Electric Guitar vs Electric violin!

[Guitarist-Jonny]

Hi dudes and dudettes!
What do you think is best and why? What can a guitar do that a violin can't, and vice versa? Or can they both do what each other can do? Try to be unbiased lol- listen to Mark Wood for good violin playing btw.
regards
Jonny

[RGR570]

I remember Mark Wood's 'Voodoo Violence' adverts in GFTPM and Guitar mag back in 1990 or so. I was gonna buy it but never did, the concept interested me.

[Ferrous Lepidoptera]

Maybe you ought to post the same question here:

http://www.woodviolins.com/wvmb/index.php

In terms of impact on popular culture, it's no contest, the electric guitar is de rigeur, while the electic violin (esp. played through a guitar amp w/ distortion) is pretty much limited to a novelty.

I semi-seriously thought about getting one of those Woods violins once, because they do make some pretty neat sounds, but, it's a hell of a commitment, buying something like that which you have next to no idea how to play.

[Lefty Robb]

yeah but you really can't compare Mark and his Vipers to a regular violin player though, I mean it has frets and 7 strings and is electric, so its basically a 7 string guitar just up a few octaves and played with a bow.

[Ferrous Lepidoptera]

Yeah, it has frets, BUT, the frets are filed down so much as to be pretty much level with the fretboard, and you don't finger behind the frets, like a guitar, but right on top of the frets. It's not clear to me how useful the frets actually are, except as a visual aid/cosmetic thing, like the tape the put on the boards for beginner violin players. (disclaimer -- have not actually seen a Woods violin in person, but this is pretty much how it was described to me on the forum there.) The thing is, You _can_ compare a viper to a regular violin... it's much more like a regular violin than like a guitar, despite the "frets." and 7 strings.

[Lefty Robb]

I always thought his vipers sounded very shrilly, I don't know if its the violin, the pickup in it or the amps he using, and the lower end strings sound so mushed and non defined they might as well not even be on it.

[Guitarist-Jonny]

Which instrument would you say you could technically do more with?
Regards
Jonny

[IbanezFreak777]

More girls want to have sex with guitarists than violinists, so Guitar gets my vote.

[arrowman1969]

i once heard a violin with distortion wowwww it was awsome

[Satchriossi]

Violin is a one note at a time instrument, so guitar kicks it in the balls straight away by being capable of a b'gillion chords ontop of all the single notes it can do.

Steve Vai has been touring with a couple of folks on electric and miced acoustic violins. Also i checked out Maxim Vengerov once after seeing him on that classical channel on sky. Yoyo Mar on chello too - cos they both played like lightnin' n it caught my interest.

From a lead point of view violins seem comparable to guitars but you can't do no tapping, big'ol sweep arppegios, whammy techniques, pinch harmonics etc. Also the lack of strings means whatever runs you can do aren't gonna be as long as you could do on guitar and surely it hasn't got as wide a range as guitar cos its so much smaller. Though i'm not sure.

Violin has advantages with sustaining effects but ebow and sustainer drivers let guitar players cover most of them.

I think guitar wins just because of the chords thing though.

[apmaman]

Violins dont have Original wizard necks, or locking tremolo's.... Although Eruption on a Violin is amazing... check out the youtube video!

[C.Thep]

oh my god this must be the stupidest thread ever.

[andy7jem]

Originally Posted by C.Thep

oh my god this must be the stupidest thread ever.

I don't know.....it has some stiff competition

[arrowman1969]

a violin bow on a guitar sounds hideous,on whitesnakes still of the night video vandeburg uses a bow at start of solo,i think its just for show as its swelling