Hi Andrew Fryer and others.  I also have an inexpensive electric violin that I purchased for the same reason.  Make sure that the distance between nut and bridge is the same on both violins for consistent intonation.  On the guidance from several YouTube videos, I purchased a second hand Zoom G2 Guitar Effects Pedal, which has about 100 different effects in it.  I mainly use octave (to emulate the playing of a viola or cello) and reverb (to emulate playing in a cave).  Mine did not come with a “wall wort” ac adapter, but it is easy and inexpensive to get one on the internet (9 volt dc with a center pin neutral).  The pedal is useless without an instruction manual, but it is a quick download for free.

I think that I paid about $30 US for mine on eBay.  You can easily pay $200 US for an octave pedal alone.  I mate it with a very small amp/speaker combination sold by Yamaha to be used with their silent electric guitar, that can either be used by battery or by wall plug.  I think that I paid $120 US second hand and another $30 for a cloth carrying case.  Power output is about 5 Watts.

There are several things you can do to improve the sound of an inexpensive electric violin.  Look up the key words “silk purse electric violin” to find a series of posts on another violin forum.  Very easy to do and beneficial.

If you bought a solid body ev, the piece under the bridge is a piezo transducer.  Only half of it is active.  With the bridge off, turn on the battery box and scratch the sensor (generally covered with a tube of shrink wrap) and make sure that the active half is under the bass (g string) foot of the bridge.  If not, it is rather easy to pull on it and swap it end for end.

Once you pull the pickup off the (generally plastic) base, look at what type of screws were used to secure the base.  The piezo works best when resting on a flat surface, and the Chinese typically use any available screw (at any convenient angle) on this hidden part.  Substitute flat head screws if you have to.

The bridge feet should be flat.  I have not found a bridge specifically made for this purpose, but it is relatively easy to use a chisel or fine sand paper to achieve the effect.  If the bridge has a logo, the logo should face the tail piece.  If the bridge lacks a logo, the face with a 90 degree angle to the feet goes toward the tail piece.

If you play in pubs, you may want to consider the purchase of a Glasser carbon fiber violin.  The cheapest I have found them is about $400 US, which is not bad considering that they come with Knilling planetary pegs and decent strings.  I would ditch the carbon tail piece since you don’t need fine tuners and replace it with a harp style ebony tail piece ($20 US).

The US second hand market has evaporated this month, likely due to possible sanctions with China.  A cheap second hand Cecilio Mendini MV 500 or a Cecilio CVA 500 14 inch viola strung as a violin are $50 US options which may work well for you.  I would not purchase a bow at an expense over $100 US if there was a likely hood of damage or theft.  The Fiddlerman carbon fiber bow is perfect for what you want to do.

Hi Andrew Fryer and others.  I don’t normally use an amp so I had to look at a cable to confirm.  It is mono.