Electric Violin

This is something I built as a school project.

My woodworking skills and access to machinery being limited, I spent a considerable amount of time planning and further simplifying the structure of the electric violin I was about to build.

You may want to read up on the parts of a regular violin:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin_construction_and_mechanics

I'd like to thank the folks at bluestemstrings.com, for providing an excellent set of plans free of charge to the general public. They were of immense use to me.
I would also like to thank Ocean Music Ltd. for providing the fittings for this project. (http://www.oceanmusiclk.com/)

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any damage to property or persons caused while following these instructions.

Step 1 Materials

Materials

1. Two and a half feet of 2*2 inch tonal wood (more on this in the next step)
2. A (25*15)cm piece of any hardwood
3. General purpose rasp
4. Large Clamp
5. 50ml sanding sealer
6. Three pieces of 50 grit sandpaper, two pieces of 100 grit sandpaper, two pieces of 200 grit sandpaper
7. Two part epoxy
8. Dilute Potassium Permanganate (optional, for staining wood)
9. 150ml Varnish
10. Paintbrush
11. Thinner
12. Drill
13. Premade violin parts: endpin, chinrest, tail gut, tailpiece, fingerboard (about $30 if purchased individually)
14. Piezoelectric pickup (more on this in next step) ($10 on ebay)
15. Guitar tuning pegs (two left and two right) (you may use ukulele tuners if you wish) ($10-$25)
16. Violin strings, E,A,D,G gauges ($10-$50)
17. An acoustic violin for comparison while building (optional).

Comments

[Gimli76]

Did you want to write http://www.oceanmusic.com/ instead of http://www.oceanmusiclk.com/? Beacuse I can't connect with the last one :)
Good instructable by the way.

[ray_sami]

My daughter start violin lessen 2 month ago , i think something like that will be nice birthday gift for her but unfurently i am not good in craft....
if it possible that someone can make for me ?? (how much it will cost) ?

very nice project. keep on

Ray

[Half-Life]

Ebay has some electric violin kits for sale. If you live in US, its less than $100 with shipping

[JBowmanDIY]

i have two questions first.

the first one is, does the type of wood affect the sound of the violin?

and second, are the parts you have for a 4/4 violin?

[zigzagchris]

Wood does effect the sound, not so much for an electric as a acoustic but you still want to invest in a nice tonal wood.

[zigzagchris]

Started work on mine this week. Very excited, all feedback welcome
http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-violin-projectIm-currently/

[Poehls05]

Nice.

[AdamVanMeter]

do you have any advice on how I could adapt this to make a cello? I have wanted one for years, but space and cost concerns have always stood in the way - this looks like a great way around them.

[Half-Life]

Luckily somebody built an electric cello and documented it: http://www.oriscus.com/dn/opera/ecello.htm

However, a piezoelectric pickup was used in the above link (a very expensive one at that), and from experience I can tell you that a piezo pickup fails to deliver optimal sound. If you do make a cello, go with a magnetic pickup preferably with tone and volume controls. You can make your own (http://bit.ly/fyyRqP) or try a commercially available pickup designed for four strings.

My suggestion is to start researching on the dimensions of a regular cello, and where a cello player holds the instrument. Apparently the top part of the cello soundbox touches the chest and the sides of the lower bout are gripped by the knees. You might want to replicate these critical parts of the structure of a standard cello.

An adjustable endpin is a must, so try looking around hardware stores for something which allows a rod to me moved and held when required.

[bulmung]

Hey, electric violin/cello maker here. I believe magnetic pickups would not work, Strings are made of different materials than that of a guitar. Look for piezo pickups built into the bridge itself, those are the best sounding, personal favorite is Barbera pickup, it has 2 piezos per string, but it's very expensive. Also you don't have to stick to 4 strings! I've got a 6 string electric cello I've been playing for awhile, have a range from low F to high E. Finally no need for an endpin either, we make cellos with harnesses so you can move around while playing. Check out the instruments we make http://woodviolins.com/html/CobraCello.html

[surfinbela]

Magnetic pickups do work! - But as you said, you need strings with magnetic properties: for example steel core strings like Helicore or Pirastro Flexocor. Normal, "commercial" (guitar- mandolin- or bass-) pickups won't work. You'll get a bit of output plucking (pizzicato) and almost no output bowing. But have a look at these pickups and listen to the soundfiles:
http://www.uli-boesking.de/rebo/

They build magnetic cello pickups, too.

[Half-Life]

awesome. thanks.

[Half-Life]

Coming from wood violins, this is certainly good advice. Excellent suggestion about the harness.

However I don't see why a magnetic pickup wont work. As long as the strings are made of soft-magnetic material... Since steel is a hard-magnetic material though, finding the correct type of strings would be a problem.

In the end, a piezoelectric pickup seems the easiest way to go. I'll try to implement a magnetic pickup and report back with results.

Once again, thanks for the comment, bulmung.
 

[Half-Life]

I updated step 2 with your advice on pickups by the way.

[bulmung]

Awesome, glad I could help!

Just tested out a magnetic pickup, it does work but it has to be close to the strings. You would have to make your own bridge/cut the legs off a bridge. Also the curvature of the bridge would make it very difficult to pickup all the strings, your lowest and highest string would be much louder than the others.

Also wondering what your playing through? To get the best sound from the piezo I suggest an acoustic guitar amplifier or a keyboard amp.

[surfinbela]

Why not a tube amp if you want to play rock'n'roll? - Here I play a baritone violin (violin strung with octave strings - these are Thomastik Super Flexible) with magnetic pickup through a Fender Blues Junior:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrR3CsfD61s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqTKWjnrBc4&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qenHv3T75cs&feature=channel

Here both viola and cello are equipped with magnetic pickups and play through tube amps - recorded with a little photocamera:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IIoorpHptg&feature=channel_video_title

[surfinbela]

Yes, the curvature - bridges are very individually cut - and asymmetric, while the fingerboard is symmetric. - so a magnetic pickup has to be adjustable to reproduce the sound / balanced output desired. And every violinist has an own idea of sound ... look at the link I gave above.

[zack247]

electric violin.

its one of those things that just doesnt sound right, that alone makes it AWESOME!

great 'ible and a even better idea, 5*s

[Half-Life]

Thanks a lot zack!!!

However, electric violins have been around for quite a while (so i didn't come up with the concept).

There's an awesome (AWESOME) rendition of "Toxicity" on Youtube featuring electric violins. You should check it out.

[Homo Cyberneticus]

For those interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMKmQmkJ9gg

[zack247]

...
wow. that was awesome. you would never expect a violin to be something hardcore like that.

[iamtoats]

They're tuned down 3.5 steps (ADGC). That helps the weight of the sound a lot. They could just call them electric violas...

Edit: The girl who's playing the rhythm has a 5 string. The girl who's playing lead has no low C. that's why she solos when she does...

[akilaweerat]

hw to like this btw??

[Half-Life]

voting is over dude, but thanks anyway

[akilaweerat]

haha.isuruuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!violin boyyyy.well done!!!!!!!!

[Half-Life]

Don't forget to vote if you like this instructable!

[sabladask]

cool;) good instrucatble!

[killerjackalope]

This is an awesome project - for the cutting a powerful jigsaw can be used like a bandsaw by clamping it in to a work bench upside down, it takes you be extra safety concious though as you'll have to lock the jigsaw to on - probably at full power too for hardwood.

It will however produce a smooth cut with the right blade - to save on sanding a fine wood blade will cut slower but smoother...

[CranieBMD]

I like this, I tried something like it a little while back. You could easily make this into an electric mandolin, all you'd need is mando tuners and a flat bridge and I suppose you could add frets. If anyone tries it post pictures!

[jhd04]

Cool I'able! I'm'a build me one!

No seriously, wanted an e-olin for years since I went to a Dave Matthews show. I've built an electric guitar, so how hard can this be? Famous last words...

[Half-Life]

go for it. Did you make the pickup for your electric guitar? If so, could you point me towards some good resources on pickup building?

[Mistwalker]

I've looked at the costs of electric violins online, and they are usually quite exceptionally expensive. I'm curious as to what your overall costs were putting this together. It looks beautiful, by the way.

[Half-Life]

I spent $50 on this. And thanks.

[Allonsy]

so, would this cost more or less than a decentish electric violin? awesome ible btw.

[Half-Life]

Less. The total for me was close to $50. The price might vary depending on where you live.

The lowest I've seen for an electric violin with ebony fittings is $80, on ebay.

[nateO]

This looks like a fun way to spend my new found sobriety. Who would have thought that my parents could have saved the cash they spent on the violin i played when i was in school. They could have bought me the parts and i could have made my own B.A. electric violin.

[ARJOON]

what a rusty g-clamp by the way nice violin

[spookylean]

This was a school project? Are you going to awesome school?

[brooklynlord]

I've been playing violin for 9 years, and i do find it interesting :)

Constructive stuff:

You do know that the violin is hollow right? xD lol

Inside the violin is a bass bar and a sound post. But if this is a school project then..... well you can glue the bass bar but the sound post is a problem.

The less glue you use, the better sounding violin you will have.

I'm not sure about varnish though.

What size is it?

Oh and about the strings: I'm in RCM grade 7-8, and I'm using a hand-crafted violin with Eva Pirazzi strings. I know they cost like 110$, but they are almost like the best strings you can get. If this is a school project, i reccomend Dominant brand strings. They're about 50-60$ for great sound. The pirastro obligato aren't a bad choice either.

Steel strings have a different sound because they have lots of overtones. This makes them sound shrill and more like cutting glass than just a sound. The wound strings have less overtones therefore they sound more warm.

But otherwise, this is a GREAT instructable

[brooklynlord]

Oh yeah. One more thing. My teacher was playing i think on live television when suddenly the neck (Fingerboard and the wood below) snapped off. She said it sounded like a gunshot. She wasn't hurt, but the violin had to be repaired. The reason was there wasn't enough glue between those two wood pieces.

So even though if you're trying to build a violin with the least glue as possible, remember that you still need enough glue.