Good one Scotty, well played and just the right amount of reverb imo. i play this one in C for some reason? and dig in a bit more. (prolly cause i play it solo ) . Si bheag si mhor, another name for it is "The Cuckoo".  i love solo fiddlin it just emphasizes the fiddlers intentions.

Thanks pete, I have tried it myself in different keys, but I can only make it sound half decent in this one ;) I am on the lookout for a different fiddle,, this one is only a cheap hidersine one, and I struggle to hear certain notes on it, hence the headphones, Was looking at a yamaha yev 104, the amp I am putting it through is a roland cube, which I used to use for gigging with the guitar, alongside an alligator amp, which I dont think you can even get these days.

Don't know about leccy fiddles. When i had to use one, i bought a "Bridge" fiddle that was meant to be top of the range, and a Trace Elliot amp with all the bells and whistles. Graphic and  Parametric eq, Notch filter, 20 reverb and digi delay settings etc. Still sounded like a kazoo to me. But i could be LOUD with the Drums, Base, Banjo etc all amplified, till it gave me tinnitus. But the punters in the plastic Irish pubs where happy.

Before that i was happy with a decent electret condenser mic and a combo amp for small gigs.

Best of all was a good fiddle and a good mic about 2 or 3 feet away and a quiet room.....Or no amplification at all, even better!

But i think you've got a decent sound with what you've got.

'Plastic Irish pubs', lol made me laugh that, I was in Liverpool only this afternoon, there are now more Irish pubs there than in Dublin, but the tourists love it, and so do the scousers taking their money, and they do it with a wink and a smile just like in Dublin, so everyones happy.
Got tinnitus myself, got mine though working in a factory, and a lot of scars and stitches from glass as well.
I might give the mic a go, believe it or not I hadnt even thought of that, may sound ok

Even with a 'money is no object' budget, I've never played an electric fiddle that didn't sound like one. I;ve tried them all. The Band, Bridge, Vipers, Barcus Berry, all sorts of pickups, even one thing that turned the strings into a version of a 'pick up'. Nothing beats a high quality condenser mic, good EQ and a competent sound man. IMHO.

Wrench, I am now definately thinking of a quality mic as you and pete say.
I like the sound of my acoustic fiddle under the ear, but also like the reverb from an amp, which gives it a churchy effect, so maybe money would be better spent on the mic.
I could actually kick myself as I gave away a great Shure mic a few years back to a friend of mine in a band, a unidyne 3 who used it for vocals, which is what I used it for originally, I shouldnt have been so hasty maybe.

A good small diaphragm condenser that uses phantom power. But who knows nowadays?

All the pro's seem to be using a DPA condenser mic which IMO is a selected and tested condenser mic (Electret), with a good pre amp circuit that uses the phantom power and have a balanced output. Others also, like the Bartlett etc.. There are a lot of cheaper electret mics also that say they are "condenser" mics but are not really true condenser mics, but electrets..

A good small diaphragm condenser microphone that uses phantom power, and has a good transformer balanced output is the way to go in my opinion, or an incredible "Dynamic" microphone (which is inherently balanced), and an expensive well designed pre amp.

The other way to go is the modern pre-processed electret or digital microphone as used on expensive phones etc.

@Doug will tell you what to get mic wise. But i bet it wont be cheap!

Unidyne was a good vocal mic for the stage, a sm57 would be better for fiddle imo. Neither really studio quality mics, but good and robust enough for the stage.

DPA's are certainly not cheap at $700 a pop. If you're performing and will make that back relatively quickly, its a great investment in your sound. If you're sitting home and making recordings for funnzies, maybe not the best choice.

Pete thanks for the info, been out of the loop for a good few years concerning mics and such, and never. in conjunction with fiddle, so its all very interesting to me.
I have just been doing a bit of recording with a teac 8 track I bought a year or so ago, which you can hold in one hand, technology has come on incredibly. We were recorded on a Tascam 8 track many years ago which was about 6 feet long lol, and it was on tape as well.

Wrench, just for home use this. I was in a band years ago, we didnt play this type of music though, it was bluesy rock, so the investment now probably wouldnt be worth it, but I dont know really. Was talking to my luthier in Liverpool yesterday, who isnt mad keen on leccy fiddles, and told me a few downsides to them, so the mic idea would still be on the table, but must admit they are a bit steep