“But before that, we worked very hard on the Violect, our flagship model for years. “When Dan Hoffman and I began to collaborate at Ithaca Guitarworks in 1989, we began developing what eventually became the NV,” says Aceto. With a graceful, slimmed violin shape, it has undergone continual refinement over the course of nine years–and it effectively led up to the NV’s creation. His pre-NV electric model was the popular Violect, which he still makes. That model didn’t make it to market, but his other violins are ubiquitous. He once made a fiddle shaped like the cartoon character on a bottle of hot-pepper sauce. Since there were few other options at the time, he decided to start building his own instruments.Īnd build he did. “I got a Barcus-Berry violin in 1973 and decided I didn’t like that sound, even though it was a milestone for the electric violin,” he says. I will play a gig on a new instrument or a prototype, and the next day I’m in the shop talking with my partner Dan about how our latest changes have affected the instrument’s tone or response, or whatever we are currently focusing on.”Īceto got his first electric violin early in his career, and his experience spurred him to think about how electrics could be improved. “Working in all these different situations gives me a somewhat unique perspective on amplified violin. “I also do quite a bit of violin work here in the local recording studios,” Aceto says. He plays frequently with finger style guitarist Martin Simpson, and his current musical projects include a trio with cellist Hank Roberts and banjo player Ritchie Stearns (of the Horseflies), and an original, mostly instrumental, seven-piece band named Mectapus. Nowadays, when he isn’t building, he gigs around the upstate New York area and plays fiddle styles and jazz with a smattering of classical. He soon began studying technique with local classical players and later taught himself, learning from favorite recordings and books. 387-3544 online.) When building any instrument, it helps to be a player-and Aceto has been a devoted player since 1971, when he started fiddling for square dances. (The company recently split off amicably from its parent, the well-known Ithaca Guitarworks, and is located at 6115 Mount Rd., Trumansburg, NY 14886 phone and fax The NV is the product of almost 20 years of research and development by violin and guitar builder Eric Aceto and his partner, Dan Hoffman, of Ithaca Stringed Instruments. This enables the player to get a presence and immediacy in performance or on tape that was never available in the past with anything less than an acoustic instrument and a microphone (a combination that unfortunately becomes useless when you’re playing with a really loud band). The high strings, always a problem with electrics, sound particularly good on this instrument, with a natural openness, flexibility, and what I can only describe as “gravy”, that rich, dark punchiness that seems to add soul to whatever is played. Using this violin, I have been able to go on stage with large electric bands on practically no notice, plug into a direct box, and play loud, open, acoustic-sounding fiddle with no additional EQ. I believe it constitutes a quantum leap forward in electric-violin tone. It is capable of tonal colors and a dynamic range much closer to an acoustic violin than any other electric I’ve ever tried. Its builders have departed from conventional wisdom about amplified tone by envisioning the pickup and body as a dynamic unit, and by making changes in the body to modify the pickup’s sound. #Five stringed instrument professionalEric Aceto’s NV five-string electric violin, while at the high end of the price spread at about $5,000, is a must for the regularly performing professional violinist who absolutely has to play amplified and for whom tonal nuance is critical. The Zeta Strados, Tucker Barrett’s four-, five-, and six-string Luma and KoaLuma models, and Rich Barbera’s newest five string Acoustic-Electrics, to name a few, have taken electric-violin tone to impressive new levels.īut here’s a tip about a new instrument that, tonally, is as far beyond other electric violins as a $40,000 modern instrument is beyond the factory fiddle you played in high school. And the sound of these instruments is improving. Just about any form that can be fitted under the chin and bowed is now available to the adventurous fiddler. These days, there’s an embarrassment of riches in the multifarious and whimsical shapes available that can be played like a violin. In this article, Darol reviews the NV violin. From Strings Magazine September/October 1998
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