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This section covers suppliers and makers of all equipment except electric violins themselves. There's a whole 'nother section devoted to those, which you should check out if you haven't already. The easiest place to get equipment is your local music store. They'll have it there to try out, and in larger cities will give you a fair price if you say the magic words, "Is that retail or your price?" (be careful in smaller towns, though. The reduced market size makes prices go up accordingly.). The next easiest place is mail order. There are quite a number of large, reputable mail-order firms that carry all the major brands, and you can sometimes find items there that you can't find locally. And of course you can call the manufacturer directly, but in most cases they'll just direct you to one of their resellers.
Supplies and equipment for electric violinsL.R. Baggs These folks have a pretty strong reputation in the pickup/preamp world. They make good violin pickups, as well as guitar pickups and a variety of preamp/eq/DI boxes. I have one of their ParaAcoustic Equalizer/DI boxes, and have been reasonably happy with its sound. The design isn't perfect (the knobs are small, with indents that are invisible on a dim stage, so forget doing much eq'ing once the lights go down.), but on the whole it has a leg up on the Fishman.
Phone: 805/929-3545 Barcus-Berry Barcus-Berry's been making electric violins for quite a while, but they also make violin pickups mounted in custom bridges and external mount pickups. I don't know if they are making preamp/eq boxes at this point.
Phone: 714/897-6766 Fishman I've never used any of their pickups, but I have played with their preamp. It's decent enough, although the Baggs is more flexible (more eq settings, mostly), and puts out a hotter signal.
Phone: 508/988-9199 Bowtronics, Ltd. Maker of magnetic pickups for violins. Because the pickups work like a guitar pickup (responding to the movement of the string within the coil's magnetic field) rather than a piezo (which amplify vibration) they are less prone to feedback. They may also require less equalization across strings in some applications.
Phone: 908/899-3924 http://members.aol.com/bowtronics/index.htm Schertler These folks make an "electrodynamic moving coil transducer" pickup for violins, which they claim is much better than traditional piezo pickups. I assume it's much like a guitar pickup and the Bowtronics pickup.
Phone: 41-91-647-42-31 XBowmate, Inc. A practice device for bowing, the XBowmate is a platform the length of a violin with a bow guide in the center. The guide is locked into the proper bowing position so students can place their bow in the guide, practice the motion, and theoretically improve their bowing skill. http://www.javanet.com/~xiaoda/xbmate.htm
Mail-Order retailersSHAR I've been using them for, umm, like ten or fifteen years now, and have never had a problem. They're currently a dealer for Zeta, although their catalogs show prices for the Strados models only. Hot tip: If you're buying strings (I use Tomasik Dominant, and recommend them with the wound E), watch the SHAR catalogs for a while before buying. Their price for a set fluctuates between $20 and $25, and I wait until it hits $20-$21 before buying (and then I buy several sets).
Phone: 800/248-SHAR (7427) What they carry: All the violin supplies a classical player will need, plus they have a full store devoted to instruments and bows, and one to sheet music. They pretty much have it all, until you need electronic stuff. Then you have to hit the "popular music" instrument stores. Southwest Strings Just got my first catalog from these folks, and haven't ordered from it yet. They appear to be the primary competition for SHAR, with an equally broad inventory. They also carry Barcus-Berry pickups and bridges, as well as Fishman pickups and preamps.
Phone: 800/528-3430 What they carry: Near duplicate of SHAR, with all the supplies a classical player will need, plus the above-mentioned electronics. Music Explorium The only store I know of that carries several kinds of electric violins. They aren't "mail-order" per se, but they have a decent web site from which you can contact them to order a violin.
http://www.musicexplorium.com Elderly Instruments These folks carry instruments from a variety of makers. Most instruments are shown on their web site with prices and pictures.
http://www.elderly.com/new_instruments/110N.htm http://www.elderly.com/new_instruments/110N.htm Musician's Friend I've been using these folks for a few years now and have been happy with their service, although I go back and forth between them and local dealers. Lately I've been buying more from the local dealers, because they're matching mail order prices, and can provide me with more convenient service than mail-order can. Dealers also can generally provide more detailed info than the mail-order houses (where you generally get shunted off to "tech support" for detailed info). But some things I can't find locally, and you might be in an area where you have an even harder time with the local dealers. In that case you're safe going with one of the major mail-order houses like this one.
Phone: 800/776-5173 American Musical Supply Many of their prices are slightly lower than Musician's Friend, and I assume that they are somewhat smaller. On the other hand, they seem to carry some stuff that's more high-end than Musician's Friend, so having both catalogs handy can be useful.
Phone: 800/458-4076
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