The First Electric Violins and How They Evolved

The First Electric Violins and How They Evolved

Watch a fusion band, and you should see a violinist attacking the strings like the coolest guitarist. Music has evolved over centuries, and musical instruments have followed the same fate. For that reason, the instruments musicians play today are not the same. The electric violin, in particular, has a quite interesting history.

The first models came out in the 1930s

You may expect this very modern looking instrument to have been invented sometime recently. Yet, the first that were ever played by musicians appeared in the 1930s, and they were made by brands like the Electro Stringed Instrument Corporation, Vega, and National. All these companies invested a lot of research in making such instruments and increasing their popularity.

Jazz violin players were particularly interested in the new instruments. That is why it was one such musician that got into creating a hybrid that would build the bridge between what could be considered a classical instrument and its very modern version. Joe Venuti was the violinist who got a microphone attached to his instrument to make it sound louder.

The first models were not solid bodied, so they didn’t have a good performance overall. That was why until the 1960s, the electric violins remain obscure and were not used on a large scale by violinists, regardless of music genre. More about electric violins and where they are today, you can find from a very detailed article where various models are exposed and reviewed.

Electric violins and rock heroes

Jazz and rock are two music genres that get along just fine with electric violins. Frank Zappa was among the first famous names to be connected with this type of instrument, but not because he played it himself. He was, however, the one who employed two talented electric violinists who would later make history: Don Harris and Jean-Luc Ponty.

Don ‘Sugarcane’ Harris had an essential contribution to the album Hot Rats, signed by Frank Zappa, and released in 1969. In 1973, Jean-Luc Ponty would do the same on another acclaimed Zappa album, entitled Over-Nite Sensation.

Ponty would continue his career by signing with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. The fantastic and successful fusion of electric violin with rock would be apparent on the Visions of the Emerald Beyond album. The same band also had in its employment another big name, Jerry Goodman, a virtuoso of the electric violin.

The appearance of the solid-bodied models

The violinists mentioned above did their part to create an outstanding fusion between the new instrument and rock music. However, the instruments they were playing were still acoustic, and only the addition of a pickup did not truly make them the instruments everyone knows today.

It was Fender that, in 1958, would introduce the first solid-bodied design for an electric model. However, that design wasn’t popular, although it would be reissued later, in 1969, by CBS.

As reputable as Fender was for the guitars it was making, it would not be this brand that would become the synonym for successful electric violins. That would be Wood Violins, the first ever manufacturer of such instruments. Besides violins, they created electric violas, and electric cellos and their fame spread all over the world.

Electric violins today

It is nothing unusual for violinists to play electric models today. They also have plenty of choose from, as many companies are making them, such as Yamaha. All these popular brands created departments in charge of producing and marketing electric violins, and that is why they are so widespread today.

Many musicians are in love with them. Names such as Judy Kang, Jimmy Herman, and Asha Mevlana are now connected to electric violins and are responsible for the popularity of the instrument.