Got a bit longer to reply now.
I've played in at least two bands that have had someone play an electric fiddle. My son and daughter also play violin and my son has a regular violin and a couple of electrics.
It all depends what type of 'electric' violin you want. You can have a solid bodied one (in which case you won't need a soundbox) or you can have an electro-acoustic one, which will just entail sticking a contact pickup onto the bridge of an acoustic violin (my son has one of these using a Fishman pickup and it sounds very good). On an electro acoustic using an ordinary acoustic violin as the basis for your instrument, you have the advantage that you don't need an amp to get a working volume out of it, so it'll do for practise and small rooms then be capable of being amplified for bigger venues. Since the pickup picks up (funnily enough) the string vibrations directly from the bridge, the acoustic soundbox doesn't have much influence on the ampified sound (although it does have some) so you don't need a quality instrument, just a basic 'made in China' student violin will do you. That's the easiest way to go.
A solid body violin can be any shape you like, and made from pretty much anything you like, but remember you'll have to hold it under your chin. The proper technique is that the whole weight of the thing is supported by wedging it between your chin and shoulder so that your fingering hand is free to do just that and not be encumbered by holding the neck of the thing up, so it'll have to be lightweight whatever you make it out of (or get a neck like Martin Johnson). A solidbody electric can use something like a Fishman pichup gain or a piezo pickup running like a strip underneath the bridge. Both the Fishman and the piezo's ideally need a pre-amp circuit to drive the high impedance of something like a guitar amp (otherwise it cuts all the bass end and sounds horribly tinny), if you're putting it straight into a PA, you can get away without a pre-amp.
I still reckon that you're better off buying a cheapish beginers acoustic and sticking a pickup on it. No disrespect but making musical instruments is something that takes years to perfect. I've played lots of guitars that were made for a friend of mine by his dad (who was also a skilled modelmaker by the way) and some others made by a very talented cabinet maker. In all cases they looked the part but were horrible instruments to play.
If you still want to do the whole thing, if just remembered Stewart-Macdonald who are luthiers suppliers, they do preformed necks and such so if they cant help you it probably isn't made. They're in the US, but delivery is very good, I've bought a lot of guitar components from them and they deliver quickly.
Link Here
antonye
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