[Gummy]

Any suggestiongs?
Any experiences?
And just how silent are they?

 

[bangraman]

Great. We now need another sub-forum, Manually Operated Source Components!!

 

[Gummy]

Yeah, and since there are headphone jacks on there and I intend to use headphones with it, I don't see why not

 

[CSMR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gummy Yeah, and since there are headphone jacks on there and I intend to use headphones with it, I don't see why not

A headphone jack on a violin! My next one is definitely going to have this feature.

 

[ooheadsoo]

If there's still rosin on the bow pulling on the strings, I'd guess it'd be abit noisier than an electric guitar with headphones.

 

[mikeliao]

I've heard one. Unamped, its about half the volume of regular muted violin. Its enough to hear yourself play but tones, etc will all be a bit off. Best to have headphones when practicing. You can drive headphones directly off the violin but best is a mini amp like a cmoy or airhead.

Cable problems. You'll have to have decent cable management else you'll trip or strangle yourself.

Don't know about you but I'm used to the weight of a regular violin. The silent violin is just too light for me.

Its a great price and if I had kids that wanted to learn violin, I'd get one for them. (Sorry mom and dad for the few years of acoustic hell while I was learning.)

Hmmmmm...silent girlfriend with volume control.

 

[Geek]

If you're referring to the Yamaha silent violin, then this applies. I have played it before and find the sound to be very quiet without phones on; this is logical because it lacks an acoustic resonating body. However, the yamaha silent violin is heavy, and has a very low quality tone even with headphones on.

There are other makers of electric violins if you'd like to find an instrument to practice on at lower volumes, but as others have said, if you are playing on (1) an instrument other than your main one, at (2) lower volumes, you'll have the wrong sensation of harmonics, the wrong sensation of shifting, and just generally will have to adjust to your regular instrument. They are a good idea in concept but haven't been perfected yet. It's still better to just play with your regular instrument.

If you're talking about electric violins in live peformance it's a whole different story; it's best to mic your favorite instrument with a high quality mic and use the best acoustic amp you can find, unless you're getting dirty with distortion, then it really doesn't matter because the amp's tone will dominate over the instrument's normal tone, and you can use a variety of hybrid or pure electric instruments. The ones with barbara pickups are the best in my rather limited experience with electric instruments. If it costs under $1,500 it will probably sound bad, like the electric I own.

Cheers,
Geek

 

[HD-5000]

Quote:

However, the yamaha silent violin is heavy, and has a very low quality tone even with headphones on.

Geek

Thanks for the heads up, I was considering ordering the Yamaha Silent Violin from Musician's Friend but now you might have saved me a few hundred bucks.

I've heard good things about Zeta electric violins. Have you tried them? They are very expensive but their supposed quality is attracting.

 

[Edwood]

Perhaps it would be better to setup a sound deadened recording booth?

Hmmm. Would make for a nice and quiet, yet claustraphobic headphone listening environment.

-Ed