acoustic amp for a violin?
 

what are some good acoustic amps? im trying to get an amp for my violin, i would be running it through a pretty heavy distortion pedal and i need one that has a good range (specifically good highs).
the trouble that ive encountered so far is that with a regular electric guitar amp there is terrible feedback and the highs come through softer than the lows, and they also come through with a nasty scratching sound unrelated to the note that im playing.
so yea, idk if anybody here has a lot of experience with using acoustic amps with distortion pedals for violins but any advice would be great.

are you using an actual electric violin or an acoustic with a pickup?

right off the bat you're going to blow the tweeter in that guitar amp if you haven't already (which is EXACTLY the sound you describe with the nasty scratching sound - the center of your speaker is probably shredded).

i don't know of any specific violin amplifiers out there either. most acoustic amps are still made for guitars (and the range of frequencies they produce) a violin wouldn't do much besides destroy the high end.

what most people seem to do is run the violin through an acoustic preamp (like Fishman or LR Baggs) then into a PA system. by having that middleman device in the chain you can then start tweaking your frequencies before they get to the actual device that amplifies them, you'd also want to run your effect between the pre-amp and the PA.

what kind of distortion are you planning on running it through? a typical electric guitar distortion pedal will fuzz out your sound but it won't sound that good as they're still only made to handle certain frequencies. a proper rack mount effect unit rather than a stomp box should be able to handle the wider range of frequencies, it'll cost more but sound better.

The smaller Trace Elliots with the double 10"s and horn loaded tweeters work really well with violins. I'm not entirely sure that they still make them though.

ive got an acoustic with a pickup...
i found a couple of amps online that said they could be used for violins, but then the guy at the music store showed me another one that he thought would be sufficient for a lot cheaper... its a kustom sienna 30 watt
feel free to look at it and tell me what you think.
i dont know much about this sort of thing, but would the acoustic preamp make it unnecessary to use an acoustic amplifier? could i just use a regular electric one in that case? a pa system sounds pretty expensive along with all the other things you just mentioned so the less i need to buy the better.
im looking to have some really intense pissed off sounding distortion since i plan to play in a metal band which is why i was thinking about getting a boss mt-2 metal zone distort pedal
if i got the preamp would the pedal be applicable?
thanks dude, ill check em out.

can't comment on the kustom amp, looks nice enough though.

as for the preamp situation their purpose is to basically establish your sound and tone independently of the amplifier being used so that you have 'your' sound, wherever you plug in. at that point it shouldn't matter what you plug it into as its sole purpose at that point is to just make whatever comes out of the preamp louder. most of your sound and tone would be controlled at that junction within the line.

the metal zone also tends to be a very harsh distortion pedal (lots of gain). i wouldn't buy a pedal until you have the amp situation under control first. once you know you can get a clear sound from your violin through to the amp then you can start experimenting with pedals as they're all going to respond differently to a violin as opposed to a guitar.

are there any examples out there of the sound and style you're trying to achieve?

i did test out the kustom myself(without distortion) and it sounded pretty damn decent. i dont know if once i plug in the distort pedal it'll go wild and sound like crap, but as far as clean amplification goes, it got the job done.

are there any decent but cheap preamps out there? what would i want to look for in one? sorry, i know nothing about preamps aside from what you've told me.

as far as sound and style, im not 100% sure. i play mostly classical style myself, but as i said, id be playing metal mostly as far as the amplifier is concerned. i guess i can list a few bands that will most likely influence my style: mastodon, oldschool metallica, nile, system of a down, opeth, vektor, ect... a bunch of bands with heavily distorted guitars, which is why i like the metalzone(which i tested through a smaller guitar amp with decent results).. ill want to use a clean sound too, but that shouldnt be a problem since all i have to do is turn off the pedal right?

edit: i was just looking at the kustom sienna online and noticed that it mentioned that it wasnt only for guitars:

The Sienna 30 is a 30-watt combo amplifier with a 10-inch speaker that is specifically designed to reproduce and enhance the natural sound of your guitar or other acoustic instrument. The approach is more "hi-fi" in nature. One ¼-inch instrument input plus a ¼-inch microphone input add flexibility for interfacing with the amp. You'll also find analog Reverb and Chorus effects to enhance your sound. EQ controls include a Feedback filter – very handy for live gigs. The Sienna 30 lets you fine-tune your sound, and then amplify it in a way that brings out its best qualities.

whatcha think?

well it definitely sounds like a better solution than just running it through a straight guitar amp. if it sounds pretty damn decent to your ears as is then i'd run with it. :thumb:

the most popular preamp out there is likely the Tech21 SansAmp. again though, if you're satisfied with the sound you're able to get now then i wouldn't worry too much about it until you're ready to upgrade to a beefier / higher quality sound rig / gigging (and paid) on a regular basis etc.

as for the distortion i would have asked to try out a handful of pedals once i knew the amp could handle a clean signal smoothly. i'd try the metal zone, a big muff, tube screamer, etc. maybe a couple of compressors or octavers as well. you never really know what will provide that magic tone until you hear it. just make sure to turn down all the knobs on the pedal before experimenting with it. when it comes to fuzz a lot of times less is WAY more unless you're going for some wall of sound / shoegaze action.

well i went back to the store today and the guy there agreed that with all that distortion and high frequencies of the violin, the tweeter could very likely be damaged.
he thought that i might be better off going with a pa system(the peavey pr12d 200 watt) that came with a built in preamp.
it sounded pretty good with the pedal and everything save for the fact that the feedback was still terrible. when i wasnt playing i had to turn off the pedal or we would just be inundated by an intense piercing screech.
the other problem was that the pa system itself was nearly 400 bucks which is not an amount im sure im willing to spend on one speaker... you wouldnt happen to know of anything a bit cheaper that would get the job done would you?

if not then i might end up getting the kustom amp with a cheap(ish) preamp like the tech21 since that sounds like it may work about as well.

$400 for a PA isn't exactly a bad deal. not really sure what else to recommend.

as for the screech did you guys happen to try an EQ pedal or noise gate? is it possible to turn down the effect levels to the point where it won't feedback?

it's also quite normal to have to shut down your pedals when you're not playing to avoid feedback. not necessarily paint peeling screeches but unnecessary noise. my way around that was to have a volume pedal mixed in at the end of my chain, when i wanted silence i just dropped my foot and it was done, no need to tap dance on a dozen click switches.

damn, i was hoping that i could get something for a little cheaper.

yea, we had it hooked up to a boss ad-3 acoustic instrument processor, but when the distortion was on there was still pretty bad feedback.
the guy agreed with what you said about the rack mount unit... but for now i think i can live with a little bit of feedback, like you said i can just click off the pedal when im not playing.

exactly. get used to dealing with less than perfect situations now and you'll be fine in the future. there's no such thing as a gig that goes off without any issues so if you're already somewhat used to Macguyver-ing solutions it'll pay off in the long run. it also gives you time to save up some cash and really consider various options before upgrading your current gear. you never know what kind of new products are coming down the pipe.

at the very least you should have enough knowledge to get yourself going at this point, but if you still have any other questions i'm sure someone here will be able to provide an answer :thumb:

thanks man,
i appreciate you taking the time to help me out on this.

no worries, if anyone deserves thanks it's that dude helping you through the actual feedback in your local store hehe :thumb:

true...


so im jammin to your band right now... pretty interesting stuff, i assume its pretty much just improve huh?

thanks, glad your enjoying things. and yeah 100% improv. the way we saw it, there are millions of people out there trying to 'make it' as musicians, thousand upon thousands of bands competing for handfuls of stages - and we were LAZY

so yeah, live from the jam room floor, the one and only time anything ever got played (we made up for polish with volume hahaha)

you have any mp3s up for sampling? kind of curious to hear the metal violin action hehe

i like that though... nothing fake about the music, its just all feeling, sounds like a bunch of dudes that got stoned, zoned out and made some music.;)

nah, i dont have anything recorded, but if i do youll be the first to know... i might be meeting up with some guys about starting a band today, so its possible that i could record some of that stuff if it ends up working out.
and now im going to put this completely irrelevant smilie here because its funny. :bonkhead:

lol and its called bonkhead

that is 100% accurate hahahaha and much appreciated :thumb:

as for the bonkhead action. no matter how solid your friendship is with your bandmates you WILL eventually have moments where you'll really feel like your only options are to bonk heads or pull this one :banghead:

it can't be stressed enough. honest and clear communication is vital to any band relationship (and it very much is a 'relationship' - just no sex between members - really though, don't dip it in the company ink hahaha). you also need to take the time to soul search yourself and determine whether your personal private life (family and friends) trumps your public private life (band) or vice versa, and make sure the other band members take the time to figure out the same thing about themselves.

it's not that one side is 'righter' than the other or that one makes for a more 'pure' artist. just that it will cause hassles down the road someday when some people have been biting their tongues for years instead of being honest with themselves and the situation or changes that have taken place within them over the life of the band.

yea, i hear ya man...
i definitely plan on having an open and honest stream of communication with anyone that i make music with. if that wasnt there id have to end up settling for something that i didnt like, as opposed to a compromise.

im not totally sure what you mean about the private personal life vs. the public one though... i dont plan on ever worrying about having a "band image" or anything like that, i just want to make some good music with like minded people.