FIDDLES

I recently was lucky enough to have Jonathan Cooper make a five string fiddle for me. I've never played such a wonderful instrument. I sounded great right out of the box. It has great power, and a beautiful dark tone. The high end is sweet and not scratchy, the neck is a little wider so the strings are perfectly positioned. It makes me a better fiddle player, or at least brings out the best me possible.

https://jcooperviolinmaker.com

My back up fiddles are two five-string acoustic violins made by Glenn Boyd (https://boydviolins.com/) one with Johnny Gimble and one with Vassar Clements carved into the scroll. I also use on various occasions a 1990s Zeta Jazz Fusion five-string, a NS CR-5 and a Guscott X-10 double neck violin-cello.

Pick-Up

I use a Schertler V-Stat on the Boyd violins, In my estimation it has wonderful tone and does not negatively impact the fiddle tone when playing unamplified.

Amplification

Because the tone on the Cooper is so beautiful, I wanted to keep it as close to an acoustic sound as possible. I'm using either a DPA clip-on mic with a Sennheiser Wireless or an Ear Trumpet Delphina where there is a sound man. Strings are Evah Pirazzi. The tone is somewhat reminiscent of an 1800's Bernadel I played years ago. Some of the best players in the world play on Jon's fiddle and you can see their testimonials on his website. The thing is you don't have to be the best, you just have to want the joy of the sound.

/My main gigging amp these days is a Henriksen Bud (https://www.henriksenamplifiers.com/) It has a six inch speaker and a switchable tweeter. It provides a rich acoustic tone and has plenty of power for any room. It is also only 17 pounds (a real consideration as I get older). I also will use my Henriksen Jazz Amp which has a 12” inch speaker. My old stand-by is an original Music Man 115 65 watt with a 15” JBL in place of the original Music Man speaker.