Electric Strings
Hello everyone
I have a Stagg Electric Violin and I recently broke the E string. I'm guessing the strings were cheap steel core ones beause the whole thing cost £80. Marvelous.
As for replacing the strings I am wondering what I should do. I have recently bought some Thomastik synthetic core dominant strings which are very good quality but I am not sure whether it would be worth putting them on my electric violin, which I must stress is my main instrument now as I use it for gigging.
In terms of sound and timbre, is it worth it?
Many thanks, Noah
Replies (13)
Since you're changing the whole set of strings, why not try a set of Super Sensitive brand Baritone Octave strings? (available from http://www.juststrings.com/sps-ss2507.html)
Here's a little video I made of me fiddling around with the Octave Baritone strings on my Yamaha electric violin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIcZu1ZygDM
You should consider getting an effects pedal for your eletric violin. I use the MXR Fullbore Metal distortion pedal. It works great with electric violins. Gives a great tone to the Octave baritone strings.
Hope this helps!
Happy fiddling!
Shawn
Danielle said, " It really doesn't make all that much difference which strings you get for an electric instrument so long as they vibrate."
I am sorry, but this is just not true - because most electric violins get their sound from the string alone, rather than the body of the instrument, the timbral quality of the string is of paramount importance.
Dominants are a good rich sounding string, and will work very well with an e-violin. It certainly isn't a waste. On top of that you have their response and feel under the fingers and bow - much nicer than some other strings, imho.
Something else to think about is the bridge itself. I can't think off-hand how the Stagg's p/u is mounted, but they are usuall either in teh bridge or under the bridge. This means that the bridge resonances contribute greatly to the sound that the pick up picks up.
My own electric violin is a Skyinbow S1, and it has a bridge with its legs cut off sitting on the pick up, which is mounted in the body of the fiddle. I found that thinning the bridge cut out some of the horrlible 1 kHz nasal nasty, and boosted the oomph of the low end.
I am now convinced that an electric violin should be set up with the same attention to detail as an acoustic instrument, maybe with even more focus and care on the strings and bridge, because they are what is resonating and providing teh source of the sound for the pick up.
gc
The sound you hear when you bow your electric violin without an amp is merely the sound of the string itself vibrating. You will get the same effect if you pluck a stretched out rubber band.
As I said before, the quality of sound coming from an electric violin when it's plugged into an amp is determined by its pickup. The pickup is what turns the vibrations into an electric signal. What it registers is the pitch being played (aka how fast the string is moving or frequency). All E strings will vibrate at the same rate regardless of the materials they are made of. Otherwise, it would not be an E string.
Danielle, what you are claiming would only be true if a string gave a simple sine wave as its vibration.
They don't. Strings have complex wave forms, and differ from each other in the distribution of their higher partials.
That is why violins, electric or acoustic, don't sound like flutes.
gc
Ah, the pickups are the thing! However, there is a difference in strings.
If the pickups are detecting metal, similar to electric guitar pickups, then any synthetic will be zen strings; no amplification.
Not all strings are the same; some are very dynamic, some are pretty stiff, and others have other qualities. I'd try Helicores, maybe some other metal strings, and see what a difference they make. Possibly focus on one string, and see what difference the string makes?
As an additional note, I have a fairly inexpensive electric violin also, and the pickups are not very good quality. I do not think a significant investment in strings will make a difference.
To Graham:
This is true.... if the instrument was acoustic. But it's not. The pickup is the great equalizer. The pickup is not going recognize the different partials and nodes put off by steel strings vs. gold strings. The technology is just not there right now.
To Roland:
How the strings respond to you bow would be a noticeable difference, I agree. As in how fast or slow you have to move your bow to get them to respond.
I think you kinda missed graham's point which is this: a string tuned to 440 doesn't vibrate at 440hz when played, it vibrates at all kinds of frequencies in addition to 440. Pickups don't sort through all that shaking and shimmying, they shove everything into the output signal.
Yeah, pickups are important, it's pretty much the only thing going on in an electric violin outside of the strings. But you gotta realize, the strings are the main show on a string instrument and everything is designed to capture their vibrational energy. Seems like common sense to use strings with a timbre you want to capture, no?
Thank you all very much for your advice. It's really helpful to hear such well founded arguments too :)
Whilst this is a pretty hard decision to make I think that I may well save the dominants for when I eventually decided to change the strings on my acoustic. I will do this because as Shawn suggested, I do indeed use a multi effects pedal with my electric violin and much of the sound is often altered anyway and it is any many ways more based on what I do. I'm yet to devise such a badass distortion tone for it though like the one in your vid. I'm guessing the trick is to not overdo the gain because bowing on a violin gives out a constantly strong signal anyway.
Also my violin and it's under bridge pickup is very cheap and I suppose it does not even accurately pickup much of the rich timbre of dominant strings but simply chucks out what it can find. The impression I get from this www.stringsmagazine.com/issues/strings95/coverstory.shtml is that steel strings are the most appropriate, yet it presents few of the finer details as to why.
Hopefully this will turn out to be the right decision.
Many thanks
Helicore strings are really thin and I think would make a good choice for the electric ,I am going to do this, but haven't got to this yet.Softer rosins may also effect the sound in a good way.
One of the reasons most electric violins sound like kazoos is precisely because many players don't think the strings are all that important. That and the 1kHz piezo quack.
Don't take my word for it - do the experiment. It is not about opinions, but simple physics.
Try Doms and if they don't improve the sound of your Stagg, take them off and put them on your acoustic. There is no substitute for finding things out for yourself.
For what it's worth, I have Corelli Alliance on my electric at the moment, because they are a big fat dark sounding string, and Pirastro Passiones on the acoustic, which are much brighter.
gc
Gosh... What a debate! :-)
First, I don't know the brands of electric fiddles that are being mentioned here, so I honestly can't comment on what the best string is for the original poster's fiddle. I can comment on what I use myself.
I've played electric violins since the late '60s. Gets me away from all these classical players for a night or two. :-) Had to make my own pickup system for my first one, because choices of bridges/pickups and electronics for the violin were pretty limited then. Must thank Mr. Pickering for his excellent phono cartridges, 'cause that's what I ended up pirating.
Presently, I have two electrics. An old late '70s Barcus Berry (sounds very much like an amplified violin rather than "an electric") and a John Jordan 5 string. I use Dominants on the Barcus and good steel core strings on the Jordan.
The steel strings react very quickly and don't require as much bow pressure... and the action of the 5 string is lower (necessarily so), so they are a much better choice for that violin in the end. Tone? Well, the Barcus does have some body resonance that feeds back through the pickup, so the Dominants seems to improve the tone a bit. The Jordan is a solid body and has 2 pickups per string within the bridge. Honestly, as long as the gauge of the string is appropriate, and they are of good quality, there is little tonal difference... and that's dictated and adjusted more by the settings on the board and the acoustics of the room than anything else.
Setup on the electrics (or any other violin) isn't an issue for me. I'm a restorer... so I have no trouble with alterations. If things are wonky with the violin in question, you may want to visit someone who has the skill to fine tune the setup for you. No string will work well if the fiddle isn't receptive to the operator.
Soooo.... Once you're sure things are "right" with the instrument, I'd suggest trying both types of strings on the violin in question and choose what works best for you.
My 2 cents.
Best to all,
Jeffrey
If your pickup is mounted under the bridge, it is most likely a piezo pickup, so anything I said about metal strings is moot.
http://www.violinist.com/discussion/response.cfm?ID=17899&show=all
String response will therefore give you a significant opportunity to experiment with different sounds. I would try thick and thin strings also, possibly in the same brand, just to see how it responds differently.
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June 11, 2010 at 08:25 AM ·
It really doesn't make all that much difference which strings you get for an electric instrument so long as they vibrate.
On a wood instrument, strings will affect a great deal because it determines how the whole instrument vibrates and plays. Sound is transfered through the whole instrument.
An electric violin has a pickup in the bridge which detects vibrations which are turned into an electric signal. The body of an electric instrument is for looks only and maybe to hide some wiring. So it wouldn't matter if you used steel or gut. It's still just turning into an electric signal. The quality of the sound coming out of your amp is determined by the quality of your pickup.