The Myth About Electric Violins and Guitar Amps

It’s commonly believed in the electric string world that electric violinists should avoid using guitar amps. Apparently, the same trait that makes guitar solos sound “flashy” makes electric violins sound shrill and screechy. Well, not necessarily.

To demonstrate what I mean, I give you this video of electronica/progressive rock violinist James Sudakow playing with his band through a Marshall guitar amp. This song is called "Orange" from his album Green.

Goddamn right! I love this song and his sound.

Does he sound shrill and screechy through that amp? Not at all. In fact, his C string tone has some serious balls. Remember, guitar amps are the amps with the great tubes, and as guitarists have found, tubes are synonymous with good tone. So take advantage! If a problem with screeching does arise, well, that's why there's an equalizer on the amp.

Take note of what Sudakow is using in this video: a Zeta Strados 5-String Violin with the Strados Series Pickup and, according to his MySpace page, a Marshall JCM2000 TSL half stack. For a better look, his promo pictures give great close-ups of his gear. Unfortunately, his effects pedals aren't visible anywhere; I'd love to know what they are.

The Strados Pickup is worth mentioning because it's an active pickup (in contrast to a passive pickup) and can deliver a fat, low-impedance, noise-free signal to his effects and amp, which is always a plus. There's nothing wrong with passive pickups per se, but their signals are susceptible to RFI and sound a little weaker to me than active pickups' signals. If you have any thoughts about the two, feel free to leave a comment.

My point is: don't follow what people say, follow your ears. Electric string players have many, many options of pickups, instruments, bows, cables, amps, pedals, etc. available to use and it's up to them/us to put everything together and make a sound that evokes that devil inside (or some other feeling of satisfaction). Go play and listen to as much music as possible to teach your ears how active pickups sound versus passive ones, solid state amps versus tube amps, Yamaha Electric Instruments versus Mark Wood's instruments, etc, etc, etc. Only after discovering the possibilities and learning some basics about electronics can one truly "go out and get" the sound that's in one's head.

One last thing, I recommend that you check out James Sudakow post haste. He's great.

• His website: The Electric Violin Experience
  
• James Sudakow on YouTube
• James Sudakow on MySpace
• CD Baby: Green (2007)
• CD Baby: There is No Sound in Space (2009)
  

Metal Bands with Strings Part 2

Since my Metal Bands with Strings post last November, I’ve found a few more string players in bands who write some really shit-kickin' music:

Earl Maneein
NYC violinist/violist, graduate of the Mannes College of Music and founder/primary songwriter for the self-described “violin-driven post-thrash metal band” Resolution15. Maneein’s deeply distorted and down-tuned 7-string violin handles the rhythm and lead duties with delectable brutality, leaving no room for a guitarist in the band.

Resolution15’s message is a political one and so is their name: they write on their MySpace page that Resolution 15 was “…passed by the North Vietnamese in 1959 to aid the Viet-Cong insurgency, leading directly to U.S. involvement in the second Indo-Chinese War.” Their music takes swipes at injustices in Southeast Asia as well as former president George W. Bush. To understand a little better, I think it’s worth reading a very interesting MySpace blog post written by Maneein, whose family comes from Thailand, about the cost of affluence manifesting itself at the Burmese-Thai border.

Hear it for yourself: their album is available for listening at their website. I recommend starting with "Blowback."

• Earl Maneein on MySpace
• Resolution15 on MySpace
• Resolution15.com
• Buy their album on CD Baby

Photo by Gina Martini, courtesy of www.resolution15.com


Tim Charles is a man of many talents. He is a composer, businessman and instrumentalist at home with classical music, jazz and even metal. He is in the Australian progressive metal band Ne Obliviscaris as the violinist (acoustic no less!), clean vocalist, booking agent and co-manager (extreme vocalist Xenoyr is the other co-manager). He handles the business side of things through the company that he founded with Xenoyr, Welkin Entertainment, where he also manages and promotes other bands. That’s pretty impressive, but even more so is Ne Obliviscaris’ demo, The Aurora Veil.

If I had to pick one word to describe this album, it would be “epic.” I usually don’t try to categorize music like this since I prefer to let it speak for itself, but the songs on The Aurora Veil are simply that: epic. Two of the three songs are almost 12 minutes long while the third is nine and a half, and each one is a trek through Opeth-esque texture and mood shifts. However, Ne Obliviscaris’ extremes go further than Opeth’s with less repetition. The death and black metal sections don’t fail to pummel while the soft sections are moments of exquisite beauty. When they put the two on top of each other, the result is very dense sound that remains clear and tasteful without suffering from pretension.

Each player’s top-notch technique allows the music to become quite complex, but they always manage to find their own voice within even the most intricate parts of a song. Charles can be found either in the rhythm section, trading leads with the guitars or on top of it all with a melody. Brendan Brown, the bassist, has serious chops which he uses to shred through his unique lines or to double the fast-as-hell guitar parts. Dan Presland is the winner of the 2006 "Fastest Feet" drummer competition in Australia; I shouldn’t need to say any more about the double bass pedaling than that.

The Aurora Veil is available for purchase on the Ne Obliviscaris MySpace page. It’s only 10 Australian dollars plus shipping (AU$5 to send it to me in Boston), which is a deal considering the quality of music that’s on it.

• Tim Charles on MySpace
• Ne Obliviscaris on MySpace
  
• NeObliviscaris.com
• Welkin Entertainment on MySpace

Photo courtesy of flickr.com/toycarphotos