Gear/RigInstruments Electronics Amplification Mutes Bows 5
InstrumentsI've played violins by the London maker John Dilworth since 1994. John's instruments are so sought after you will not uncommonly have to wait up to 3 years for the privilege of owning one. I was extremely fortunate that he'd just completed an unassigned Magginni model. It's dark and deep, rich and euphonious, complete with twin turbo purfling, and I've never looked back! Strings-wise I go for Pirastro Obligato, although I am by no stretch an aficionado. Thinking of testing out these fancy new Pirastro Passiones.
 On the electric side I use a Zeta 'Jazz' which I've had since 1989. It got it's debut playing on telly with All About Eve. Solid bodied with no discernible resonance of it's own, it must be plugged-in or midi'd-up to get it on. The rubber piezo pickup seatings in the complex bridge melted once in the intense Catalan sun, but is still going strong despite this! Owing to its 'electric guitar' characteristics it is a versatile axe and performs well when filtered through fx, synths and amps. Strings should be metal for the Zeta so it's usually Jargar for me.
ElectronicsI can divide my gigging habits into 2 basic camps. 1. the full-on electric rig and 2. the far less elaborate acoustic rig. The latter simply comprises a pencil condenser mic by Accusound, an Audio Technica battery pack (for back-up only - always use phantom power by choice) and a D-TAR parametric equalizer/notch filter. The electric rig involves the acoustic violin too and runs as above with the addition of my Line-6 DL4 in the chain before the D-TAR. That way I can loop it/add delay etc. The Zeta chain runs thus: Zeta - Line-6 FM4 - Boss GT8 - Line-6 DL4 - Boss FV-50H Stereo Volume Pedal - AER Domino. A Line-6 expression pedal alternates between the FM4 synth and DL4 delay/looper. All this (minus Zeta & AER) fit snugly inside a Diago custom flight case, which all in all boasts a hernia-inducing gross weight of c.25kgs!! Lovely. But before the Diago days I used to carry everything around in canvas bags, rigging and striking it each night. The Diago saves a whole hour every gig. I've always struggled with amps, never fully liking one enough to love it, until I discovered the AER Domino, which I bought used from guitarist John Williams. John spends an awful amount of care, time and money on his sound so I knew if it worked for him it would be instantly very cool.
AmplificationOf an already perfectly well amplified instrument. This is one of, if not THE, biggest ball ache. Taking an instrument deeply rooted in one kind of music and shoving it into another which is new and dominated by other far better suited instruments... what a challenge! Fact is though, alright, alongside guitars and double basses playing hot club or gypsy jazz, fine; but with piano, bass drums and electric guitar - looking for trouble. I stick with a good tailpiece-mounted mic set-up (either Accusound or AKG) and that's it. This leaves me at the mercy of the sound engineer so I depend on them to use a good out board graphic and respect that I'm after a nice, never screeching, warm woody resonant sound: for the violin to sound like it isn't amped at all. With a big P.A. and a competent and receptive engineer my Accusound will do perfectly and can go to pretty respectable volumes, easily coping with drums and electronics.The electric instrument is all different of course as it doesn't suffer from all the feedback and tone issues of the acoustic. See above for info on the rig.
Mutes I am a huge fan of the aluminium mute. I don't use the plastic variety if I can at all help it. The metal produces a sweet silky reedy and resonant sound whereas I find the plastic simply deadens and hollows the instrument. I have been unsuccessful, however, in finding the metal variety readily available. It was my friend and one-time mentor, the great British violinist John Van Derrick, who first introduced them to me. He quickly convinced me of their vastly superior sonority. He gave me a couple to be going on with and from that moment (around 1988) I could never be satisfied using a plastic one again. The trouble with the metal, and where the plastics have the edge, is that they do not attach handily to the strings behind the bridge. Hence, the metals are easily lost and rarely recovered. When Johnny passed he left me the remainder of his stock - 5 or 6 Symmons mutes - and I'm sad to say just 2 of these remain. I habitually venture intrepidly out of my hotel into city centres of places on tour plundering music shops the length and breadth of the world. I rummage vainly through any boxes of bits there might be lurking behind the counter. On occasion, amongst the bags of brand new plastic mutes (universally available), I discover the odd rogue aluminium mute. Like I've struck gold I yelp hysterically and ask what I can have it for. As a rule the shopkeeper doesn't know one of these articles from Adam and generally I'm charged 50p or a pound for such priceless gems. The luckiest time was in Stamford Lincolnshire where it turned out that the man in the shop was, astoundingly, a collector of mutes himself!!! He had a boxed set of some 40 mutes of all kinds, shapes and types. The sale was swiftly sealed at £40 for the lot (see pic below). Foolishly and helplessly I began using the best from this box at concerts and in particular a sublime black enamelled Symmons. I lost it at a gig near Swanage never to be recovered. Damn. Mais c'est la vie. The hurt still lingers… but the hunt for the metal mute continues! What ever happened to Symmons mutes? I would be grateful to anyone with information on a source for these rare beasts - do drop me an email.
BowsUp 'til 1998 I exclusively used crap bows. Then I met Peter Oxley which led directly to a radical change in attitude! I bought one of Pete's silver mounted jobs and have never looked back. A decent bow is a healthy investment on all levels. So is a spare bow. Which I don't have. Due both to some of the styles and to the environments in which I play, it is bow rehairs alone that make my trade high maintenance. At a cost of between £30 and £40 a rehair every 4 or 5 concerts, I reckon I've spent around £7000 on bow rehairs to date. Even so, many many of these have been bad and I cannot understand how a relatively untaxing (though highly skilled) job can be so easily cocked up. Pete Oxley tells me not to learn to do it myself, though I frequently wonder how else I can ensure my bow is rehaired to my satisfaction every time. If I possibly can I take it back to Pete or his partner Jutta for the work but I'm not always within 100 miles of Oxford when I'm touring! There are several ways to balls-up a rehair and they are all annoyingly silly things all arising from slack execution. 1. Putting the hair in the wrong way up. Yes, the microscopic follicles must point one way and not the other: The wrong way and the violin sounds as though steam's seeping out of it. 2. Bad quality hair: Similar result to the sound. 3. Unedited hair: the most time consuming part of rehairing is selecting the good hair from one big hank of hair, discarding any broken ones, takes about 20 minutes for one bow. Don't bother to do this and I'll come back for a refund. 4. Badly cut wedges: there're tiny wedges in the frog and in the tip meant to stop the hair coming out. If not cut to a tight snug fit they'll just pop out rendering you Col Legno, or bust. Disaster. Finding somewhere to get a good rehair wherever you are is like trying to get a good espresso used to be. Nigh on impossible. Good coffee is easier to come by nowadays and I hope now someone will be smart enough to set-up a chain of cafes where you can have your bow rehaired while you have a coffee. They could be called 'Ar Coffee' (Arco-ffee). Sorted.
© Chris Garrick |
