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Ian Cooper's Gear List
I am asked weekly for my thoughts on violins, pickups, equalizers and amplifiers, so here they are!
Violins
Epoch VP4 electric violin
Gold Coast, Australia, 2003
The best electric violin I have ever played. It has become my favourite electric instrument and I take it to all Jazz and Rock gigs. Acoustically it's loud under the ear, and the well designed electronics make it a simple matter of plugging it in and turning it up. So easy. The design also lends itself nicely to being used with effects and it overdrives extremely well.
Epoch VP5 5 string electric violin
Gold Coast, Australia, 2004
This is my latest toy and really fun to play, a space-age carbon fibre 5 string. As with the 4 string model, this Epoch has the pickup and equalizer already built in and plugs straight into an amp or mixing console. The neck has been widened to accommodate the extra string and it's surprisingly comfortable to play. Although I am more dexterous with the spacing of a 4 string, this violin comes into it's own when playing on the gutsy low C string.
E.H. Roth, Markneukirchen, Germany 1926.
Copy of a Stradivarius Cremona 1714. It has the number A258 inside it.
This has been my main acoustic instrument for years and the one I've done most of my recording with. I travel with it all over the world and its fitted with a Baggs bridge pickup. Pictured right is the AKG PT81 wireless system I have on all my violins & I use a Brook custom equalizer with this violin also.
Matthew Bolliger, Sydney, Australia 2004
I asked Matthew to make me a violin that didn't have the bite the Roth violin has, and whose tone is a bit mellower. And he did it! I am experimenting with an onboard blender so I can combine pickup and microphone signals and send them mixed out the wireless. It's either that, or have 2 wireless systems onboard the violin and do the mixing on stage. No one makes a violin blender so I'm playing around with an L.R.Baggs Duet II acoustic guitar system. I'll post the results here shortly.
Matthew Bolliger - Viola, Sydney, Australia 1997
On my request Matthew originally made this instrument as a 5 string violin with a low C string. He thinned the bouts which increased the instrument's low frequency response, but at the expense of the high end. To compensate, I used an extremely high tension metal E string, a bit like thin fencing wire! This instrument has a Fishman V100 pickup.
At present though I've removed the high string and it's a violin scale viola I can play in tune!
Zeta 5 string electric Jazz Fusion violin. Solid Body.
This is a dog of a fiddle. Can you believe the stop for 3rd position was out of tune when I got it? I had to get my violin repairer to fix the neck. I expected better from Zeta. This 1990 model sounds utterly useless without severe equalisation but sounds great distorted. It's what I played on the 2000 Olympics Opening Ceremony Tin Symphony Rock violin solo.
Other assorted violins
Here are a few fiddles I've picked up on my travels. They sound truly awful but believe it or not sound great in country bands.
Pickups
I used to use the Fishman V100 pickup on my acoustic violins. I got into them when these and Barcus Berrys were all you could get. They have a habit of working loose, buzzing and falling out of the bridge so I'm in the process of changing over to the L.R. Baggs bridge pickup.
Amplifiers
I used to believe that a small valve amp being driven hard had a better tone than a larger amp working at a quarter its capacity at the same volume.
But I discovered the Mesa/Boogie Lonestar. It sounds glorious at all volume levels and has that famous fat Boogie tone even when played soft, plus remaining un-distorted at eardrum splitting level. Its 2 x 12" speakers remove the boxiness in sound often inherent when playing violins through large single speaker amps.
Getting crunch & distortion out of guitar amps is easy - that's what they're designed for, but getting a loud sound that's clean is not so easy. This amp does both. It has a 100w/50w switch which means you can get those big hot valves internally haemorrhaging whilst playing at low level, and that's the tone I love!!
The Mesa Lonestar
My old favourite for playing Rock and Jazz at a reasonable volume is the Fender Blues Junior. (tweed version) It's only 15 watts, but it's 15 "Fender" watts! Its valve equalizer stage is so glorious I don't need a separate EQ.
Fender Blues Junior
When I need to sound acoustic (ie. Gypsy music or with my Classical string trio & quartet) I use a Trace Acoustic TA50R. (It's 50 watts, but not as loud as the Fender 15!) In this setup I use my custom Brook equalizer.
**Warning** This Trace amplifier is very unreliable and has had many costly non warranty repairs done to it. And it still hums. Don't buy one. This company doesn't honour their international warranty.
Trace Acoustic TA50R
Equalizers
What I am performing away from home and can't take an amplifier, I plug straight into the PA via a custom equalizer. I created the EQ curve using a few multi effects units daisy-chained together and got Mark Hornybrook to build it into as tiny a box as possible.
The curve is a compromise between what works well in concert halls with large expensive European PA systems, and seedy club PAs with horn tweeters thrown into home made foldback wedges the sound guy built in his garage. Version 1 was designed for the Fishman pickup.
Version 2 (pictured) is for the L.R. Baggs violin pickup and has a few more refinements:
Powered by 12vDC or internal 9v rechargable battery
Internal battery is charged when powered externally
Battery test LED
Cannon XLR DI output plus phono jack output
DI earth lift switch
Volume, Bass & Treble trim pots for fine tuning
Recessed trim pots won't move during transit
3v output to power the AKG wireless receiver
FX send/return
9v output for powering Boss FX pedals
Tiny isn't it!!
Wireless Systems
I use an AKG PT81 transmitter with a PR81 receiver. These are broadcast devices and very small. The receiver is the same size as the transmitter and both smaller than a pack of smokes. The transmitter attaches with velcro to a small platform beneath the violin (like an upside down chin rest). The receiver lives on top of the amp or anywhere else on stage. I use this on all gigs and I have found that it in no way changes my sound, nor has it ever played up. The range appears to be about a mile, but it's impossible to play in time with the band at that distance anyway!
Microphones
For recorded performances or radio broadcasts I love the sound of a Crown GLM200 condenser microphone. This tiny mic clips under the tail piece and is what I send to the sound guy. I use the pickup and amplifier for the stage sound only as I can turn this up louder without feedback that I can a mic signal.
I use the wind sock because the mic sits directly under my nose and picks up my breathing. I make sure never to yell abuse at drummers when using this mic as it comes out on the recording!
Here's another mic I've had great live results with, the Sennheiser 441 - the best dynamic mic ever made, especially good for violin because of its directional characteristics and its ability to ignore other sounds on stage.
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