Hi,
Electric or acoustic violin ? Basically you want an acoustic (guitar) amplifier
with emphasis towards the midrange rather than any attempt at bass.
(In a band, usually violin goes the same way as the vocals.)
Look at Cheap Acoustic Amps - Highly Rated Budget Acoustic Guitar Amps
Adding useful features to an amplifier complicates it very quickly.
rgds, sreten.
Electric or acoustic violin ? Basically you want an acoustic (guitar) amplifier
with emphasis towards the midrange rather than any attempt at bass.
(In a band, usually violin goes the same way as the vocals.)
Look at Cheap Acoustic Amps - Highly Rated Budget Acoustic Guitar Amps
Adding useful features to an amplifier complicates it very quickly.
rgds, sreten.
Hi sreten,
Thank you for the link, I just found perfect violin amplifier for my acoustic violin.
[Electric Guitar Preamplifier Circuit based TL071 and also the National LM387 dual opamp]
Ah yes sir... that's for preamp only. Could you please recommend a good amplifier circuit that I can make [maybe a few components only using a single IC amplifier] for acoustic violin? Maybe less than 100watts will do.
I have commercially made violin-specific amps.
Use a flat preamp with 1M to 3M3 input impedance for good response with your piezo pickup and an LM3886 chipamp for very clean 60w and 2 Jensen MOD 1050 speakers.
I suggest those because they are good, inexpensive, and the frequency response is smoother than typical guitar speakers, will fit your violin without shrillness.
This is for an amp which will let you and a band hear the violin onstage, or in a small club, also send a preamp line out to the PA system.
Use a flat preamp with 1M to 3M3 input impedance for good response with your piezo pickup and an LM3886 chipamp for very clean 60w and 2 Jensen MOD 1050 speakers.
I suggest those because they are good, inexpensive, and the frequency response is smoother than typical guitar speakers, will fit your violin without shrillness.
This is for an amp which will let you and a band hear the violin onstage, or in a small club, also send a preamp line out to the PA system.
Good advice all around, especially the bit about speakers. Violins certainly don't need the upper mid (treble) boost that guitar speakers have. I'd also recommend the Beyma 6MI90. Pricier, but a very sweet top end. (Also smaller, so it may take a few to match the output of a guitar amp on stage. )
Hi,
My jaded advice would be, buy a nice old not too powerful simple valve
guitar amplifier and replace the old guitar speaker with a smooth very
high efficiency driver originally intended for PA midrange, 10" or 12".
If you go this route you won't regret it, it will slaughter most options.
rgds, sreten.
For a good old used choice, the guitar speaker should be worth a bit.
My jaded advice would be, buy a nice old not too powerful simple valve
guitar amplifier and replace the old guitar speaker with a smooth very
high efficiency driver originally intended for PA midrange, 10" or 12".
If you go this route you won't regret it, it will slaughter most options.
rgds, sreten.
For a good old used choice, the guitar speaker should be worth a bit.
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from what I have read quite a bit higher input impedance, maybe 4M ohm ?
try a search for very high-Z input
or you can study the specs on some of new designed combos or small preamps made especially for acoustic instruments
but be aware that ordinary microphone works with much lower impedance
not sure its right, but could maybe be 2kohm, and completely different thing
I might be corrected on this
actually, it's even possible to place a small preamp inside a jack connector
but just slightly bigger might be more 'practical'
http://www.albertkreuzer.com/index.htm
Discrete FET Guitar Preamp
FET Preamp Cable
3M ohm it seems to be
oh, and btw, with a violin especially, I would instead consider a footpedal for easy volume control
but just slightly bigger might be more 'practical'
http://www.albertkreuzer.com/index.htm
Discrete FET Guitar Preamp
FET Preamp Cable
3M ohm it seems to be
oh, and btw, with a violin especially, I would instead consider a footpedal for easy volume control
Yes, cool idea.
If a volume pedal is too expensive, at least a footswitch mute is useful, so you can get close to the amp without squealing, or lay the violin on a table or somewhere.
If you dare to build it, I can post the Schematic and PCB of the Violin Preamp I made, with Volume, Treble and Bass controls.
You can build it in a small cigarette pack sized box, clipped to your belt.
I used a clock buzzer type piezo disk as a microphone, pressure fit between bridge and body, for *strong* signal.
That disk has quite a large capacitance, so a 1M input was enough, but if you want, you can rise the input resistor to 3M3 and even 10M (usually not needed, unless it's a Double Bass).
A Luthier made the solid bridges for me, to replace the original ones.
I sold many such amps, we have a lot of Tango and Argentine Folklore groups here.
If a volume pedal is too expensive, at least a footswitch mute is useful, so you can get close to the amp without squealing, or lay the violin on a table or somewhere.
If you dare to build it, I can post the Schematic and PCB of the Violin Preamp I made, with Volume, Treble and Bass controls.
You can build it in a small cigarette pack sized box, clipped to your belt.
I used a clock buzzer type piezo disk as a microphone, pressure fit between bridge and body, for *strong* signal.
That disk has quite a large capacitance, so a 1M input was enough, but if you want, you can rise the input resistor to 3M3 and even 10M (usually not needed, unless it's a Double Bass).
A Luthier made the solid bridges for me, to replace the original ones.
I sold many such amps, we have a lot of Tango and Argentine Folklore groups here.
Just a practical example: one of my "Fahey 4409" 60W 1x10"+Tweeter Double Bass amps.
5M input impedance, because this particular Jazz and Tango Musician does not use an external preamp.
He connects his "double button" Piezo pickup straight to the amplifier, with a very good quality 8 or 9 foot cable.
[image]http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1204/729913241_d9d737b510_b.jpg[/image]
5M input impedance, because this particular Jazz and Tango Musician does not use an external preamp.
He connects his "double button" Piezo pickup straight to the amplifier, with a very good quality 8 or 9 foot cable.
[image]http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1204/729913241_d9d737b510_b.jpg[/image]
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Hi Guys
For a raw peizo pickup an input impedance of at least 10M is required. The standard 1M input for a tube guitar amp will produce a thin bass-less tone. Fortunately, when using either a tube, jfet or jfet opamp, a 10M leak resistor is fine.
There is no need to contour the input or shape the frequency response if you interface the pickup with the correct very-high impedance. This is a common error in dealing with peizos.
One thing to be wary of is having too much treble response inasmuch as you really do not need a crossover and tweeter. This is an identical issue with acoustic guitar. Again, the industry has almost completely paraded down the wrong path with respect to development of dedicated amplifiers for acoustic instruments. The extended treble response will in fact be very accurate BUT it will be entirely unlistenable. The ice-pick attack of notes, string noise, finger scrub, fret rattle etc all come screaming thorough and detract greatly from what would otherwise be a sweet performance.
If you are building a small amp, as this seems to be the goal using ICs, then use a small nominally fullrange driver. Even with this, you might want to experiment with an acoustic diffusor in front of the driver to block the central on-axis sound. This will smooth the response so that all of the tone will be like that of the off-axis response.
Have fun
Kevin O'Connor
London Power
For a raw peizo pickup an input impedance of at least 10M is required. The standard 1M input for a tube guitar amp will produce a thin bass-less tone. Fortunately, when using either a tube, jfet or jfet opamp, a 10M leak resistor is fine.
There is no need to contour the input or shape the frequency response if you interface the pickup with the correct very-high impedance. This is a common error in dealing with peizos.
One thing to be wary of is having too much treble response inasmuch as you really do not need a crossover and tweeter. This is an identical issue with acoustic guitar. Again, the industry has almost completely paraded down the wrong path with respect to development of dedicated amplifiers for acoustic instruments. The extended treble response will in fact be very accurate BUT it will be entirely unlistenable. The ice-pick attack of notes, string noise, finger scrub, fret rattle etc all come screaming thorough and detract greatly from what would otherwise be a sweet performance.
If you are building a small amp, as this seems to be the goal using ICs, then use a small nominally fullrange driver. Even with this, you might want to experiment with an acoustic diffusor in front of the driver to block the central on-axis sound. This will smooth the response so that all of the tone will be like that of the off-axis response.
Have fun
Kevin O'Connor
London Power
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