This is an integrated violin and pickup system.It was built by the Danish luthier Richard Murholt in 1988.
Murholt has built instruments for some of the most famous Danish jazz fiddlers.
The pickup system was based on a design called Elkit which Murholt crafted into the instruments he built.
Elkit is a electrodynamic pickup and works much like a ribbon microphone, with the strings being the ribbon.
Murholt refined the Ekilt system and added a possibility of balancing the strings with 4 small potentiometers and he added a new transformer to the preamp.
I have been so lucky to be able to try and test this instrument and the built in pickup system.
I did not feel comfortable with changing the balance of the strings (I have it on loan) so the E-string is a little weak in the pickup samples. The 4 dots on the tailpiece are the pots for adjusting each string and just below you can see the special 2 pin output jack.
First, a sound sample of the acoustic instrument recorded with a Neumann tlm-102 directly to disc with not eq or effetcs added:
Moving to the pickup system, here is a recording through my AER alpha Plus. No effects or EQ:
Here is a sample of the pickup recorded straight to disc:
This fine instrument is currently for sale. If you are interested send me a message and I will get you in contact with the owner.
ReplyDeleteHenrik - I have been involved in the early 80,s in helping Richard Murholdt on amplification of these systems. We found that Transistor Guitar Comboes with a 12" speaker did the best reproduction. Somehow you would always think that a complete 3-way system would be the best, but the tone of a violin gets to hizzy when played loud so running through a (bad) 12" speaker reduces ourput above 3,5 kHz.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, Knud - the way the speaker interacts with the pickup system is important
DeleteHelp. On a quest. My late father bought an acoustic violin in Denmark. Inside is a label with RICHARD MURHOLT DK 4000 ROSKILDE REPARERET. Any advice. Is this a person or an address?
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that this is most certainly the same Richard Murholt, as the maker of the fiddle in the picture.
DeleteInterpretation of the label "Repaired by Richard Murholt, from Roskilde (city in Denmark)"