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Tuesday October 16, 2007
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At Yamaha's line show last week, one of the oddest-looking and most interesting devices was the Silent Electric Violin. One of the newly redesigned instruments in the company's Silent Strings and Brass line, it's pared down to fretboard, tuning head, and little else. For anyone who wants to play or practice violin in a place where it might not be universally appreciated--an apartment or dorm, for example--you just plug in headphones and saw away. You hear a full-voiced violin, everyone else hears a tiny violin-like sound from the strings.
But as Christian Howes demonstrated for us, it can produce out-loud sound just like an acoustic violin, or an electric version of one, with lots of different effects. Howes uses it when he plays with Les Paul at the Iridium Jazz Club on Monday nights. What a fun gift this would be for a future Joshua Bell or Stéphane Grappelli.
The silent string models range in price from $925 to $1,595.
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