Electric Violin Shop...
...where electric violin, electric viola, electric cello and electric upright bass are our specialty! World's largest selection of electric violins, from a small shop run by musicians. Let us help you find the right solid body electric violin, viola, cello or upright bass, a pickup for an acoustic instrument, an amplifier or an effects module that sounds best with bowed strings.
Try our new Shopping Assistant!
Need help narrowing your search? Visit the Shopping Assistant page and complete the brief form for help from the experts!
Yamaha SV-250s and SV-255s now available at EVS!
Yamaha's latest innovation, the four-string SV-250 and SV-255 five-string Silent Violin Pros, arrived today at Electric Violin Shop.
Weighing in at only 500 grams, these are among the lightest electric violins on the market. The Silent Violin Pro is powered by Yamaha's VNP-1 bridge pickup. The electronics are all in a separate preamp, that can be worn on the belt or put on the floor or in your pedal board. Check them out, here.
Custom EVS Gold Sparkle Yamahas! Nearly the full line of Yamaha Silent & Electric Strings is now available from Electric Violin Shop in our custom Gold Sparkle color. This marks the first time the entry-level SV-130 violin and SVC-50 cellos, or the EV-204 and EV-205 violins, have been offered from Yamaha in a custom color. Check out the whole story, here.
New Business Hours at EVS
Starting in April, Electric Violin Shop will no longer have regular retail hours on Saturday. Historically, the vast majority of our business has been during the regular work week. We feel most of our customers will be better served if we are able to focus our efforts by ensuring full staffing Monday through Friday. If you are unable to make it to the shop during regular hours, please call to arrange an appointment.
Violin Shop Service - Big Box Prices
We do what the big mail order and Internet catalogs can't.
- Help you choose well. We have in stock (or are familiar with) almost every quality maker of electric bowed strings and related equipment. We love to discuss your instrument and amplifier needs. Listening to you talk about your music and your playing style helps us to recommend specific models and combinations of instrument and amp that will best suit your needs.
- Shop Adjustment. Every instrument spends time in the hands of our skilled technicians to ensure easy playability and reliability in your hands. Avoid the frustration of opening a factory-sealed box, and finding balky pegs, a bad bridge curvature, or an annoying buzz.
- Competitive Pricing. Our prices are competitive with the mega chains, even though we include a professional setup of every instrument we sell. Why risk being unhappy? Buy from the electric specialists!
Financing
Found your perfect instrument, but haven't yet found the money to make your amplified dreams come true? Electric Violin Shop has partnered with a family-owned bank that started in North Carolina to offer financing to our customers. Reasonable interest rates too!Electric Violins under $300 - CAUTION
Don't waste your money on those cheap new Internet electric violins - they tend to be hard to play, too quiet to amplify well, have grainy tone, and are not reliable for the long term. Instead get a pickup for your acoustic and maybe some effects and wait until a new quality solid body is offered. Check out our $235 pickup-amp-effects package Pickup My Acoustic Package. You'll have lots of fun, and not be frustrated by a hard-to-play entry level electric violin.
Electric Violin Shop recently teamed up with Grassfield High School in Chesapeake, VA, to demonstrate that the Bose L1 Line Array System could be used to provide sound reinforcement for a medium-sized electric violin ensemble. The results, with full technical details of the set-up, are here.
Go Electric with CONFIDENCE!
The founder of EVS ran a traditional violin shop that was a Zeta dealer dating from 1986, and has pursued improvisational violin playing ever since. Our electric violin store and website started in 1999, through Music Explorium (here in North Carolina), and now we have our own much larger space in Durham. We function just like a traditional violin shop (acquiring instruments and accessories from many makers), only our focus is on amplifying the violin, viola, cello and bass.
There are even more differences among the electric violin family than among their acoustic brothers and sisters. We are one of the few shops in the world that represents and is familiar with many makers of electric violins, electric violas, electric cellos and electric upright basses, and pickups for acoustic bowed strings.
Once you select an instrument, take as much care in choosing an amplifier. The amp can drastically improve (or distort) the sound you hear. Maybe add special effects as well - from mild to wild!
Let us guide you through your electric string adventures. Explore our site, make note of what interests you, and then give us a call. We'll help you be heard in ways Stradivarius never dreamed of!