Violin Forum/Message Board

[John Cadd]

I started out thinking the plates would work best with thicker centres and thinner edges . But famous violins show all sorts of different patterns .Maybe the question should be --"What part of the violin makes the most sound?" I suggested using a laser with a tube to aim at areas of a violin .The lasers would record movements in areas without the confusion of a microphone .That could be translated to an oscilloscope for analysis .Then we would know where the sound was coming from exactly .It may be important to get the sound made before vibrations get to the ribs otherwise that would make the violin body vibrate .Mr Darnton would say that vibration would be a negative .But one violin I made would jump into life on the first note . But it sounded fine too .
Try to imagine vibrations moving away from the bridge and what they do as they travel outwards.Does thin wood make more noise than thick wood? The answer is Yes .

Too thin equals too loud .
Too thick is not loud enough .

.Somewhere in between is better .Better means ---what sound you prefer . Tone quality is all mixed up with this . Questions about tone are harder to answer .

[John Cadd]

So do you want all thin or all thick? Why would all anything be best?Maybe guess how much to make thick and mix in a little thin as well . Or vice versa . Stradivari spent years trying all sorts of combinations . The opposite attitude in making would be the many makers capable of good violins who simply tried to arrange the external appearance for selling and decided the most important part --the belly or top could be almost perfect externally and the inside surface left like trash and probably sounded like trash as well . They were working to a deadline or maybe just lazy.
Am amateur might as well try to achieve something worthwhile by thinking about how a violin works and doing sensible experiments which would take a professional too long to make it pay money .
Chinese ready made violins in the white(no varnish) would save the labour of repeating the largest part of the work .That takes away the biggest excuse for not finding out how the things work .Try different tops and backs until it all makes sense.Take off the top and fit a different one .Same with the backs .

[John Cadd]

In a Veritasium film about the secrets of Synchonisation there is enough to jog your mind into exploring how or why a violin works as it does . Too little synchronisation would cause a heart attack (in a human --not a violin ).Too much synchronisation will cause a bridge to collapse. Between these two situations is our inability to understand the workings of the Economy . Watch the Veritasium film and see if the scattered thickness patterns in a violin would give enough synchro or too much .Would the violin back become the plank of wood making 3 metronomes (set at different speeds ) become synchonised ?