It has been a over a decade since Transmission Sickness has played together, but I am sure that I can still play all of the songs.

Actually, I played an acoustic violin. I had a piezo pickup and a Morley Deluxe Phaser pedal. The pedal was given to me by a friend, known as the Professor, who did some computer consulting work for Morley, was keyboard player, and was pretty much responsible for getting me into Prog Rock. My dad gave me the pickup which clamped to side of the bridge by the G string. The sound was fine as long as I stuck to the lower strings, but it had a poor tone in the upper ranges as well as a retro piezo quack. Since I was not that good of a player and didn't know much about this electric stuff, I simply masked the sound with the various effects, mainly reverb, from Clark's effects box.

That violin looks pretty cool. If I actually played more, I would be tempted. A basic problem I have is that I never learned the proper way to hold a violin. I have tried all kinds of chin and shoulder rests, but never feel like I am securely balancing my violin between my shoulder and chin. Thus I use my left hand to help support it and this has devastating effects on my vibrato, my shifting, and causes all kind of needless tension in my hand. This violin looks like it should help take care of that balancing problem. Cool.

I take it the piezo pickup wasn't necessarily intended to be used with a violin, or was it? With electric violins so common now there probably isn't such a market for a good pickup. Personally, I think you should go with the electric and never turn back. That is, unless the Foot-Notes need a fiddle player, and you're feeling Nordic.

Where on earth do I buy an ergonomically designed violin?