Fiddle Amplification

Matthew Prouty · From: Warsaw, Poland

Need some advice on fiddle amplification. Our fiddle player is a convert from the symphony. She is doing great! She has never amplified her fiddle and just picked up a Fender Fiddle, (I did not know they made them). Last practice we plugged her into an amp and effects set up of the guitarist with his "steel" patch and she sounded 10 times better than what she is using (some sort of strawberry amp). Then she plugged into my Evans 300 and she sounded awesome!

I am just wondering what fiddle players normally play through.

Any suggestions would be great.

m.

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

I know several "pro" fiddle players that all use Nashville 400's.

Fred Shannon · From: Rocking "S" Ranch, Comancheria, Texas, R.I.P.

a good Sessions 400 serves the purpose also. The fiddler I played with for over 15 years toted one around since the first time I met him. He can play.

phred
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Curtis Alford · From: BastropTexas, USA 78602

Several fiddle players here in Austin area, are using LTD400 SS Series, not to be confused with the Sessions 400 LTD. Some keep the 15" black widow, some go to the 12" black widow or the special Sheffield speakers. Some use the Peavey 112 special.
The 210 watt I believe it is.

Casey Lowmiller · From: Kansas

I've seen some people use the Peavey Special 130 to pretty good effect.

Session 400s are great & so are the old LTD-400s.

Old Peavey amps seem to get along with fiddles rather well.

Casey
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Paddy Long · From: Christchurch, New Zealand

I play mine through my nashville 1000 and Rev preamp and it sounds fat and awesome !!

jolynyk · From: Prince Albert Sask. Canada

I play both the steel & fiddle through the Nashville 112..

Alan Harrison · From: Murfreesboro Tennessee, USA

And jolynyk plays both quite well I might add. See you down south....alan
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Greg Cutshaw · From: Corry, PA, USA

I have an NS electric 5 string that I play through my Fender Steel King. The fiddle uses the same Goodrich foot volume and Boss RV-5 as my steel. The FSK tone controls allow for quick adjustment between the fiddle and steel.

Greg

J. R. McClung · From: Oklahoma, USA

SESSION 500 w/1502-4 DT
or
Nashville 400 w/Ken Fox mod.

Just tweak the pre and post settings 'til it sounds "kinda tubey".
Use the amp reverb.
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Paul Wade · From: mundelein,ill

my guitar player plays fiddle also, and he runs threw his
fender twin or, some times goes threw the main p.a
sounds good threw the twin.... just my two cents

p.w

Smile

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Jerry Hayes · From: Virginia Beach, Va.

One of the better fiddle players I've worked with in this area (Hurley Moncus) uses an old Peavey Session 500 with a 15" Black Widow and gets one of the best sounds I've heard. Another good player here (Roger Gray) uses a Peavey Bandit 112 which sounds excellent........JH in Va.
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Mike Brown · From: Meridian, Mississippi USA

Any of the Peavey steel amplifiers, ie; Session Series, Nashville Series sound great with a fiddle. I've noticed that the Special 130 is used by many fiddlers, so I recommend the Nashville 112 since massive power is not a requirement for the high frequencies that a fiddle produces.

I even had a Nashville, Tennessee fiddle player provide create a suggestion for fiddle control settings on the Nashville 112. They are listed in the operating guide of the 112 here;
www.peavey.com

If you have questions about Peavey products, please feel free to contact me at Peavey Electronics by calling toll free at 1-877-732-8391, ext. 1180 and I'll be glad to assist you.

Mike Brown
Peavey USA

jolynyk · From: Prince Albert Sask. Canada

Rick Campbell · From: Sneedville, TN, USA

Matthew,

The amp is only part of the picture. I tried a Fender electric fiddle once and it was horrible for me. I've tried a lot of different things through the years. I use several fiddles, but always use a Baggs bridge on them. This way you can play them acousticly or electric. Lots of the Nashville players use the Baggs. I run it through a Baggs preamp, and into either a Nashville 112 or 400 depending on the size of the gig. The preamp doesn't do much, but it has an XLR out for the sound people if they want to take it direct, and I can adjust my own eq on the preamp and not depend on the sound guys to do it for me.

If you got any questions email me. I'd be glad to help.

Kevin Hatton · From: Buffalo, N.Y.

I agree about the Baggs. Great pickup.

Paul Honeycutt · From: Colorado, USA

I play in two different bands with violinists. Both play ZETA violins. One just goes direct using what ever direct box the sound company provides and the other went from a Marshall solid state combo amp to a PreSonus Acoustic-Q tube preamp direct. One time fiddler #1 used my Mesa Boogie Studio .22+ guitar amp with an Altec speaker that sounded stellar.

Bill OConnor · From: Castle Rock, Washington, USA * R.I.P.

I have good results with peavey session 2000 w/my own made programing. But have been having good sound with fiddle into LR BAGGS PARA ACOUSTIC DI INTO A GUYTONE MD3 DIGITAL DELAY LOW SETTING. AND INTO N-112. ALL LIGHT WEIGHT EASY TO USE .I HAVE TRIED MANY AMPS OVER THE YEARS I WILL STAY WITH THE N-112 ALSO FOR STEEL

Jack Goodson · From: new brockton,alabama (deceased)

my number one amp for fiddle and steel is a 1976 ltd400, just reverb. i have played fiddle and steel through every amp (sometimes 2/amps) that peavey has built for steel guitar, and have not found any that dont sound good. the only other rig that i use other than peavey is the walker stereo into 2/d130=4 speaker cabs.....but i also use 2/fiddles that i have owned for over 40/yrs,both have the barcus berry built in the bridges they help with the tone also.....thanks jack

Randy Cordle · From: Illinois, USA

Had one of the original Fenders for a while, it had some sort of magnetic system under one bridge foot and sounded awful. The new ones use something different I believe. I've fitted a few Baggs bridges to friend's fiddles and I like them the best of any I've heard, other than using a microphone, but that's a whole nother topic. I know a few folks that that have tried some of the newer "under the bridge foot" transducers with good resultant sound, but they have had problems with reliability. Not something you want to deal with at a gig. I don't like bridge-mounted piezos as a general rule, but I recently put together a lightweight transducer that attaches to a conventional bridge in a few seconds and requires no modification to your instrument. To my ear it sounds very similar to the Baggs, but you MUST use a preamp to impedance match to any PA or amp you wish to use.
If you would like to follow my recipe it's available here:

http://www.bluestemstrings.com/pageEV1.html

It's shown on my practice fiddle, but it attaches to any conventional violin.

Randy
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