data (as article implies), it sends separate analog outputs per string that go to a custom pitch to MIDI converter. RosinDebow 20:26, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Good point. It doesn't. That should be clearer. I found it weird that there was a section on the tape-bow violin, but no mention of MIDI, considering they're significantly more common than the one tape-bow that exists...

--Nulldevice 16:16, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

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Totally correct. The Zeta system has two pickups per string (electronics use the signal from each pickup to eliminate bow noise and take as pure a signal as possible to feed to the external pitch to midi converter. The multi out plug simply sends the output from each string on a different pin, to the converter. Many adverts (especially on ebay) state that Zeta violins have a built in midi pickup, and this simply is not true. madfiddler 16 June 2006 (GMT)

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Isn't the Dave Swarbick thing a bit biased? I mean, sure, he's a folk rocker who plays the eviolin, but the bit about "the most prominent exponent" seems like it'd need more backing before we could accept it as not being arguable.

--64.73.98.125 20:49, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Maybe you could say "one prominent exponent." Yes, I don't see how one could say he's the most prominent exponent without listing and evaluating many players first. Badagnani 22:25, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

'Bold text'

High B string?

I'd like to see a cite for:

"Extra strings are usually a low C string for 5-strings, and a low C and high B or low F for 6, and a low C, F and B-flat (or high B) for 7."

My understanding is that for a normal violin speaking length of 325~330mm, a high B string is pushing the limits of material strength, usually beyond the breaking point. There may be a few exotic violins on the planet with a B above the E, but I believe they are so rare that the word "usually" doesn't really fit in the same sentence with their mention. __Just plain Bill 02:45, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

I agree and went ahead and removed mention of a high B string, since it has needed citation since July 2007. It would be possible, since the 8va treble violin [1] exists, but would be rare. RosinDebow (talk) 18:58, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Infobox

Discussion of the infobox that just showed up is at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Musical Instruments. __Just plain Bill (talk) 23:03, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Genres

Should we have criteria for which artists or bands, if any, should be mentioned in the Genres section? Right now it is just asking for people to add their favorite band with electric violin (I removed a couple of those that were added recently that were either non-notable or didn't have a violinist). The only violinist I recognize in that section is Jerry Goodman, but I'm unqualified to judge since I'm not familiar with some of those genres. I would go so far as to sidestep the issue and have a blanket policy that no artists or bands should be mentioned in this section. RosinDebow (talk) 19:10, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Amplified vs Electric Violin - not the same

To quote the page at the moment "The term can refer to a standard violin fitted with an electric pickup of some type, or to an instrument purposely made to be electrified with built-in pickups, usually with a solid body."

I would argue that a standard violin fitted with a pickup is an "amplified violin" not an "electric violin". Would you consider an acoustic guitar with a pickup, and electric guitar?. madfiddler (talk) 04:31, 17 August 2008 (GMT)

Better now? (diff) __Just plain Bill (talk) 13:56, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Hey, shouldn't someone mention revenge of the nerds somewhere in the article? That's the only reason I looked up electric violin. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.40.21.3 (talk) 05:32, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

New Wikiproject

I have started a new wikiproject, WikiProject Stringed Instruments. I am looking for 2 other coordinators to help it get started. Apply on my talk page by answering the following questions.

1. Edit count, how long you have been active on Wikipedia.

2. How often you edit string-related articles. (Scale of 1-10)

3. What you hope to accomplish if made coordinator.

Please post by March 1, 2009.

ṜedMarkViolinist^{Drop me a line} 19:39, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Series produced 6-string violin?

I've only come across "stock" 5-string violins so far – 6-string instruments I've encountered always seem to be custom made – or are there any "industrially" produced ones? -- megA (talk) 15:10, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

John Jordan and Mark Wood offer six- and seven-string models. That's off the top of my head; there may be others. It is a smallish market for such instruments, so they tend to be built to order. __ Just plain Bill (talk) 15:47, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. -- megA (talk) 11:39, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

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reduction of nonsense

For starters, I've removed the Tape-bow violin section. I deeply appreciate Laurie Anderson, but this ain't a violin and per the article merely "resembles a violin."
Weeb Dingle (talk) 06:44, 17 April 2018 (UTC)

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• Modern piezo pickup EVAViolins.jpg

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