Marcus Holden Australian Fiddler  

Equipment

From 70s to now

My first attempt at amplification used a DeArmond pickup placed on the table of the violin, not very successful. Then came the Fender Electric Violin... best described as a chainsaw with vibrato. Next were Barcus-Berry violin bridge pickups which were 'blue-tacked' then clipped to the bridge... a real improvement and a Fender Quad Reverb, beautiful big valve amplifier with 4x12" speakers... it worked! I bought several 'electric' violins inculding the Vitar(70s) and a Piers (90s locally made) which used a BTS bridge pickup. In 1979, I bought a Barcus Berry Baritone Violectra (discontinued) and moved to Fishman bridge pickups. I notice that Fishman now make a dedicated bridge as well. In the early 80s Jo Hayes from Oz company PASSAC came up with the idea of recreating the wood sound of an instrument and I helped R and D some of their products. Unfortunately, the company no longer exists, but they were great preamps. I switched to the Baggs Bridge system and dedicated my Neuner violin to amplified use. I moved to the Fishman Blender (discontinued) which mixes the pickup and a microphone together. I also acquired Epoch and Guscott electric violins. Eventually, I discovered the Presonus AcoustiQ (also discontinued) preamp, which replaced the Blender with a warmer valve sound and more user friendly controls. With systems that use blended microphones and pickups, the microphone is more a colour than a sound source and the use of inexpensive mcirophones seems adequate, but there's always room for improvement.

Performance

1871 Edward P I'Anson violin (Manchester, England) and prefer a DPA lavalier mike, suspended from the strings behind the bridge.
1923 CJB Collin-Mezzin (Paris, France)
1790s English Violin (no label). The scroll is reminiscient of Benjamin Banks.
1814 Matthias Neuner violin (Mittenwald Germany) with a LR Baggs bridge pickup and a Tie Pin (cheap) condensor microphone
1929 Gibson A0 mandolin (made in USA) with a Fishman bridge pickup and a Tie Pin condensor microphone
Strohviol (JMA Stroh) resonator violin, circa 1920, modified by Jim Ellender with a LR Baggs bridge pickup and (you guessed it) a Tie Pin condensor microphone, see photo
Guscott electric violin, made in Toowoomba Qld, with built-in preamp and in-ear monitoring.
1999 CWX Viola (handmade in China) with a LR Baggs bridge pickup and a Tie Pin condensor microphone
1980 Barcus Berry Baritone Violectra with Barcus Berry bridge pickup and a Tie Pin condensor microphone
2003 Greg Beeton style 97 National Tenor Guitar, made in Newcastle NSW fitted with Highlander Biscuit system and preamp, see photo.
Age-unkown Jimmy Moon cittern, made in Glasgow, Scotland with a Fishman bridge pickup and a Tie Pin condensor microphone. Presonus AcoutiQ Valve blender preamp
Jim Ellender Silver-mounted Pernambucco violin bow
Boss GT6 Multieffects pedal board
Seymour Duncan Mutli-Valve guitar preamp
Carl Ecke Upright Piano
Jiang (Chinese Zither)
Tambour (Indian meditation instrument)
Takamine Martin D28 copy 1984
Bluesman Dobro
David Lee (chinese) cello
Various recorders, tin whistles, melodians, cabasa, Japanese percussion, rainsticks, bells, shakers, saw (for bowing and adjusting furniture!)

Studio

The current studio was built using some design knowledge learned from my father Terry Holden who apart from being a computer research scientist, wrote many of the Oz building design standards.
Bloody Dog studio has three recording spaces and uses Cubase SX computer based recording system, RME interfaces, UA preamps, Neumann, AKG, Oktava, Rode, CADand Sennheiser microphones and Tannoy Monitors. We can record in 44.1 to 192hkz (sampling rates), 16 to 32bit (float) and anything from MP3 and AIFF to WAV formats.