Fender FV3
NS Design Electric Violin
One of the most blatant problems with electric violins is that there is only one piezoelectric pickup in the bridge, and the same equalization controls have to apply to all of the strings, the low strings and the high strings. That means that one cannot really even out those annoying high frequency components on the low strings, the G and D strings, without also shutting down the high strings where the high frequency components rightfully belong.
I had arrived at a kind of a sound stage compromise where I had been turning up the base and dumping the medium and high controls to almost nothing, and enough of the high strings would get through while attenuating most of the buzzy high frequency components on the low strings. But the fix was not perfect.
Then it occurred to me that one has more than electronics to fiddle with, excuse the expression. One can deal with the physical properties of the violin. I was thinking of how when neighbors are playing their music too loud, mostly it is the Bass that gets through the wall. The only time one hears a lot of high notes is when someone hits an iron railing and one hears the complete full bandwidth twang twang through the iron. So it is that hard materials will pass all frequencies, even the high frequencies, but if one adds less hard materials, such as plasterboard and insulation, then the high frequencies are attenuated and mostly the low notes get through.
Hmmmm. So I thought of the solid piezoelectric bridges on most electric violins. Solid little rocks, really. Why not introduce a softer porous more resilient material between the strings and the solid bridge – the low notes will get through and the high buzzy frequencies will be attenuated.
So I found an old bicycle inner-tube and cut a square that I could drape over the bridge and tie in place with a slip-knotted string. I have an NS Design WAV 4, and the bridge is set a bit low to begin with, so the extra bit of height added to the bridge with this dampening padding only helped, as it is easier to modulate the strings if they are not entirely flat down on the finger board.
Yes, it worked. The low notes are a lot cleaner, far less buzzy, and I really didn’t notice any difference with the high strings. The Electric Violin is a great more civilized now.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Review NS Design WAV 4 Violin
Review NS Design WAV 4 Violin
Overall this is going to be a favorable Review; however, I certainly have a few reservations and then some positive advice.
Firstly, if you are in love with the sound of an acoustic violin… even a cheap basic student violin with steel strings… then the WAV 4, straight out of the box will terrify you with its heavy coarse raw electrical sound. But since the WAV 4 is ‘passive’, that is, it doesn’t have a built-in preamplifier and some elaborate onboard set of equalizers and effects switches and knobs, then you will almost certainly have to get or already have some kind of an pre-amp and amplification system. Depending on the controls on your amplifier/preamplifier, you might be able to minimize a great deal of that buzzy electronic sound character of the WAV 4.
My own setup may be unnecessarily complicated. You see, I use the same Input Cord for everything I play – a couple of electric guitars, an electric bass, and now the electric Violin. Changing instruments just takes resetting a few dials. I use a Bass Amplifier as my Preamp Stage, bringing the signal out from the Headphone Jack. Then it goes into a Alesis Nanoverb 16 Bit Digital Effects Unit, and then goes through a Peavey PV6 Mixer with LO Med and Hi adjusts on the channel. The Final Stage is runs to my headphones. I could probably pull the Bass Amp out of the setup and let the Alesis Digital Effects Processor handle the job of being a preamp, but sometimes it is good to leave well enough alone.
It turns out that the WAV 4 Violin likes about the same settings as my Bass Guitar, and for about the same reason. The worse Electronic Sound comes from high frequency components riding on the sound from the lowest strings. Turning the Treble of the WAV 4 all the way down brings out a fairly natural sound on the A and E Strings (the two highest strings on a violin), but so much high frequency stuff still rides on the G and D strings that one hardly suspects that these are supposed to be low notes. So on my first stage of amplification going through the bass amplifier, I turn down the Medium and the High filters and set up the Low knob to pass more Low than anything else, and I do the same with the Mixer Controls. Yes, it does knock some of the final volume off of the high strings, but plenty of that A and E high pitch gets through, so it is not really a problem. Besides, just a touch of Treble on the WAV 4 brings back plenty of A and E String volume.
It turns out that the rather affordable Alesis Nanoverb Effects Processor (I think I got it for a bit more than a hundred dollars) is just the right thing to have if you actually LIKE electric violin sound. I was able to adjust it for some really nice professional sounding effects – chorus with echo and all of that. But one can dial down these effects so they are barely noticeable while still being a bit helpful. For instance, a slight bit of ‘chorus’, whether linear or non-linear, helps to fill in the Low Strings, giving some of the roundness back to the sound that is robbed by the electronics
I was not able to totally drive out the electronic sound and arrive at a perfect acoustic sound, but I got satisfied enough so that I did not have to throw the whole heap into the trash can. One will never be invited to play with a chamber orchestra or with an unplugged folk music recital, so keep your real violin if you still want all of that. However, when playing with an Electric Band, one can get close enough to the acoustic sound to satisfy for violin parts in songs that are supposed to have that natural sound. It might not be a perfect fit but remember its only rock and roll.
This sound stage setup work took about 5 hours. Then I had to get used to actually playing the WAV 4 Violin. It doesn’t play like your standard violin. The Chin Rest is different, and there is that god-awful Shoulder Rest contraption, which turned out to be actually quite a diamond in the rough after I learned to deal with it (more on this below). Anyway, you can’t just stick the WAV 4 under your chin and go like its your old fiddle.
The WAV 4 is heavy. It’s a block of wood, hallowed out only as much as necessary to put in the Bridge Mounts, the String Things, and the Pickup Jack. Then the metal brackets for the Chin Rest and the Shoulder Rest are heavy enough to mount a sixteen inch cannon onto a battle ship. Given all this weight, the Shoulder Rest would need to be perfect so that one would be able to play without constantly needing to use the left hand for manually holding up and repositioning the violin, when, really, the job of the left hand should be exclusively taken up with dancing fingers upon the strings. But there was just no getting the Should Rest right… for the first several hours…
But I kept at it. The Cushion Part of the Shoulder rest is rubber foam glued on this thick curved metal blade, curved nicely on one side, but apparently shaped to go over the shoulder on the shoulder-most side, and so it guts inward. This is great if you play the violin absolutely sideways, with the violin positioned exactly over the shoulder, forcing your head around to create a permanent crick in the neck. Yeah, yeah… that is how one is supposed to play. All the Best Schools constantly reiterate that the Best Way must necessarily always be the most uncomfortable way. If what they instruct isn’t hated and resented, then it can’t possible be technically ‘correct’. However, in the Real World, a great many violin players fall away from such standards of school house perfection, and we play with the violin set more forward. Some people play the violin right under the chin, head and eyes forward. Well, for those Non-Conformists the Shoulder Rest jutting blade stabs them in the chest – giving them the punishment they so rightfully deserve! But really, that’s not what they spent their money for, is it?
I was reading on the Ned Steinberger Site (NS Design apparently stands for Ned Steinberger Design) and I saw promotions for their Custom Shoulder Rest, which is flexible. Apparently they had received hundreds of thousands of complaints regarding their standard Shoulder Rests and so they redesigned the Shoulder Rest, but they are still selling Violins with the Old ‘Stabber/Punishment’ Shoulder Rests. Anyway, I thought that my Shoulder Rest was one of the new Flexible ones (I should learn to read websites more carefully), but when I tried to bend it with my fingers, there was no give at all. So I tried to tweak it a little with a BFH (Very Big Hammer) and it snapped. Really, it was not malleable in the least. You would think it would bend a little before breaking, but, no. after five or six very sound blows – Snap! But the good news is that it is no longer stabbing me. The rubber pad glued to the bottom of the thing holds the pieces together. Anyway, I have emails out to Ned Steinberger and Johnson Strings asking about what I have to do to get one of the new Custom Shoulder Rests.
Well, even after breaking the Shoulder Rest which represented some progress in fixing the inherently flawed design, I still could not dial it in to the point where I could play the violin for longer than 20 seconds without having to stop to reposition the thing. The weight of the thing was making it inexorably slide down the chest. And constantly supporting the weight of this Battleship Violin… well, it was giving me a upper back ache and muscle fatigue in my left arm. I have to admit that I was getting a bit discouraged, but then I had this wonderful inspiration!
The Bar and Tee arrangement of the Shoulder Rest provided an excellent hook up spot for a simple strap that one could wear around one’s neck. What I did was I tied off my Scapular Cord (A Scapular is a Catholic Religious thing that just happened to hang from a thick cord I had woven from 9 strands of wool yarn – a rather nice piece of rope, really) to a length that would just barely fit over my head and I passed it through the Chin Side of the Shoulder Rest Blade and over the Fastening Knob, and now all the weight of the violin hangs from my neck on that neck strap. It worked wonderfully well! I was finally able to get in a good practice, with the violin staying put long enough to warm up on the fingering and decide that, yes, indeed, it was an actual violin I was playing. And, with the Shoulder Rest looped through the Neck Cord, one does not need to put the WAV 4 Violin down… between songs, or rosining the bow, or whatever. One simply lets go and the smallish violin simply hangs down on one’s chest, like a big jewelry pendant. If you wish to make your own neck strap, then any heavy cord or strap looped to be about 23 inches in diameter, just fitting over your head, would be suitable.
Oh, the WAV 4 Violin comes with the Bridge adjusted very low. I used those screwdriver adjusts to bring up the Bridge a bit to help with the kind of string modulation you do by wiggling your fingers on the string… if the bridge is too low, you lose a lot of that effect.
So, in summation, the WAV 4 probably sounds no more “electronic” than any of the other Electric Violins out there, and once you learn to strap the Shoulder Rest around your neck, then that horrible monstrosity of a Shoulder Rest actually becomes a positive attribute for selecting WAV 4 from amongst all of its competition. It makes me think of objections I have heard regarding Fender’s FV-3 Electric Violin – that it was overly heavy and constantly needed to be repositioned. Well, with its standard acoustic style Shoulder Rest, there’s not much that one can do about the weight – there is nothing that I can see to tie onto or hook up to in order to provide the Neck Strap relief available so easily on the WAV 4 Violin. Such is probably the case with most Electric Violins – because they are heavier than normal acoustic violins, the struggle to keep the violin stable while playing is intensified. And it is a struggle, even with normal violins. Just go search up information on regular violin shoulder support systems… obviously, people are having problems keeping their violins still enough to play upon.
Oh, and a final point on Electric Violins in general. Wow, are they quiet! I had no idea that traditional acoustic violins had such a potent magic for amplifying the sound of the strings. With the same strings strung exactly the same way over a simple piece of wood, or your typical electric violin, without any electronic amplification, the strings emit barely the slightest whisper. So, if your primary urge for buying an electric violin, is so you do not put off your neighbors, family or roommates with the volume of a regular violin, then getting an electric violin really is a good choice. The volume difference is, well, I guess a hundred to one. My headphones probably make more noise then the electric violin itself.
………………………………..
Addendum to NS Design WAV 4 Violin Review
I’ve now had the WAV 4 Violin just over a week, and it has gotten even better in my estimation. At first, you will remember, I was obsessed with how well it compared to ordinary acoustic violins, but now that seems almost beside the point. Electric Violins are, after all, electric, and while it would be an additional feather in their cap if they could sound natural, as electric they have a great many advantages over regular acoustics. For instance, one can play an Electric using a wide range of playing sensitivities – a soft light bow sound can be had while turning up the volume enough for your audience to actually here it. To be heard with an acoustic violin in any large room with the least bit of any other noise going on, one has only the option of grinding down very hard, therefore loosing the illusion of sensitivity.
Then there is the point regarding acoustical sound, that there is a wide debate over just what constitutes an acceptable acoustical sound. While to the untrained ear all acoustical violins may sound the same, to a trained ear they all sound different, and in many instances not that particularly good. Some people spend thousands of dollars trying to get a violin that sounds ‘good’ and when they get one, they start saving up for one that will sound even better. It is all quite obsessive and endless. So it was a relief for me to finally determine that the sounds being produced from the NS Design WAV 4, with the help of my Alesis Nanoverb Digital Effects Processor and Peavey PV6 Mixer and Amplifier, were, well, better. It is not so bad, is it, when we can settle for “better”.
Oh, regarding the NS Design stock Shoulder Rest, which I broke with a hammer because I thought it was a Custom ( Flexible) Shoulder Rest, well, I got an email from Johnson Strings and they will special order me a Custom Shoulder Rest for $50.00. Cool! But I could as easily keep the old one. You see, I repaired it so it is now flexible in its own right. I had looked for just the right degree of flexibility and found it in the thick plastic of a kitty litter bucket top, and sawed off a piece of it to fit across the top of the broken shoulder rest blade, and then I wound it on using some really nice tan-brown wool yarn, using just enough carpenters glue to keep the yarn from unraveling, and which dries clear. It looks like I simply added a bit of extra padding to the shoulder rest.
Oh, and this brings us to the best feature of the NS Design Electric Violin, and that is that the inverted ‘Tee’ bracket of the Shoulder Rest provides the best tie-off potential of any Violin on the market, that I know of that is. Remember how I complained of the WAV 4 being too heavy to keep stable enough to play, and I found I could pass a loop around my neck and simply hang the Violin from my neck. Well, yes, that basic idea works, and I developed it a bit further. Firstly, it is perhaps a mistake to simply pass one belt or cord around one’s neck and around the Shoulder Rest’s Tee Stem. Why? Well, unless it is kept very tight, there is the possibility that the blades of the shoulder rest might wiggle under the cord or belt, and the violin take a plunge toward the floor. Mine did, but fortunately my first Performance Discipline was that of a Juggler and my hand automatically followed the falling Violin down and snatched it up before it hit the floor. Yes, so while I was never able to fully perfect my Act of juggling 5 flaming bowling pins to “Flight of the Bumble Bee”, still, I was able to snatch up one falling violin just when it really counted.
Anyway, in my Shoulder Rest Support System, I ended up using a loop of cord. I got some 36 gauge cotton string and braided 3 strands together to make a cord about 6 feet long. Be careful to start with pieces of string about 15 to 20% longer than what you will finally need, as braiding soaks up some of the original length of the strings you use. I tied the ends of the cord together to form a loop and I pass the end of the loop around the Tee Stem of the Shoulder Rest, and then encircle my neck with the rest of the loop. No, I do not pass the loop over my head… it is far too long for that. I keep the loop doubled over when I pass it around my neck, and my original intent was to loop the other end around the Tee Stem of the Shoulder Rest from the other side after having gone around my neck. And that does work, but things get crowded there, just under the chin rest, and when it is time to undo the loops after practice, it is difficult to feel which loop end should go where, and one is caught trying to find a mirror one can work with. So I ended up finally attaching a small single loop of cord to the Tee Stem, and a Key Ring Clip to the Primary Loop. The thing can now clip on or clip off in mere seconds. I keep it fairly tight, so that the chin rest is fixed just under my chin. Oh, this is why it is an advantage to use a double loop instead of a single cord around the neck, as the double loop while it can be arranged to be tight, has twice as much inherent ‘stretch and bounciness’ as a single cord, and that makes it more comfortable and easier to work with during a long practice. And in practice, the loop holds the violin in place so well, it is really something of an afterthought whether I use the chin rest at all. You see, here is where the weight of the WAV 4 might actually be something of an asset. Most of the weight is toward the bottom of the WAV 4, about even with the bridge. Once secured around the neck, most of the weight then simply drops into the Shoulder Rest, keeping the Violin stable even despite some rather energetic playing.
Oh, about the NS Design Shoulder Rest being a wonderfully innovative design. Well, yes, especially that one can adjust the longitudinal Axis of the Violin. With most other violin designs, one is more or less stuck with a Bridge aligned horizontally, that is, parallel to the horizon – flat and level to the floor. With the Longitudinal Axis adjustability of the NS Design, one can lean the G String of the Bridge up to make it easier to come up over the top of the strings with the bow. Honestly, after a week with it, I don’t know how I had ever been able to live without it before.
Oh, I forgot to mention in my first review that I had changed out the two fat strings with Thomastik Infeld Super Flexibles, and I like them a lot. They are steel-chrome wound braided steel strings, and are known for being the mellowest of the steel strings available for violin. If you already have plenty of high frequency buzziness inherent to the violin itself, which seems to be the case with Electric Violins in general, then a mellow set of strings seems to be the way to go. The original A and E, as they sounded okay, and good enough is, after all, good enough.
Oh, the literature included with the WAV 4 mentions that it would be compatible with perlon or synthetic strings. Yes, but take my advice and stay away from the Perlons and the Synthetics. Why? Well, they are wound in aluminum. And aluminum is very brittle. Go on line and search up ‘unraveling violin strings’ and you will see it is a chronic problem with just about every brand of aluminum wound string, especially the A Strings. Then another thing about Aluminum is that it is molecularly NOT smooth. Even when you oil an aluminum wound string, one can not easily slide a finger on an aluminum string. Aluminum if ‘grabby’. The molecular surface of the aluminum simply wants to dig into the surface of your finger’s skin. That is probably why these aluminum strings are so fragile – they grip so hard and do not want to let go, while the violin player is either trying to skillfully modulate his playing with some slight wiggling back and forth, or is desperately trying to slide into the correct note while time is still left on the metronome. Well, in any case, even good players can’t make aluminum strings last very long, especially not with the vigorous playing styles that one can expect of an Electric Violin. And let us admit that sometimes sliding between notes can be GOOD SOUNDING effect, and we shouldn’t HAVE TO avoid it because the strings are too delicate or grabby to allow for it. Also, new Perlon and Synthetic Strings regularly take an entire day to stabilize their tune enough to stay in tune from one song to the next. And you have to tune them up gradually so you do not break them during installation, and they will not stay in tune or even nearly in tune, from day to day, until they had settled in for the best part of half a week. Imagine if you were on stage and broke a perlon or synthetic string. You couldn’t just wind on a new string and play, like you could with all of your steel strings and chrome steel wrapped strings.
Oh, in this regards I do like the innovative string tuners and the peg-less head of the NS Design Violins. With the violin hanging from my neck for an entire practice, it is nice that I don’t have to worry about bumping the violin pegs out of tune.
I had read that the Bridge on the NS Design was infinitely adjustable. Yes, I did use the screws from the bottom to bring the bridge up in it mounts a little bit. But I also decided to reposition the strings along the top of the bridge, to spread them out to give the bow more clearance for One String At a Time playing. You see, no matter how far the strings are apart on top of the bridge, it is always easy to play two strings at a time. Keeping a Close Bridge is only important if one contemplates ”triple stopping”, that is, pushing the bow down on 3 strings at once (or even 4 strings, God Bless us, but that can only be done on shaved down almost flat ‘fiddle’ bridges, and that is too ‘incestuous’ for decent violin playing folk to even want to think about). No, that is not even one of my ambitions in life, to grind down on every string at once. So I spread the strings out, and the NS Design Bridge lets me do it. You just have to hold it in place for a moment while tightening up on the adjustment knob and then it stays put in its new location.
Oh, and that reminds me of another recommendation for Electric Violins over acoustics… that one does not have to reset the bridge periodically, as the bridges of traditional acoustics tend to lean more and more forward with each adjustment to their tuning. An Electric Violin’s fixed Bridge is just another easy luxury of life we can grow accustomed to. That and not having to worry about humidity, temperature or dryness compounding in ways that would destroy an expensive acoustic violin. The NS Design WAV 4 may be a bit on the heavy side, but it certainly isn’t delicate and I can’t imagine what could possibly hurt the thing.
Oh, and finally, the looks of the Thing. At first I had put the NS Design Violins toward the bottom of my list because, well, they did not look like Violins. But the look they do have – an old European Stringed Instrument Look – well, it is beautiful in its own right. This is while some of the other Electric Violins are positively Ugly – using plastic scrawling that is supposed to suggest the traditional lines of a violin… that is all simply hideous and cartoonishly immature. The NS Design is strong, compact and finally attractive… looking better in reality, in its actual physical presence, then what one captures from seeing it merely in the photographs. And since I wear it around my neck it is important that the NS Design is both attractive and compact.
Overall this is going to be a favorable Review; however, I certainly have a few reservations and then some positive advice.
Firstly, if you are in love with the sound of an acoustic violin… even a cheap basic student violin with steel strings… then the WAV 4, straight out of the box will terrify you with its heavy coarse raw electrical sound. But since the WAV 4 is ‘passive’, that is, it doesn’t have a built-in preamplifier and some elaborate onboard set of equalizers and effects switches and knobs, then you will almost certainly have to get or already have some kind of an pre-amp and amplification system. Depending on the controls on your amplifier/preamplifier, you might be able to minimize a great deal of that buzzy electronic sound character of the WAV 4.
My own setup may be unnecessarily complicated. You see, I use the same Input Cord for everything I play – a couple of electric guitars, an electric bass, and now the electric Violin. Changing instruments just takes resetting a few dials. I use a Bass Amplifier as my Preamp Stage, bringing the signal out from the Headphone Jack. Then it goes into a Alesis Nanoverb 16 Bit Digital Effects Unit, and then goes through a Peavey PV6 Mixer with LO Med and Hi adjusts on the channel. The Final Stage is runs to my headphones. I could probably pull the Bass Amp out of the setup and let the Alesis Digital Effects Processor handle the job of being a preamp, but sometimes it is good to leave well enough alone.
It turns out that the WAV 4 Violin likes about the same settings as my Bass Guitar, and for about the same reason. The worse Electronic Sound comes from high frequency components riding on the sound from the lowest strings. Turning the Treble of the WAV 4 all the way down brings out a fairly natural sound on the A and E Strings (the two highest strings on a violin), but so much high frequency stuff still rides on the G and D strings that one hardly suspects that these are supposed to be low notes. So on my first stage of amplification going through the bass amplifier, I turn down the Medium and the High filters and set up the Low knob to pass more Low than anything else, and I do the same with the Mixer Controls. Yes, it does knock some of the final volume off of the high strings, but plenty of that A and E high pitch gets through, so it is not really a problem. Besides, just a touch of Treble on the WAV 4 brings back plenty of A and E String volume.
It turns out that the rather affordable Alesis Nanoverb Effects Processor (I think I got it for a bit more than a hundred dollars) is just the right thing to have if you actually LIKE electric violin sound. I was able to adjust it for some really nice professional sounding effects – chorus with echo and all of that. But one can dial down these effects so they are barely noticeable while still being a bit helpful. For instance, a slight bit of ‘chorus’, whether linear or non-linear, helps to fill in the Low Strings, giving some of the roundness back to the sound that is robbed by the electronics
I was not able to totally drive out the electronic sound and arrive at a perfect acoustic sound, but I got satisfied enough so that I did not have to throw the whole heap into the trash can. One will never be invited to play with a chamber orchestra or with an unplugged folk music recital, so keep your real violin if you still want all of that. However, when playing with an Electric Band, one can get close enough to the acoustic sound to satisfy for violin parts in songs that are supposed to have that natural sound. It might not be a perfect fit but remember its only rock and roll.
This sound stage setup work took about 5 hours. Then I had to get used to actually playing the WAV 4 Violin. It doesn’t play like your standard violin. The Chin Rest is different, and there is that god-awful Shoulder Rest contraption, which turned out to be actually quite a diamond in the rough after I learned to deal with it (more on this below). Anyway, you can’t just stick the WAV 4 under your chin and go like its your old fiddle.
The WAV 4 is heavy. It’s a block of wood, hallowed out only as much as necessary to put in the Bridge Mounts, the String Things, and the Pickup Jack. Then the metal brackets for the Chin Rest and the Shoulder Rest are heavy enough to mount a sixteen inch cannon onto a battle ship. Given all this weight, the Shoulder Rest would need to be perfect so that one would be able to play without constantly needing to use the left hand for manually holding up and repositioning the violin, when, really, the job of the left hand should be exclusively taken up with dancing fingers upon the strings. But there was just no getting the Should Rest right… for the first several hours…
But I kept at it. The Cushion Part of the Shoulder rest is rubber foam glued on this thick curved metal blade, curved nicely on one side, but apparently shaped to go over the shoulder on the shoulder-most side, and so it guts inward. This is great if you play the violin absolutely sideways, with the violin positioned exactly over the shoulder, forcing your head around to create a permanent crick in the neck. Yeah, yeah… that is how one is supposed to play. All the Best Schools constantly reiterate that the Best Way must necessarily always be the most uncomfortable way. If what they instruct isn’t hated and resented, then it can’t possible be technically ‘correct’. However, in the Real World, a great many violin players fall away from such standards of school house perfection, and we play with the violin set more forward. Some people play the violin right under the chin, head and eyes forward. Well, for those Non-Conformists the Shoulder Rest jutting blade stabs them in the chest – giving them the punishment they so rightfully deserve! But really, that’s not what they spent their money for, is it?
I was reading on the Ned Steinberger Site (NS Design apparently stands for Ned Steinberger Design) and I saw promotions for their Custom Shoulder Rest, which is flexible. Apparently they had received hundreds of thousands of complaints regarding their standard Shoulder Rests and so they redesigned the Shoulder Rest, but they are still selling Violins with the Old ‘Stabber/Punishment’ Shoulder Rests. Anyway, I thought that my Shoulder Rest was one of the new Flexible ones (I should learn to read websites more carefully), but when I tried to bend it with my fingers, there was no give at all. So I tried to tweak it a little with a BFH (Very Big Hammer) and it snapped. Really, it was not malleable in the least. You would think it would bend a little before breaking, but, no. after five or six very sound blows – Snap! But the good news is that it is no longer stabbing me. The rubber pad glued to the bottom of the thing holds the pieces together. Anyway, I have emails out to Ned Steinberger and Johnson Strings asking about what I have to do to get one of the new Custom Shoulder Rests.
Well, even after breaking the Shoulder Rest which represented some progress in fixing the inherently flawed design, I still could not dial it in to the point where I could play the violin for longer than 20 seconds without having to stop to reposition the thing. The weight of the thing was making it inexorably slide down the chest. And constantly supporting the weight of this Battleship Violin… well, it was giving me a upper back ache and muscle fatigue in my left arm. I have to admit that I was getting a bit discouraged, but then I had this wonderful inspiration!
The Bar and Tee arrangement of the Shoulder Rest provided an excellent hook up spot for a simple strap that one could wear around one’s neck. What I did was I tied off my Scapular Cord (A Scapular is a Catholic Religious thing that just happened to hang from a thick cord I had woven from 9 strands of wool yarn – a rather nice piece of rope, really) to a length that would just barely fit over my head and I passed it through the Chin Side of the Shoulder Rest Blade and over the Fastening Knob, and now all the weight of the violin hangs from my neck on that neck strap. It worked wonderfully well! I was finally able to get in a good practice, with the violin staying put long enough to warm up on the fingering and decide that, yes, indeed, it was an actual violin I was playing. And, with the Shoulder Rest looped through the Neck Cord, one does not need to put the WAV 4 Violin down… between songs, or rosining the bow, or whatever. One simply lets go and the smallish violin simply hangs down on one’s chest, like a big jewelry pendant. If you wish to make your own neck strap, then any heavy cord or strap looped to be about 23 inches in diameter, just fitting over your head, would be suitable.
Oh, the WAV 4 Violin comes with the Bridge adjusted very low. I used those screwdriver adjusts to bring up the Bridge a bit to help with the kind of string modulation you do by wiggling your fingers on the string… if the bridge is too low, you lose a lot of that effect.
So, in summation, the WAV 4 probably sounds no more “electronic” than any of the other Electric Violins out there, and once you learn to strap the Shoulder Rest around your neck, then that horrible monstrosity of a Shoulder Rest actually becomes a positive attribute for selecting WAV 4 from amongst all of its competition. It makes me think of objections I have heard regarding Fender’s FV-3 Electric Violin – that it was overly heavy and constantly needed to be repositioned. Well, with its standard acoustic style Shoulder Rest, there’s not much that one can do about the weight – there is nothing that I can see to tie onto or hook up to in order to provide the Neck Strap relief available so easily on the WAV 4 Violin. Such is probably the case with most Electric Violins – because they are heavier than normal acoustic violins, the struggle to keep the violin stable while playing is intensified. And it is a struggle, even with normal violins. Just go search up information on regular violin shoulder support systems… obviously, people are having problems keeping their violins still enough to play upon.
Oh, and a final point on Electric Violins in general. Wow, are they quiet! I had no idea that traditional acoustic violins had such a potent magic for amplifying the sound of the strings. With the same strings strung exactly the same way over a simple piece of wood, or your typical electric violin, without any electronic amplification, the strings emit barely the slightest whisper. So, if your primary urge for buying an electric violin, is so you do not put off your neighbors, family or roommates with the volume of a regular violin, then getting an electric violin really is a good choice. The volume difference is, well, I guess a hundred to one. My headphones probably make more noise then the electric violin itself.
………………………………..
Addendum to NS Design WAV 4 Violin Review
I’ve now had the WAV 4 Violin just over a week, and it has gotten even better in my estimation. At first, you will remember, I was obsessed with how well it compared to ordinary acoustic violins, but now that seems almost beside the point. Electric Violins are, after all, electric, and while it would be an additional feather in their cap if they could sound natural, as electric they have a great many advantages over regular acoustics. For instance, one can play an Electric using a wide range of playing sensitivities – a soft light bow sound can be had while turning up the volume enough for your audience to actually here it. To be heard with an acoustic violin in any large room with the least bit of any other noise going on, one has only the option of grinding down very hard, therefore loosing the illusion of sensitivity.
Then there is the point regarding acoustical sound, that there is a wide debate over just what constitutes an acceptable acoustical sound. While to the untrained ear all acoustical violins may sound the same, to a trained ear they all sound different, and in many instances not that particularly good. Some people spend thousands of dollars trying to get a violin that sounds ‘good’ and when they get one, they start saving up for one that will sound even better. It is all quite obsessive and endless. So it was a relief for me to finally determine that the sounds being produced from the NS Design WAV 4, with the help of my Alesis Nanoverb Digital Effects Processor and Peavey PV6 Mixer and Amplifier, were, well, better. It is not so bad, is it, when we can settle for “better”.
Oh, regarding the NS Design stock Shoulder Rest, which I broke with a hammer because I thought it was a Custom ( Flexible) Shoulder Rest, well, I got an email from Johnson Strings and they will special order me a Custom Shoulder Rest for $50.00. Cool! But I could as easily keep the old one. You see, I repaired it so it is now flexible in its own right. I had looked for just the right degree of flexibility and found it in the thick plastic of a kitty litter bucket top, and sawed off a piece of it to fit across the top of the broken shoulder rest blade, and then I wound it on using some really nice tan-brown wool yarn, using just enough carpenters glue to keep the yarn from unraveling, and which dries clear. It looks like I simply added a bit of extra padding to the shoulder rest.
Oh, and this brings us to the best feature of the NS Design Electric Violin, and that is that the inverted ‘Tee’ bracket of the Shoulder Rest provides the best tie-off potential of any Violin on the market, that I know of that is. Remember how I complained of the WAV 4 being too heavy to keep stable enough to play, and I found I could pass a loop around my neck and simply hang the Violin from my neck. Well, yes, that basic idea works, and I developed it a bit further. Firstly, it is perhaps a mistake to simply pass one belt or cord around one’s neck and around the Shoulder Rest’s Tee Stem. Why? Well, unless it is kept very tight, there is the possibility that the blades of the shoulder rest might wiggle under the cord or belt, and the violin take a plunge toward the floor. Mine did, but fortunately my first Performance Discipline was that of a Juggler and my hand automatically followed the falling Violin down and snatched it up before it hit the floor. Yes, so while I was never able to fully perfect my Act of juggling 5 flaming bowling pins to “Flight of the Bumble Bee”, still, I was able to snatch up one falling violin just when it really counted.
Anyway, in my Shoulder Rest Support System, I ended up using a loop of cord. I got some 36 gauge cotton string and braided 3 strands together to make a cord about 6 feet long. Be careful to start with pieces of string about 15 to 20% longer than what you will finally need, as braiding soaks up some of the original length of the strings you use. I tied the ends of the cord together to form a loop and I pass the end of the loop around the Tee Stem of the Shoulder Rest, and then encircle my neck with the rest of the loop. No, I do not pass the loop over my head… it is far too long for that. I keep the loop doubled over when I pass it around my neck, and my original intent was to loop the other end around the Tee Stem of the Shoulder Rest from the other side after having gone around my neck. And that does work, but things get crowded there, just under the chin rest, and when it is time to undo the loops after practice, it is difficult to feel which loop end should go where, and one is caught trying to find a mirror one can work with. So I ended up finally attaching a small single loop of cord to the Tee Stem, and a Key Ring Clip to the Primary Loop. The thing can now clip on or clip off in mere seconds. I keep it fairly tight, so that the chin rest is fixed just under my chin. Oh, this is why it is an advantage to use a double loop instead of a single cord around the neck, as the double loop while it can be arranged to be tight, has twice as much inherent ‘stretch and bounciness’ as a single cord, and that makes it more comfortable and easier to work with during a long practice. And in practice, the loop holds the violin in place so well, it is really something of an afterthought whether I use the chin rest at all. You see, here is where the weight of the WAV 4 might actually be something of an asset. Most of the weight is toward the bottom of the WAV 4, about even with the bridge. Once secured around the neck, most of the weight then simply drops into the Shoulder Rest, keeping the Violin stable even despite some rather energetic playing.
Oh, about the NS Design Shoulder Rest being a wonderfully innovative design. Well, yes, especially that one can adjust the longitudinal Axis of the Violin. With most other violin designs, one is more or less stuck with a Bridge aligned horizontally, that is, parallel to the horizon – flat and level to the floor. With the Longitudinal Axis adjustability of the NS Design, one can lean the G String of the Bridge up to make it easier to come up over the top of the strings with the bow. Honestly, after a week with it, I don’t know how I had ever been able to live without it before.
Oh, I forgot to mention in my first review that I had changed out the two fat strings with Thomastik Infeld Super Flexibles, and I like them a lot. They are steel-chrome wound braided steel strings, and are known for being the mellowest of the steel strings available for violin. If you already have plenty of high frequency buzziness inherent to the violin itself, which seems to be the case with Electric Violins in general, then a mellow set of strings seems to be the way to go. The original A and E, as they sounded okay, and good enough is, after all, good enough.
Oh, the literature included with the WAV 4 mentions that it would be compatible with perlon or synthetic strings. Yes, but take my advice and stay away from the Perlons and the Synthetics. Why? Well, they are wound in aluminum. And aluminum is very brittle. Go on line and search up ‘unraveling violin strings’ and you will see it is a chronic problem with just about every brand of aluminum wound string, especially the A Strings. Then another thing about Aluminum is that it is molecularly NOT smooth. Even when you oil an aluminum wound string, one can not easily slide a finger on an aluminum string. Aluminum if ‘grabby’. The molecular surface of the aluminum simply wants to dig into the surface of your finger’s skin. That is probably why these aluminum strings are so fragile – they grip so hard and do not want to let go, while the violin player is either trying to skillfully modulate his playing with some slight wiggling back and forth, or is desperately trying to slide into the correct note while time is still left on the metronome. Well, in any case, even good players can’t make aluminum strings last very long, especially not with the vigorous playing styles that one can expect of an Electric Violin. And let us admit that sometimes sliding between notes can be GOOD SOUNDING effect, and we shouldn’t HAVE TO avoid it because the strings are too delicate or grabby to allow for it. Also, new Perlon and Synthetic Strings regularly take an entire day to stabilize their tune enough to stay in tune from one song to the next. And you have to tune them up gradually so you do not break them during installation, and they will not stay in tune or even nearly in tune, from day to day, until they had settled in for the best part of half a week. Imagine if you were on stage and broke a perlon or synthetic string. You couldn’t just wind on a new string and play, like you could with all of your steel strings and chrome steel wrapped strings.
Oh, in this regards I do like the innovative string tuners and the peg-less head of the NS Design Violins. With the violin hanging from my neck for an entire practice, it is nice that I don’t have to worry about bumping the violin pegs out of tune.
I had read that the Bridge on the NS Design was infinitely adjustable. Yes, I did use the screws from the bottom to bring the bridge up in it mounts a little bit. But I also decided to reposition the strings along the top of the bridge, to spread them out to give the bow more clearance for One String At a Time playing. You see, no matter how far the strings are apart on top of the bridge, it is always easy to play two strings at a time. Keeping a Close Bridge is only important if one contemplates ”triple stopping”, that is, pushing the bow down on 3 strings at once (or even 4 strings, God Bless us, but that can only be done on shaved down almost flat ‘fiddle’ bridges, and that is too ‘incestuous’ for decent violin playing folk to even want to think about). No, that is not even one of my ambitions in life, to grind down on every string at once. So I spread the strings out, and the NS Design Bridge lets me do it. You just have to hold it in place for a moment while tightening up on the adjustment knob and then it stays put in its new location.
Oh, and that reminds me of another recommendation for Electric Violins over acoustics… that one does not have to reset the bridge periodically, as the bridges of traditional acoustics tend to lean more and more forward with each adjustment to their tuning. An Electric Violin’s fixed Bridge is just another easy luxury of life we can grow accustomed to. That and not having to worry about humidity, temperature or dryness compounding in ways that would destroy an expensive acoustic violin. The NS Design WAV 4 may be a bit on the heavy side, but it certainly isn’t delicate and I can’t imagine what could possibly hurt the thing.
Oh, and finally, the looks of the Thing. At first I had put the NS Design Violins toward the bottom of my list because, well, they did not look like Violins. But the look they do have – an old European Stringed Instrument Look – well, it is beautiful in its own right. This is while some of the other Electric Violins are positively Ugly – using plastic scrawling that is supposed to suggest the traditional lines of a violin… that is all simply hideous and cartoonishly immature. The NS Design is strong, compact and finally attractive… looking better in reality, in its actual physical presence, then what one captures from seeing it merely in the photographs. And since I wear it around my neck it is important that the NS Design is both attractive and compact.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)