Violin Forum/Message Board

[John Cadd]

There is a violin demonstrated in the youtube series from the Taiwan (?) collection that has a very sweet tone but it is much quieter than the others in the collection . Has the reason been pinned down for that ? How much work has been done to understand what happens with sound waves inside a violin? Is a violin ever designed to make the sound come through the soundholes .Or is it left to chance ? Does wood reflect sound ?--Yes. Is sound focussed by the surface shapes ?--Yes .Two easy answers .Sound is also absorbed by wood --But not 100% . Is this basic knowledge put to maximum use ?

[MikeCooper]

I have been reading Librum Segreti de buttegha written sometime in the mid 1700s translated by A. Dipper.
It talks about the axis of focus and how it relates to the curve of the sound plate and the F holes.
Designed correctly the sound reflects off the back plate and out through the F holes. At least that was the thinking in the 18th century.
Also there is a violin pattern, now in the National Music Museum that has the signature of Stradivari on the front and Hieronymus Amati on the back. It has some geometric figures that relate to the axis of focus as well as the center of gravity.

I'm trying to get myself into an 18th century mindset as I prepare for final thicknessing of the back plate rather than use the average of 48 Strads as a guide as I did on the last build.

[John Cadd]

I never heard about that . Maybe that was the "Secret". Part of my thinking going backwards and forwards comes from watching Racing Yachts with blades under the surface . None of the boat itself touching the water . But I stop at carbon fibre violins though .
Yesterday I saw the youtube demo of three Guarneri violins made by three makers and how different they were . More influences .

[John Cadd]

What focusses and radiates a long way? Good example is a lighthouse lamp. That uses a Fresnel lens . If you see some violins with ripply grains on the back the ripples may be affecting the sound waves inside . If you pushed it a bit further and made shaped ridges to send the sound directly to the soundhole ,you can make the back plate more useful . Or fit small internal maple reflectors .Design that with a compass . Much easier in a cello .You can use hard varnish for a better reflection . Just work out the angles .
I need to install a French translation for the very long Maestronet article .

[MikeCooper]

Are you French? I only know a few words of French. Je ne parl pa le Francais.

[John Cadd]

Oh no .I learned a lot of words at school though .Stitching it all together in a sentence is the hard bit . It`s all those apostrophes and bits of words . There is a youtube about talking fast in French that baffled me . But they do that all the time I mentioned this reflection topic on a guitar forum .They know about the Tornavoz ,made of brass . This reflector idea might work in a guitar as it`s a lot bigger and you can reach inside . It would reflect more of what the top was doing .Violin soundholes are harder to work with . I suppose the reflector angle would work better than the natural back plate . Most sound would be absorbed in the deeper recesses .Areas near the soundholes would be heard anyway .It`s an unusual game that will work out it`s own rules like evolution . Basically a fat chance to change anything violin orientated .Maestronet attitudes would kill it stone dead . But Physics is there if you want it .
French translators are easy to install but I don`t trust anything in computers these days .