If you play the violin or fiddle and have ever had to amplify your instrument you know what a problem getting a good sound and eliminating feedback can be. Here’s the problem, I like the way my instrument sounds, it just needs to be louder.
Piezo electric pickups or transducers are great for eliminating feedback but the instrument now sounds like an electric violin. That’s fine if you want an electric violin but if you want to keep the tone and sound quality of the acoustic violin, no matter how you EQ it or try to adjust it the acoustic quality is gone. What’s worse if you install a permanent piezo transducer on your violin even if it’s not amplified, the sound and acoustic qualities will never be the same.
You know the frustration of not being able to get the volume you need without getting the feedback. Feedback is great for Ted Nugent but when you’re playing jigs and reels or Beethoven it’s not so great.
I play guitar for an Irish band (Nine Mile Burn) and our fiddler has been fighting this battle for years. We have tried many microphones, piezo transducers and different amplifiers designed for acoustic instruments but none have been completely successful. If you solve one problem you start another. Not only that but we spent a small fortune trying to solve this problem.
I finally devised a solution that is working great. By using a microphone mounted as close to the sound “F” hole as possible we are able to get the volume we need without feedback. The real secret to this solution was the method of mounting the microphone to the violin without it being intrusive to the player or the instrument.
The microphone mounts directly to the violin using the same hardware that is used to attach the chin rest. The mounting bracket can be left on the instrument and the microphone can be unplugged and removed. The microphone is an Audio-
The microphone itself is attached using an alligator clip to a corrugated plastic tube that mounts directly in the F hole. This does not affect the instrument’s sound quality and allows the entire microphone system to be installed in less than 5 minutes.
We have been using this for about 4 years and it really does work. We have used it in halls, rooms and even outdoors. We no longer have to mess around with special amps, we just plug right into the house system. We use a Yamaha PA and it works great. There are several microphone systems available but they can be quite expensive and I haven’t found one yet that mounts to the instrument and positions the microphone correctly and doesn’t get in the players way.
The FiddleMic Story
