Overdriven violin?

[lais817]

Okay, I've being wondering this for ages, after seeing a violinist at school breeze through about five guitar solos and leaving all the guitarists in the room dumbfounded at the same time. What I was wondering is, has anybody tried running a violin through an overdriven amp/distorion pedal? If so, could you please post a audio recording or something? If not, just ignore me, and I'll run off back to the bass forums where I belong... :p

[Violent_Bill]

The guy from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds does it sometimes & it sounds pretty cool.

[lais817]

The guy from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds does it sometimes & it sounds pretty cool.
Really? Do you know what songs he does it on?

[Violent_Bill]

Really? Do you know what songs he does it on?

I'm not even sure if he does it on any album, but on this live DVD I have of theres called "God is in the House" he plays some extremely distorted violin to some of their earlier songs such as "Saint Huck" and "Curse of Milhaven" which I don't believe had violin in them originally.

[Amit]

mahavishnu orchestra - the noonward race

distortion wouldn't really be good anyway for violin because of the inherent characteristics of the instrument

[zhyla]

I have a buddy who plays a fretted electric violin into his podXT. He likes all the weird effects. With a regular violin I don't think it would sound that great.

[Neodruid]

i used to play with an electric violin player and he used to use a marshall jackhammer and it sounds pretty damn good with low kinda overdrive settings.

[Violent_Bill]

Hey, I've uploaded this video of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds playing Curse of Milhaven live if you want to see it. Sorry about the quality, but I didn't want to make you download a huge video file. Enjoy!

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=0007B1677E829EEF

[Jody LeCompte]

A fretted violin? Doesn't that...eliminate the entire smoothness of the sound?

On that Hilary Duff movie, Raise Your Voice, a chick used a Morley Power Wah for her electric violin. That movie was cheesy as hell but all the music was played(singing was dubbed though) and generally kicked ***.

[lais817]

Hey, I've uploaded this video of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds playing Curse of Milhaven live if you want to see it. Sorry about the quality, but I didn't want to make you download a huge video file. Enjoy!

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=0007B1677E829EEF
Damn man, thanks heaps! That sounds pretty sweet, and I'd like to hear it through the wah as well, might have to borrow me out some chick-flicks.... :p

[The Forgotten Bassist]

I have a buddy who plays a fretted electric violin into his podXT. He likes all the weird effects. With a regular violin I don't think it would sound that great.

Really, I never knew there was a fretted violin, I used to paly it for a we while and I asked the tutor if there was a fretted violin and she said there was no such thing.

Guess she was just plain ignorant then.

[Jody LeCompte]

http://www.jordanmusic.com/v6fret2.JPG

[Lydisk]

Louis Sclavis' cellist used overdrive on his cello...that is the most amazing sound i have ever heard.

[Jody LeCompte]

Does that six string, frettled violin intimidate anyone else?

[Slapping Penguin]

Its funny you metion this. Cause I have always wanted to do this and if sucessful start a metal band making use of violins and cellos along with guitars and bass etc. It would be a great full sound espically going for that Epic metal feel. And on clean would make some great interludes.

[Egggo]

Does that six string, frettled violin intimidate anyone else?

nowhere nearly as much as this ten string beast (http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020804/nat3.jpg)

it covers the whole orchestral string range :-O

[Slapping Penguin]

Good god Egggo thats a beast.

[low-G]

Its funny you metion this. Cause I have always wanted to do this and if sucessful start a metal band making use of violins and cellos along with guitars and bass etc. It would be a great full sound espically going for that Epic metal feel. And on clean would make some great interludes.


Tarantula A.D. :thumb:

[Specialsauce]

Its funny you metion this. Cause I have always wanted to do this and if sucessful start a metal band making use of violins and cellos along with guitars and bass etc. It would be a great full sound espically going for that Epic metal feel. And on clean would make some great interludes.
funny you say that, on friday i saw les claypool in concert. the opening band, Rasputina, was two chicks on overdriven cello, and a dude on drums. It was one of the best things ive ever see.

[Crumbumonkey5]

Fretted violin, is that for guitarists who can't be arsed to learn to play it properly!

[Sammy_L_D]

You want sweet, fretted violins?

http://www.woodviolins.com/

The store I work at has these.

These things are phenomenal.

And as to the question for ruining the smoothness of the violin tone, no. At least not for these models.

The string height is still high enough to allow for that texture.

Plus pumping those bad boys through effects...wow.

A fiddler from this region plays the seven-string version of the Viper, and it's a dream for him.

He made a video of himself shredding a solo with distortion, and then simply shutting off the effect and going back to his regular playing style.

Seemless.

[peon]

Fretted violin, is that for guitarists who can't be arsed to learn to play it properly!


like fretted bass

lolollo j/k

[Uberman]

and guitar is for people who can't be bothered to learn to play the oud

[zhyla]

Fretted violin, is that for guitarists who can't be arsed to learn to play it properly!

My friend can play both fretted and unfretted. He says the frets are mainly for playing with live bands because you can't hear yourself on stage with all the noise.

Now if they could just do something about that bowing thing I would be a decent violinist :).

[Firecracker]

I think it would just sound like someone who couldn't play the violin.

[myassitches]

http://www.bowedguitar.com/

[lais817]

I think it would just sound like someone who couldn't play the violin.
nah, it actually sounds kinda good, did you check out the video link?

[Firecracker]

Nah, I didn't, maybe I should.

[peon]

the file has expired

[even if they were canadian]

I can understand needing the fret on stage for intonation, but you would think that would take away some of the expresiveness of the instrument.

[Flie]

Hmm that guitar violint hing looks pretty cool, atm I am thinking of doing some kind of weird stringed instrument for my DT A level project but I am not sure what got any ideas for hybrids or soemthing like that>?

[Crumbumonkey5]

and guitar is for people who can't be bothered to learn to play the oud

Different instrument.
Violin is supposed to be played by ear. It is one of the ambigous tonal instruments where it isn't simply a case of putting a finger somewhere (like guitar or piano) you have to listen and make sure it's in the right place.

[Riziger]

sry if this sounds dumb but dosnt the violinist from Yellowcard use a electric violin? not sure if it's on distortion tho. sounds pretty sweet.

[Joseph India]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3m20aGkK_U

This one's just funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gvAMai8Cfo

[AmericanWeiner]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viol

[something vague]

That first video up there is cool.

[Crumbumonkey5]

That was ****in heavy!

[Crumbumonkey5]

The first one was cool but the second was just stupid. that was not a violin!

[SadStairway]

I once played a show with this band that consisted of violin, bass and drums. The violin player ran the violin through guitar effects and fuzz pedals. It sounded amazing and alot better than a guitar even though he ruined my guitarist's amp but thats beside the point.

[Violent_Bill]

Wow, this thread still lives. In celebration of it's continued existence here is another video with sexy violin from that Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds concert.

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=A404527734E66A57

[Crumbumonkey5]

That was ****ing brilliant, although the violin could have been used in a more productive way I think, nonetheless I really liked that performance

[Jaxom_of_the_Lambs]

A guy at work wanted to put pickups in his banjo and add distortion.