Violin amplifier questions

[50AE]

A colleague of mine wants to have a nice sounding violin amp.

My question is - is there something I am missing here? She plays classical, not distorted violin. Would a simple known good tube amplifier circuit do the trick?

As far as I am concerned, I need high input impedance for about 20-50k, which is correct for the circuit I plan to use. I also need a single channel
Is there something else?
I have some skills in electronics, I can solder and build, I know how amplifiers work, I have no problem in the building.

I have a pair of fostex Fe103en. I could maybe use these, or a single one for the enclosure.

[Speedskater]

You might think about getting this thread moved to the "Musical Instruments & Amps" sub-forum.
Use that little Red triangle under your user name.

[leadbelly]

Yes, this will get moved by the mods.

For violin, just look at DIY implementations of acoustic guitar amps.

AFAIK, piezo type pickups such as a violin would have need of a high input impedance. So that 20-50K figure is way off.

And IMHO an FE103En is woefully inadequate. It's possible that you would have to keep the power so low to avoid overexcursion on the bass end that the violin itself might be louder OK that might be exaggerating a little, but my point is valid.

[Cal Weldon]

Moved as requested.

[50AE]

Thanks.

When thinking about a the Fe103, I immediately thought about a horn design. Maybe it wouldn't be possible or.. inacceptable? The chick wants a small amp and doesn't want much SPL, but a clean sound.

If a small horn will not be acceptable, I will search for another speaker which will perform well in a sealed design.

[jjman]

Electric or acoustic violin ? Do "electric" violins use magnetic or piezo pickups? Do "acoustic" violins use piezos or just mics? On board preamps on violins?

[PeteMcK]

input impedance - depends on type of pickup used, if pizeo, the most common, whether it has its own preamp supplied. The amp power will depend on the situation it's being used in, but 20-50 w should be more than enough. SS is the way to go for clean sound; lowest note is G 196Hz, so bass requirements are minimal, but forget Hi-fi speakers - with any musical instrument you need a speaker that can handle power, even in this case, use something like the Eminence 6" or 8", perhaps with a CD horn or piezo tweeter if you want full freq response - essential for good fiddle sound. Even a small horn would be too big, use a sealed cab. It's probably cheaper to buy a suitable amp (such as a Roland 'cube') than to build.

[cbdb]

It will probably need high input impedance ( 1 meg not 50k ) unless the violin is active so straight into a HiFi amp wont work. A SS electric guitar combo (like the cubes) on a clean setting would work. If you want do DIY, copy a SS guitar amp leaving out the distortion parts.