NS Design CR4 Viola Review

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(More customer reviews)NS Design CR4 Violin and CR4 Viola
I had been reluctant to buy such an expensive electric violin... in a world where for the same money one could get a stellar first rate premium signature edition electric guitar. Yes, the Electric Violin market is a smaller market, but still the hesitation over price seemed entirely reasonable. When the WAV 4 Chinese NS Design models came out at bargain prices, I jumped and bought one and was largely happy with it (see my Amazon Reviews of the WAV 4 and the Fender FV3 vs the NS Design WAV4).
I heard of people stringing violins for viola tuning (CGDA instead of GDAE) and was fascinated with the idea. I ordered a C string and strung it on the end of my FV3 and ran the other strings over a slot, leaving the E string off when I got to the end. I loved the viola tuning, but couldn't find a C string that sounded quite right with the other strings. Then it occurred to me that perhaps the best way to achieve viola tuning is with a real viola.
Now, if one thought that the market for Electric Violins was small, well, the market for Violas is even more constricted. I kept returning to the NS Design, and because the CR Series describes so well in their own promotional literature, and because the On Line Reviews were so favorable, I decided to order an NS Design CR4... after a few drinks, of course.
Amazon often resorts to The Electric Violin Shop for some of these items, and so I went directly to their site. I remembered that months ago I had inquired about ordering a Bridge Electric Violin from their store and was annoyed that my particular island out on the High Seas was not included on their address drop down list... making the order impossible to conduct as per usual. I complained in their Contact Us Box and then quickly forgot about getting the Bridge Violin anyway... the pretty colored ones were all sold out, leaving only the ugly colors available, and not at reduced pricing either... full price for the ugliest things you would ever not hope to see. Anyway, you wouldn't believe what happened! These wonderful people took my harsh suggestions to heart and fixed the addressing problem. When I went to order the NS Design CR4 Viola, there it was, my Island was on the drop down list... which was when I remembered how hard I had been on them (remember I had had a few drinks). Of course, with my order, I included a heart felt apology as well as expressions of my deepest gratitude for appreciating my business and preparing for it.
With orders of that price, the ordinary mails of the United States can not be trusted... it seems that the Ordinary Mail Service can hire thieves to work at much lower rates than honest men and women, and at the end of the day the Ordinary Postal Service doesn't need to worry about delivering quite so much as they would if their low wage employees didn't pick through it all at first. So The Electric Violin Shop uses premium shippers, adding almost $200 to the Order, but my CR4 arrived almost the same day, except that Thanksgiving Day intervened. The Sales Lady had included a nice little hand written note thanking me for my business and wishing me luck. I think I will be a return customer to that particular Electric Violin Shop.
I had read a CR4 Review before which spoke of an NS Design Violin arriving in tune. Well, so did mine. Plugged into my existing Electric Violin settings and sound systems, I was playing in a manner of minutes.
Oh, if you read my older Reviews, you will find that I have had problems supporting the heavier electric violins, that is, just holding them up in a position to play, and they tend to slip slide around a lot. Its all rather distracting and takes a great deal away from the Music. So I did take about 20 minutes to fashion a Violin Choker, patent pending (see my other reviews on the WAV and the Fender FV3), out of a key ring, and key ring clip, and some cotton cloths line rope and cotton string. I clip it through the NS Design Shoulder Rest bracket and it holds the Viola very closely under my chin. The Viola remains so steady, I don't even need to use the chin rest.
The volume knob on the CR4 works well... on some instruments the resistance of the volume potentiometer seems ill selected, as not much actual volume range is covered using the instruments volume knob, and one has to make all of the big volume changes at the amplifier and processor stages.
There are two tuner controls. The first should be labeled "BETTER" and the second one labeled "WORSE"... the first does away with that harsh electric sound, and the second one heaps more of it on. Anyway, the CR4 can probably be dialed in pretty close to whatever it is you are looking for, even before outputting to whatever processors and effects units are awaiting down-line.
Fit and finish is really superb. I knew that the NS Design CR4 had active electronics and so must have had a battery, but did not immediately see where the battery access panel was, or even how to get into the string bay, as I had done with the WAV 4. But eventually the little retainer bracket moveable tab attracted my attention, and when I moved the tab off to the side, the battery and string bay cover fell right off. You know, the entire back panel and battery string cover had fit so well together, I had thought it had been one entire piece. I had actually been set to take a screwdriver to the whole thing.
The wood, body and finger board are excellent and attractive. You know, I confess to using olive oil on my fingers to speed up my fingering and make modulating the strings easier, and this is the first time ever that a new violin has not turned my finger inky black. That means that after their last staining of the fingerboard they had actually taken the time to do a fine sandpapering of the fingerboard... it was so nice and smooth. Usually I have to do that kind of fine detailing myself, but they had done it for me. Thank God, for a change.
Oh, and the strings seem fine. Usually one has to toss that the strings that come with these things, But NS Design used what sound like premium steel chrome wound strings.
I had complained of the WAV4 being stiff and inflexible... not giving much of a sense for player `feel', but the CR4, at least the Viola (I haven't played the CR4 Violin but imagine it is quite similar in all regards), seemed to have flexibility... that when using some strength and force in modulating the strings, the violin actually bends in a bit... a great perception of playability and control... a rewarding `feel' to the instrument. One has to wonder how they did it... apparently the CR4's are not the same thick blocks of wood that the WAV models are.
Now a word on Violas in general. I had heard it said that Violas, being larger, are therefore slower. Well, my Fender FV3 Violin measures from the nut to the bridge for a string length of 12 7/8 inches, while my Viola measures 14 1/4. That is not much of a difference... just ten percent. But it does seem to give me more Tonal Resolution, that is, it's easier to land on exactly the right note sweet spots, so to speak, even if one has to move a bit further to reach them. And when one rolls one's fingers to modulate notes, one can get in a much more vigorous wiggle without worrying so much about over-modulating. Anyway, after having played both Viola and Violin, and not to sound condescending, but the Viola seems more fit for men, while the violin seems better suited for the smaller hands of boys and girls.
Oh, and as far as trading the Violin's high E String for the Viola's low C String ( violins are tuned to GDAE while violas are tuned down to CGDA ), while occasionally the lilting and ethereal E string has its valued uses, particularly when clustered together with other violins in concert, still in most cases that really piercing high string is used only because it is there, and the results are shrill and often clash with the other instrumentation. Bands are often afraid of including an Electric Violin, and only because they fear those wildly high E Strings stabbing into their brains by way of the ears. The Viola, however, with that C String on the low end, can reach some real bassy lows, and one can still finger far enough down on the high end A string to suggest the musical mood and intensity of Going High without actually going so high as to be positively annoying. My feeling is that if Violas became better known, they would certainly become more popular, and would largely replace the violin everywhere but in concert venue.


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FV3 Deluxe Electric Violin Outfit Review

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(More customer reviews)Both of these Electric Violins retail at closer to five hundred dollars than a thousand, which make them both great bargains compared to anything but the really cheap curlicue plastic things one sees for sale online which I've heard aren't really worth the decent strings and bow it would take to really play them. I was shopping for an Electric Violin and liked the glossy photo images of the Fender FV3 but was almost worried about its so low price point when compared to the other Brands out there, notably NS Design Electric Violins which apparently thought that it would take closer to 3 thousand dollars to build an acceptable Electric Violin. But then there came the advent of the NS Design WAV4, also manufactured in China along with the Fender FV3, and priced to take on the Fender FV3 in an even up war where perceived quality would decide the outcome of the sales battle.
Of course, NS Design is a very reputable firm, relatively ancient in the somewhat new field of Electric Violins. Fender, on the other hand, perhaps the most glorious of the electric guitar makers, has had very little presence in the Electric Violin Market, accept for its kind of ugly FV1 which didn't exactly take the Violin World by storm. So I decided to start out by ordering the NS Design WAV4. My first impressions of the NS Design WAV4 have been covered in previous Reviews. But the highlights of those reviews are... what!? No bow! Granted, a new bow, without a good week of being rosined up... seasoned... will simply make it seem that a new violin that comes with it sounds horrible, and so NS Design decided to dodge that bullet simply by not offering a bow. Oh, and the Shoulder Rest - I broke it by trying to make it comfortable... the flexible "Custom" Shoulder Rest I had read about needs to be special ordered, while the stiff hard as a rock shoulder rest is what you get standard with your order. The WAV4 is heavier than a regular violin, which makes it harder to keep in place and to control, and so I fashioned a `Dog Collar' (patent pending) for it, to retain it close to one's neck and throat. That was a great idea... I have subsequently made Dog Collars for even my real violins... one no longer even needs to use the chin rests... the violins stay right where they need to be to be played perfectly well. The Electric Sound of the NS Design WAV4 took a bit of dialing in. Really, Electric Violins can sound absolutely hideous if you just plug them into something and begin to play. What I found that works best, with the equipment I had on hand, was an Alesis Nanoverb Digital Effects Processor which I set on its Non-Linear Chorus setting, cranked up to where it only just begins to get thick and full of echo and then back it off a notch (I think that what the Non Linear Chorus does in effect is take the annoying High Frequency components on the low strings and blends them out while mixing in non-harmonic components from the primary fundamental note so that the final sound is fuller and smoother, while still being a recognizable single note. Using the regular chorus settings brings out what hints at distinct harmonically related notes and chord sounds which could actually conflict with the music one is playing). From Effects Processor I go into a Peavey 6 Mixer - one of the channels with pre-amp, and I dial up the Low and Medium equalizers to 75% of their gain while leaving the High Freq dial to zero. It's doesn't make for a Pure Acoustic Sound, but it is a very progressive sound that is attractive and not annoying. The important thing is that a violin not be annoying.
My Review of the NS Design WAV4 made me sort of famous, on a small scale. It was even picked up and posted on some Blog somewhere. So people started asking me how the NS Design compared to the Fender FV3.
Now, the FV3 has some splendid reviews online, albeit there are a few loud dissenters out there. Anyway, though a bit nervous about it, I ordered a Fender FV3.
Yes, the photos show it to be a lovely violin... perhaps the prettiest of all the electric violins on the market today. But those are just pictures. What I was afraid of was that in reality the actual look would be cheap, artificial and plastic. So I was quite relieved when the package came and I found that it was so very beautiful. The wood work looked like one of their premium signature guitars and it was bordered by this exquisite mother-of-pearl inlay. I had to catch my breath!
It transported me back in time to when I was a child... my mother inherited this antique coffee table. She summoned all the children together to lay down the new rules, which when taken altogether in sum meant that the beautiful coffee table was far more important than the transient goings on of mere children. After all, children would eventually grow up and leave home. But the beautiful coffee table was meant to stay... and to stay in its pristine condition of absolute perfection. In her ordinary life with so many ordinary things, the beautiful coffee table would be a central and special work of beauty... a piece of Heaven in the home place. And now, when I looked at my new FV3 Violin I saw something surely the equal of my mother's precious coffee table. It was one of those eternal moments where the generations could come together, even beyond the grave, and find understanding. But, yes, the FV3 does look a bit like a coffee table... but a very beautiful coffee table.
Oh, and the Fender FV3 case was a hard case, of top quality, with even one of those humidity meter devices built into it... whatever they're good for. And there was a bow. Not the best bow in the World. A few cranks on the bob to tighten it up a bit showed that it was going to curve a little to the right. But, who can't use a spare bow from time to time... even one that wants to point east. But it's much better than no bow at all, which is what NS Design offered for roughly the same price. Oh, and the NS Design case was little more than a cloth bag, with no place to put that Shoulder Rest contraption, unless you wanted to take the whole thing entirely apart... which, really, you don't want to do. Practicing Violin should not be as difficult as assembling a hang glider. So I was putting the NS Design WAV4 in my sock drawer, shoulder rest still attached, and tossed the useless case up into the closet.
Oh, what was I to do with two electric violins? Well, first, I was going to have something of a `First Chair Shoot Out'... a competition. The Winner was to be my Violin, and the loser was to become an Electric Viola... throwing out the little E String and moving the G D and A strings down, with a new C string taking the low string position, that is, tuned to CGDA instead of GDAE.
Before I could start the competition, I made a new `Dog Collar' for the FV3. Remember, one of the biggest complaints about the FV3 online was that it was heavy and would slip out of control. People needed to quit playing so they could put the violin back in position. The Dog Collar held the slightly lighter NS Design WAV4 in place and so it would also hold the Fender FV3 in place.
Then I started tuning up. I was startled to find that the G String was not even a real G String... I think it was another D String. It was simply too flabby at G. Anyway, the first rule for any `affordable' violin that is not specifically set up by the Store's Shop with specified quality strings, is to re-string it. Don't keep a string unless you know what it is. I had re-strung the NS Design, though it was not nearly so bad. For the NS Design I had used Thomastik Superflexibles - steel braid in chrome-steel wrapping (reported to be the mellowest and least shrill of all the steel strings... and I am simply too rough on aluminum synthetic core strings to ever use them... so the best steel strings will have to be good enough for me). And the Superflexibles are great strings, though I found that it might take a day for the G string to mellow out to the same tone as the rest. For the FV3, The American Music Store gave me a set of Rotosound RS6000, steel core chrome-wounds, and I promised to try them out. They took about hour before they stabilized into tune... kind of longish for a steel string, but they ended up sounding perfectly lovely.
But here the Fender FV3 again surprised me. It was not staying in tune. One could see the pegs unwinding themselves like some ghost from the great beyong. The pegs were slipping. Well, it is a good thing I have something of a workshop. I removed the pegs and spun them in some medium grade sandpaper, about 220 grain. After that the pegs held solid... almost too solid. That reminds me to get some of that `peg stuff' for sticky pegs. Anyway, with the pretty gold fine tuners mounted on the regular violin tailpiece of the FV3, the pegs only needed to get within a few notes of tune, and then the fine tuners could handle the rest.
Oh, and the finger board was a bit rough. I like my violin finger boards to be smooth as silk, and so I took some fine grade sandpaper and smoothed it down a bit. I had had to do the same for the NS Design. Also, I've found that most student violins can use a bit of sanding. You see, I use a bit of olive oil on my fingertips to help with my string slide action and have noticed that a lot of new violins will turn my fingers black. So, I guess that much of the perceived roughness on these new violin fingers boards may just be from the black stain finish they use. You see, liquid stain raises the grain of the wood. After any moist staining, every fine wood surface needs a final very fine grade sanding to re-smooth everything down. But one can't expect such attention from these budget factory shops in China (although it only takes a minute) and so one has to do...Read more›

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With such a radical look and a great sound, the FV3 gives the electric violinist a touch of flair that only Fender can provide. It's made from solid flamed maple all over, with ebony fingerboard, chinrest, pegs, and bridge. A bridge-mounted Piezo pickup captures every detail of your playing, and includes passive volume and tone controls to help tailor your sound just right for any occasion. This full outfit includes a cordura covered hard case, horsehair bow, rosin, and a padded shoulder rest.

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