The violin is coming along nicely. I hope the Humbucker you design has screw adjustable Pole Pieces, so the volume and tone of each string can be dialed in separetely. I've used Piezo Pickups on a number of Acoustic Guitars. The best results I've gotten by far is on my Custom Made Classical Guitar. I send the output of the pickup into my HX Stomp Modeler, and get a stunningly natural sounding tone - EQing is necessary. One of the interesting things I discovered along the way of using Piezo Pickups was that the adhesive "pressure" used to adhere it to the top made a huge difference in how natural the pickup sounds. I use 3M Double-Sided Tape. As with many Piezo Pickups, placement is critical, and the advice with commercial Pickups (like the LR Baggs Active) is to "lightly" adhere the Pickup to the underside of the Soundboard to find a good sounding location. I did that many times, and got a wonderful full, round, natural tone, without any of the typical Piezo "quacky," thin, overly bright sound. Then when the best location is found, you are supposed to "seat" the Pickup so it adheres firmly to the top. Every time I did that, the pickup instantly got quacky, thin, and bright sounding, and all the wonderful natural sound I loved vanished. So now, I don't "seat" the Pickup, and that retains the natural wood sound of the guitar. I just use about a 1 inch diameter Piezo "disk" without any housing, and on my Classical guitar, the best location is about 3/4 inch behind the bridge between the 1st and 2nd string. I've found it's much more difficult to get a good sound from a Steel String Acoustic guitar. I hope this information is useful, as it was only acquired after numerous and repeated tests. Be aware the Piezo can turn a sensitive Acoustic instrument effectively in Microphone, making it potentially problematic to use in setting where there are other loud instruments nearby.
I found on my first (and only!) at making an electric violin that part of the weight problem was the guitar tuners. Really did add to the neck heavy feel of the instrument. One of these days i will revisit the one I made, and try Banjo tuners instead, as they seem to be more lightweight, and every gram counts here. If that's not going to work, then i might try replacing the current tuners with Sperzels, as they seem to be the lightest weight guitar tuners i've found. I were to make another one, then i would probably go the route of the Jordan violins, which puts the tuners behind the bridge end of the strings, thus transferring the weight to the chin/shoulder support, which for extended playing would be less tiring.
im also interested to see the weight of this violin that chris is making. i know its all for fun and likely a good learning experience for all of the viewers but i dont see it being a practical instrument for any player being what looks like 3 times as thick in nearly every dimension as a normal fiddle. Still cool!
im talking about plate and side thickness, a normal violin is plus or minus 2mm thick nearly everywhere. yours appears to be atleast double (Thus twice as heavy). Maybe im wrong. Cheers!@@HighlineGuitars
@HighlineGuitars when using the razor saw to cut the initial string position slots, it will form a path for the nut files. Should the razor saw be held vertical (perpendicular to the instrument face) or radially based on the curvature of the bridge? I'm working on a 3/4 double bass so the whole geometry is enlarged, and otherwise subtle differences grow much larger
Here is a potential idea - my father taught me to use soap to install screws, especially with harder woods. This has served me well for many years.
Bro, earned my subscription a long time ago. You're the man, Chris
Classical back ground music. Nice touch. Looking forward to what you make for the pick up, should be very interesting.
The violin is coming along nicely. I hope the Humbucker you design has screw adjustable Pole Pieces, so the volume and tone of each string can be dialed in separetely. I've used Piezo Pickups on a number of Acoustic Guitars. The best results I've gotten by far is on my Custom Made Classical Guitar. I send the output of the pickup into my HX Stomp Modeler, and get a stunningly natural sounding tone - EQing is necessary.
One of the interesting things I discovered along the way of using Piezo Pickups was that the adhesive "pressure" used to adhere it to the top made a huge difference in how natural the pickup sounds. I use 3M Double-Sided Tape. As with many Piezo Pickups, placement is critical, and the advice with commercial Pickups (like the LR Baggs Active) is to "lightly" adhere the Pickup to the underside of the Soundboard to find a good sounding location. I did that many times, and got a wonderful full, round, natural tone, without any of the typical Piezo "quacky," thin, overly bright sound. Then when the best location is found, you are supposed to "seat" the Pickup so it adheres firmly to the top. Every time I did that, the pickup instantly got quacky, thin, and bright sounding, and all the wonderful natural sound I loved vanished. So now, I don't "seat" the Pickup, and that retains the natural wood sound of the guitar. I just use about a 1 inch diameter Piezo "disk" without any housing, and on my Classical guitar, the best location is about 3/4 inch behind the bridge between the 1st and 2nd string. I've found it's much more difficult to get a good sound from a Steel String Acoustic guitar. I hope this information is useful, as it was only acquired after numerous and repeated tests.
Be aware the Piezo can turn a sensitive Acoustic instrument effectively in Microphone, making it potentially problematic to use in setting where there are other loud instruments nearby.
Let’s Roll!
These fine tuners are definitely needed with traditional tuning pegs btw and depending on how well these guitar tuners can tune.
Cool.
Got here just in time
Should the bridge be positioned relative to the notches on the F slots?
On a regular violin, yes. But not with this design. The f holes had to be repositioned in order to accommodate the humbucker pickup I made for it.
I found on my first (and only!) at making an electric violin that part of the weight problem was the guitar tuners. Really did add to the neck heavy feel of the instrument. One of these days i will revisit the one I made, and try Banjo tuners instead, as they seem to be more lightweight, and every gram counts here. If that's not going to work, then i might try replacing the current tuners with Sperzels, as they seem to be the lightest weight guitar tuners i've found.
I were to make another one, then i would probably go the route of the Jordan violins, which puts the tuners behind the bridge end of the strings, thus transferring the weight to the chin/shoulder support, which for extended playing would be less tiring.
im also interested to see the weight of this violin that chris is making. i know its all for fun and likely a good learning experience for all of the viewers but i dont see it being a practical instrument for any player being what looks like 3 times as thick in nearly every dimension as a normal fiddle. Still cool!
The dimensions are exactly the same as a 4/4 violin with the exception of the headstock. However, it is very heavy.
im talking about plate and side thickness, a normal violin is plus or minus 2mm thick nearly everywhere. yours appears to be atleast double (Thus twice as heavy). Maybe im wrong. Cheers!@@HighlineGuitars
@@samhouston6750 It’s at least twice as heavy. Maybe more. But that’s okay. I have strong arms.
Are the slots vertical or along radial lines?
Huh?
@HighlineGuitars when using the razor saw to cut the initial string position slots, it will form a path for the nut files.
Should the razor saw be held vertical (perpendicular to the instrument face) or radially based on the curvature of the bridge?
I'm working on a 3/4 double bass so the whole geometry is enlarged, and otherwise subtle differences grow much larger
I cut them vertically.
stop do this don't cut the bridgeeeeeeeeeeee