To achieve the low down metal Southern Fried Rock Fiddle tone, you need to use Octave Baritone strings (Super Sensitive brand) on your electric fiddle; effectively turning it into a Chin-Cello. In order to bow the extremely thick Octave Baritone strings, you will need a long-tailed German-style double bass bow. French style bass bows (the conventional short-tailed ones) are heavier and not suitable for fast fiddling on a Chin-Cello. If you intend to play live onstage, your best bet is to get a Line 6 Pod X3 Live and output it straight to the PA system, or to an *Acoustic* amplifier for a rocking good time. Let the distortion effects pedal box color your tone to make it sound crunchy but yet rich and smooth. Acoustic amplifiers work best with electric fiddles. If you intend to record in a studio, or simply play for yourself at home, your best bet is still to get the Line 6 Pod X3 Live, because you can plug in headphones and connect it via USB to a computer for recording into a DAW software (digital audio workstation) like Garageband. Hope this is helpful to you.

Click here to download a free ebook of Southern Fried Hard Rocking Fiddle tunes (written by me in easy-to-read fiddle tabs). Happy Fiddling! (Shawn@HeavyMetalViolin.com)