Violectra Electric Violins

This is a 5-String Violectra Electric Violin, similar to my own model. I had it custom-build (to exactly match my accoustic violin) a few years ago, 1998 i think. The violin maker, name of David Bruce Johnson, was a real sound guy and a Canadian ex-pat. During the Christmas / New Year of '97/98 he took me down to London to a Violin exhibition, where i was treated to beholding some truly magnificent fiddles! At the time, my father was dying from lung cancer, caused by breathing asbestos in the 60's, and my parents put up the money to buy it for me, bless them. As you can probably imagine it was quite an upsetting time, made all the more poignant by me and my brother playing violin and cello at his funeral. Still, life goes on.
Also at the time i was living in Manchester, working by day as a Studio Maintenance Technician, and a Sound Engineer by night. I had loads of free studio time on my hands and i would regularly stay up all day and all night at the weekend doing my own music. Actually, i did this most weekends for 2 years, and finally, after an exhausting weekend working saturday morning till monday afternoon, with no sleep and living on beer and junk food, i collapsed on the stairs at home going up to bed. It all helped to deal with the grief, but my health was suffering!

Anyway, im drifting off the point here... i had my violin made with a pickup under each string on the bridge, connected with a 7-pin DIN plug. David had been experimenting with his violins and MIDI, and had a guitar synth adapted for violin connected to it through a little DIY interface. This was a wicked idea! When i got my violin in the studio i was playing all sorts of sounds and synths over MIDI. The set-up was not without its problems though, the pitch would never remain constand, MIDI controllers were all over the place, and you had to finger each note on the fingerboard EXACTLY to pitch to get a level MIDI note. In short, it was too unstable to do anything with.

The reasons for this are better explained by experts, but when i researched into it, MIDI Violin technology was still in its infancy. Sadly, not long after this, my MIDI violin synth packed in, and fraustrated, i returned to playing as normal. The electric signal from the pick-ups is naturally trebly and thin but can be fixed easily enough in the studio with some EQ. It sounds mint with a good Lexicon reverb on it and a touch of chorus or delay. In fact, someone i met got me into Ed Alleyne Johnston. Check him music out! If anyone reading knows anything about MIDI guitars, or violins, and thinks they can help me here, please let me know, i'd love to hear from you.