I think they are kind of a gimmick as they don't give you the sound of an actual violin They are very close to do so but not quite Good for silent practice, effects and also control over the monitor in a show
The main reason for the preamp, has nothing to do with the volume, etc. It is for impedance matching, the impedance of a piezo is far greater than that of an amplifier input (unless the amp has a built in piezo preamp). The quality of the audio is degraded if the impedance is not matched.
Closer, but I just want to add the signal isn't exactly degraded if the impedance isn't match between amplifier and pick up, it's just a weaker, and the more gain (volume increase) for an individual amplifier stage the more distortion and noise you will have inherently not necessarily a good thing but also not necessarily a bad thing because that's basically what an overdrive pedal does. This effect varies with the quality and type of components as well as the amplifier design. But inherently, if your impedance isn't matched you're going to need more gain to get the same amount of volume, and the whole system will be less efficient (in practical terms it means that you're going to get less total power output). For example, your car amplifier circuit was probably set up for 16 or 32 ohms with one amplifier stage for amplification and another op amp just to invert the signal back. However, the home stereo probably had much more stages of amplification 9 or more depending on the quality because it's designed to take a faint signal and amplify it over and over and over again to have as little distortion as possible so you can have the dynamic range to have faint conversations in one scene and loud explosions in the next scene.
If you want as good a sound as possible with acoustic instrument pickup, you want a very high impedance (much higher than 10Kohm like 1-10M-ohm). As previous commenter mentioned, no, you do not need to match impedance. Most demos Fiddlershop shows use Schertler Amps which have about 1Mohm input impedance. Two things happen if the impedance presented to the pickup is "low". Yes, the amplitude is decreased. However much more concerning is that there is a loss of fidelity - there is a frequency filtering effect (high pass filtering because piezo's actually look like a capacitor rather than a voltage source) - and especially with treble instruments this can sound really poor. If the pickup surface area itself is relatively large (like K&K guitar vs. Fishman & Baggs undersaddle for guitar) then this effect is minimized. I cannot generally answer for these two electric violins pickup impedance/size - it could be they have a much bigger surface area than add-on piezos. I use a 10Mohm pre-amp to a Fishman V-200 in my main performance violin (it would probably be similar to a LR Baggs or Barcus Berry) or connect directly to an acoustic amp with high input impedance. An additional challenge with piezo pickups is that because cables themselves are capacitive, long cables can increase the adverse effect of both the loss and the tone impairment. Since I perform in a variety of settings mostly with hall/house sound systems, I use a pre-amp which allows good tone and consistency. (my sonic goal is almost always to sound like a natural, acoustic violin). In short, if you are going to take the trouble to amplify, you might note either of the impedance of the amp you use or consider getting a high impedance acoustic pre-amp.
Michael ("Gibbles") is the main reason I keep watching this channel, especially since I have no actual interest in taking up violin playing; he's simply so engaging and entertaining. An electric would be my choice, though, if I ever do start lessons - it'll spare anyone in the immediate area the torture of hearing my painful inital efforts.
THANK YOU! Santa brought this adult beginner an electric violin ("family present" -- mine, for practice; theirs, for peace)... about the same time I was struggling to record a carol on my acoustic violin -- and ending up with a tiny nasal sound. Before seeing this video, I saw many others talking about a need for preamp, 2-chanel + interface, microphone, pickup -- everything adding up to almost an additional $1000. After watching this, I'll go back to the drawing board and see what I can do with an adapter and Garage Band (mine is an active pickup violin). So, Thank you!
This is so confusing to an acoustic violinist who never plugged in before. I don't know if I need an amp for home practice or if I can just plug it into my Mac? Or if I want to play away from home what amp is recommended? I have never even touched or looked at an amp or cable before. Afraid I will electrocute myself.
Thanks for watching! There is no specific amp to use. A decent guitar amp like a Fender would work fine with an electric violin. 1/4 cables are usually safe.
Michael,. Here's one I found by accident. I have a wood frame elec violin that does produce a level of sound, unplugged, that is fine for "quiet" practice. I was wearing headphones with a hard ear shell/case and by chance one day, my shoulder rest slipped and the outside of the chin rest contacted the ear piece of the headphones. (Nothing was plugged in or turned on.). The increase in sound level was surprising, to say the least. But was limited to the left ear only. 🙃
Oh, interesting! Yeah, I had something sort of similar-I think it had something to do with the adapter I was using. If I plugged my headphones in all the way, I only got the left side, but if I pulled it out a bit, I got it in stereo. It's weird stuff.
Hmmm, imagine that you're married with or without kids, or that you're living in an apartment. An electric violin allows you to practice any time that I want without disturbing anyone.
Hi! The first instrument is a Yamaha 4-string Electric Violin YEV-104: fiddlershop.com/products/yamaha-4-string-electric-violin-yev-104 The blue instrument is our Tower Strings Electric Violin. We only sell it in black at the moment: fiddlershop.com/products/yamaha-4-string-electric-violin-yev-104
ROFL - @Gibbles - quote "I dunno why you'd want to play violin in your office, it's beyond me" -Man - what are you saying ?? I mean, what else you gonna do ??? Come on ..... LOLOL ( work is to be ENJOYED not ENDURED ). And indeed, EV's are super cool with guitar FX boxes (if that's the genre you like to play) - different sound, different performance-stage/playing-scenario from playing an acoustic in ensembles or orchestras ! Almost a different instrument entirely, and they sure have their place IMO... Cool !
Think more people who play should be watching your content. I have a few friends who are more than just amateurs who have all kinds of ill's with their playback and recording than is really necessary. Thanks for the whack, no whack scenarios. It may come in handy when I go from acoustic to electric or silent violin. Have a great 2022.
The violin doesn't need to be plugged in to tune, you can tune it just acoustically (you'll still be able to hear it-it's about the same volume as using a metal practice mute on an acoustic violin)
@@Fiddlershop Awesome, I lived in Austin TX and there is a Memorial bronze sculpture of Stevie Ray Vaughan by Ralph Helmick at Auditorium Shores in Town Lake Metropolitan Park.
Practicing violin while driving to work is a real time saver, the hard part is steering with your knees.
I mean, I've done weirder things when stuck in traffic!
You crack me!!!!!! Love it
Fun will be drive with the violin, like playing darksouls with a guitar of guitar heroes
I think they are kind of a gimmick as they don't give you the sound of an actual violin
They are very close to do so but not quite
Good for silent practice, effects and also control over the monitor in a show
This is the single most useful video for amplified violin, ever.
Wow, Thank you. I will forever remember this comment as I answer the haters on my left handed violin video.
@@Fiddlershop Amplified videos goes something like this...try it and find out, but technically it should/shouldn't work.
When fiddlerman went and said "can I amplify it with my car" I was dying of laughter
The main reason for the preamp, has nothing to do with the volume, etc. It is for impedance matching, the impedance of a piezo is far greater than that of an amplifier input (unless the amp has a built in piezo preamp). The quality of the audio is degraded if the impedance is not matched.
Thanks for the info!
Closer, but I just want to add the signal isn't exactly degraded if the impedance isn't match between amplifier and pick up, it's just a weaker, and the more gain (volume increase) for an individual amplifier stage the more distortion and noise you will have inherently not necessarily a good thing but also not necessarily a bad thing because that's basically what an overdrive pedal does.
This effect varies with the quality and type of components as well as the amplifier design.
But inherently, if your impedance isn't matched you're going to need more gain to get the same amount of volume, and the whole system will be less efficient (in practical terms it means that you're going to get less total power output).
For example, your car amplifier circuit was probably set up for 16 or 32 ohms with one amplifier stage for amplification and another op amp just to invert the signal back. However, the home stereo probably had much more stages of amplification 9 or more depending on the quality because it's designed to take a faint signal and amplify it over and over and over again to have as little distortion as possible so you can have the dynamic range to have faint conversations in one scene and loud explosions in the next scene.
If you want as good a sound as possible with acoustic instrument pickup, you want a very high impedance (much higher than 10Kohm like 1-10M-ohm). As previous commenter mentioned, no, you do not need to match impedance. Most demos Fiddlershop shows use Schertler Amps which have about 1Mohm input impedance. Two things happen if the impedance presented to the pickup is "low". Yes, the amplitude is decreased. However much more concerning is that there is a loss of fidelity - there is a frequency filtering effect (high pass filtering because piezo's actually look like a capacitor rather than a voltage source) - and especially with treble instruments this can sound really poor. If the pickup surface area itself is relatively large (like K&K guitar vs. Fishman & Baggs undersaddle for guitar) then this effect is minimized. I cannot generally answer for these two electric violins pickup impedance/size - it could be they have a much bigger surface area than add-on piezos. I use a 10Mohm pre-amp to a Fishman V-200 in my main performance violin (it would probably be similar to a LR Baggs or Barcus Berry) or connect directly to an acoustic amp with high input impedance. An additional challenge with piezo pickups is that because cables themselves are capacitive, long cables can increase the adverse effect of both the loss and the tone impairment. Since I perform in a variety of settings mostly with hall/house sound systems, I use a pre-amp which allows good tone and consistency. (my sonic goal is almost always to sound like a natural, acoustic violin).
In short, if you are going to take the trouble to amplify, you might note either of the impedance of the amp you use or consider getting a high impedance acoustic pre-amp.
That's why I always keep a few extra 9volt batteries handy and one in my case!
Definitely a good idea!
Thanks a lot! I never did any research over electric violins! but now I know a ton of stuff!
Happy to help!
Michael ("Gibbles") is the main reason I keep watching this channel, especially since I have no actual interest in taking up violin playing; he's simply so engaging and entertaining. An electric would be my choice, though, if I ever do start lessons - it'll spare anyone in the immediate area the torture of hearing my painful inital efforts.
Lol, at the woman behind him at 4:15 just silently shaking her head at him as he films a UA-cam video in his busy office during a workday.
🤣🤣🤣
THANK YOU! Santa brought this adult beginner an electric violin ("family present" -- mine, for practice; theirs, for peace)... about the same time I was struggling to record a carol on my acoustic violin -- and ending up with a tiny nasal sound. Before seeing this video, I saw many others talking about a need for preamp, 2-chanel + interface, microphone, pickup -- everything adding up to almost an additional $1000. After watching this, I'll go back to the drawing board and see what I can do with an adapter and Garage Band (mine is an active pickup violin). So, Thank you!
Wow, congratulations!! Any time. Happy playing!! And Happy New Year to you!
The YEV, I can plugin in to the PC in the line in and just listened in my USB headphones?
Oh you can use electric guitar distortion on electric violin i seen metal on one of thise
oh yeah, every pedal for guitar can be used for violin too. So rock on!
How about a bluetooth sender with receiver used for 🎸? Use with bluetooth speaker? Would be cool.
This is so confusing to an acoustic violinist who never plugged in before. I don't know if I need an amp for home practice or if I can just plug it into my Mac? Or if I want to play away from home what amp is recommended? I have never even touched or looked at an amp or cable before. Afraid I will electrocute myself.
Thanks for watching! There is no specific amp to use. A decent guitar amp like a Fender would work fine with an electric violin. 1/4 cables are usually safe.
This is super helpful. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful! 😃
Just bought a black and I hope I love it. You are a great review person and funny.
Thanks, Jason!!
Michael,. Here's one I found by accident. I have a wood frame elec violin that does produce a level of sound, unplugged, that is fine for "quiet" practice. I was wearing headphones with a hard ear shell/case and by chance one day, my shoulder rest slipped and the outside of the chin rest contacted the ear piece of the headphones. (Nothing was plugged in or turned on.). The increase in sound level was surprising, to say the least. But was limited to the left ear only. 🙃
Oh, interesting! Yeah, I had something sort of similar-I think it had something to do with the adapter I was using. If I plugged my headphones in all the way, I only got the left side, but if I pulled it out a bit, I got it in stereo. It's weird stuff.
I will always prefer an acoustic violin. I don't think I will ever be buying an electric violin.
Hmmm, imagine that you're married with or without kids, or that you're living in an apartment. An electric violin allows you to practice any time that I want without disturbing anyone.
@@fiddlefaddle1 its why I just bought one. Especially my place having super thin walls and so much acoustics outside from all the walls.
Software AMPs open up quite some possibilities...
Good video, ty
Thanks for watching!
Great demonstration. 😊
Thank you!
Hi, what violin mode do you use in the video? Thanks
model or brand
Hi! The first instrument is a Yamaha 4-string Electric Violin YEV-104: fiddlershop.com/products/yamaha-4-string-electric-violin-yev-104
The blue instrument is our Tower Strings Electric Violin. We only sell it in black at the moment: fiddlershop.com/products/yamaha-4-string-electric-violin-yev-104
@@Fiddlershop the blue!?
Thanks a lot. I think you have copied the two same links, that model is blue?
Bluetooth raycon headset connect?
ROFL - @Gibbles - quote "I dunno why you'd want to play violin in your office, it's beyond me" -Man - what are you saying ?? I mean, what else you gonna do ??? Come on ..... LOLOL ( work is to be ENJOYED not ENDURED ). And indeed, EV's are super cool with guitar FX boxes (if that's the genre you like to play) - different sound, different performance-stage/playing-scenario from playing an acoustic in ensembles or orchestras ! Almost a different instrument entirely, and they sure have their place IMO... Cool !
Thanks Bill!
Think more people who play should be watching your content. I have a few friends who are more than just amateurs who have all kinds of ill's with their playback and recording than is really necessary. Thanks for the whack, no whack scenarios. It may come in handy when I go from acoustic to electric or silent violin. Have a great 2022.
Thanks for the nice feedback, Murray! We really appreciate it!!
Why not use amp phones with passive pickup? Amp phones are battery powered headphones that can be used with passive pickups.
❤️ design
they sound.......like........sowing machines
foot powered or....[wait for it]......electric?
whats the best way to tune this kind of violin? using speakers?
The violin doesn't need to be plugged in to tune, you can tune it just acoustically (you'll still be able to hear it-it's about the same volume as using a metal practice mute on an acoustic violin)
@@Fiddlershop thanks a lot, great!
why are these videos entertaining
Because Gibbles is so amazing ❤️ Thanks for watching!
Michael... was that Hendrix or Stevie Ray?
ua-cam.com/video/wgIB1OL09H0/v-deo.html
@@Fiddlershop Awesome, I lived in Austin TX and there is a Memorial bronze sculpture of Stevie Ray Vaughan by Ralph Helmick at Auditorium Shores in Town Lake Metropolitan Park.
Very helpful! Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
Cool design
Thank you! Cheers!
Thanks!
You bet!
this guy is wack
🤣🤣🤣
@@Fiddlershop loved this video!
Nice video but don’t call these things violins. It hurts me as a violinist. Please.
Whaaaaat? 😃
Is that the yamaha yev104?
Thanks for watching! The YEV 104 is in the video.