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I thought it would be interesting to see who has an ev.
I used to have a couple of Yamaha silent violins, and a Zeta, but now only have my barcus berry, but it's a goodun. Sounds quite thin unplugged but that translates into a nice focused sound amplified. Strings are a bit lower than average and it plays easy, fast and smooth. I use a little Boss pedal as a pre-amp, and with a bit of reverb and delay I get quite a 'natural' violin sound.
I've got a couple of pretty good violin amps, a Crate Acoustic Telluride, specially designed to amplify acoustic/electric instruments, and also a Traynor K4 keyboard amp with one 15" speaker. Both amps have line out which I can feed into 2 Wharfedale powered cabinets, one with a 15", the other with a 12". Plenty of volume with the Wharfedale's.
and last but not least, my 'dime bag Darrell' Cry Baby from Hell wah pedal. It's got lots of tweaks including a foot activated boost. Violin with a Wah is just too much fun!
What do y'all have for ev's and gear?
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Nice Thread,
I have a Zeta too but they cost an arm and a leg and are IMAO, not worth the extra money considering what is available today.
We sell and stock about 7 brands which do very well.
http://fiddlershop.com/electric-violin
Can't miss an opportunity to plug in 
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
fiddlerman: The reason I traded my Zeta off, was that it was too darn heavy! I was finding that I didn't want to pick it up and play it much. When I realized that it was because of the weight, out it went.
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I have a cheap EV, Namu V013.
I too found it too heavy, so Frankenstein was born, with a hacksaw, dremel , sandpaper and time I lighten and modified it to suit me.
now I play it everyday and can play it with my room mate sleep in the next room.
worked out good that way, when no one is here I run it though a Fender Mustang II.
With violins there is no fretting over the music.
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I have a cheap Cecelio from eBay ($50-used) that serves me well for silent practice. New strings and pegs were the first move!
I have a Fender Champion amp with built in effects. Makes practice a lot more fun (when no one is at home but me) 
there was a couple of things I did not like about those older model Yamaha silent violins, but one thing I did like, was that the older model I had, you could line in with an outside source...CD player, music sequencer etc. AND you could adjust both the volume levels of the SV and the outside source and balance them, and the outside source volume control was built into the SV. Them old models had pretty nice built in reverb (3 settings) so with the head phones plugged into the SV plus whatever background, sounded like you were playing in a concert hall, but other people couldn't hear anything.
Great for 'silent' practice. I don't think the newer models have that line in.
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I make fretted 5 string electrics and yes, they are heavier than acoustic traditional violins. I have done a lot to lighten up my violins but they are still right at 700+ grams each and I even cut out part of the tuner end.
"If you practice with your hands you must practice all day. Practice with your mind and you can accomplish the same amount in minutes." Nathan Milstein
anyone care to debate this point? I once heard someone say (on line) whose opinion I respect... "practicing an electric violin will only make you a better electric violin player"
I believe this to be true. Quite a few years back I was without an acoustic for about a year and a half, and I only had a Yammy SV. When I finally got an acoustic I found that it was fairly difficult to play, and it took me about 3 weeks to begin getting my chops back.
What do you think?
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bluesviolin, I definitely can relate to the "too heavy" remark. I agree totally.
As far as practicing on an electric, there are specific aspects of playing an acoustic violin that you can only get on an acoustic violin but many of the techniques are the same. Tone control is slightly different. Obviously there are differences but you benefit when you work on either as apposed to none. 
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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bluesviolin said
anyone care to debate this point? I once heard someone say (on line) whose opinion I respect... "practicing an electric violin will only make you a better electric violin player"I believe this to be true. Quite a few years back I was without an acoustic for about a year and a half, and I only had a Yammy SV. When I finally got an acoustic I found that it was fairly difficult to play, and it took me about 3 weeks to begin getting my chops back.
What do you think?
I absolutely agree. I spent the better part of 3-1/2yrs playing acoustic exclusively and I'm so glad I did, because when I started playing my 5 string EV's it was like I had been playing for a decade instead of only a few years!
Whenever someone says they want to learn to play violin, I strongly suggest to them that they spend at least 1-2 yrs on acoustic only in order to develop all those things you'll never be able to acquire on an EV.
"If you practice with your hands you must practice all day. Practice with your mind and you can accomplish the same amount in minutes." Nathan Milstein
cdennyb: Fiddlerman makes some good points about playing both, But I strongly agree with you, that if you start out on an EV, you will have a lot of things to 'unlearn' on an acoustic. I luv ripping around on my barcus berry, although I kinda think of it as 'cheating'.
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I have an NS Design 5 string solid body electric violin. I play lead electric guitar with two bands; a classic rock cover band and a mellower jazz/blues/old country band. On a few songs i play my violin and need an electric violin to be heard in the mix.
> "practicing an electric violin will only make you a better electric violin player"
I have only dabbled with acoustic violin so can't speak to that. But since i just want to be a better electric violin player for now i guess it is not relevant for me whether that opinion reflects reality or not
Use LR Baggs platinum direct box/equailzer, MAK Space Reverb, MXR Carbon Copy delay. (Have an Arion Stereo Chorus on the pedalboard but never seem to use it.)
gary
"Make every note beautiful", Ivan Galamian
“To play a wrong note is INSIGNIFICANT; To play without PASSION is INEXCUSABLE!” , Ludvig Van Beethovan
"It ain't rocket surgery"
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I have a Kinglos Electric violin.
It is super light weight and easy to play. I love it.
I play about once every few months. When I have sent music that I recorded to friends many times they like the Electric version over the acoustic.
I play acoustic daily sometimes several times. Pretty much still 98% accoustic player.
I am really glad that I did not switch to Electric violin exclusively as this last year I made some acoustic advances with tone, bowing that I am not sure I would have made on the EV. But who knows?
But who knows, when I work with the Electric it is easy to make progress and amplified sound is nice, effects are nice. SWEEEET sounds!!!! Sometimes at this stage in playing it is nice to play something fluid and nice...after all the years of screeching, it is darned nice to play some beautiful music with a little help from my Electric... (make no mistake, those that are new, you still have to learn fingering, bowing, scales, timing, the thing does not play by itself, it takes practice and practice to learn on an EV).
I also like to be mobile with my violin and acoustic is easier for me to go from room to room in the house.
Anyway.. play play play violin... anyway you can and make music.
Vibrato Desperato.... Desperately seeking vibrato
gwshcheer: I tried the 4 string model of that EV quite a while back and thought it was very nice. I particularly liked the different sound options, I believe those are the 2 controls on the right? I could not afford it at the time. If you don't really want or need an acoustic, then just keep on playing that fine EV.
@coolpinkone: I know just how you feel with EV's with playability and sound. They are very.....seductive. I think it's good you have both.
coolpinkone : I don't think I've ever seen a Kinglos ev. If you wanted to take the trouble of posting a picture, I would be interested in seeing it (I can't post photos)
I have a Cecelio EV and mostly use it for 'silent' playing since I like to get up very early in the morning to practice.
my husband plays guitar and I've noticed when I play the EV it sounds better with his acoustic guitar, and conversely my regular acoustic violin sounds really nice with his electric guitar. There must be a scientific or audio engineering reason behind that phenomenon.... but I just like the blend of sounds
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I started with a Cecilio cevn. After two weeks, decided that I really did want to learn the violin and bought a Fiddlerman Concert violin. I really love it for acoustic playing, but have moved on to a Bridge Aquila for my electric. That violin is a pure joy to break out. Both have their distinctive advantages.... yet when it comes to learning technique and the fundamentals, I prefer the acoustic Fiddlerman Concert.
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