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As I was staring recently at tables of measurements of some rather ‘Nice’ Cremonese instruments, it struck me that the numbers that make up a violin are (or could in theory be) prime. For example: Body length: 353 Upper bout width: 167 Center bout width: 109 Lower bout width: 211 Distance between upper eyes of FFs: 41 Distance of lower lobe of FFs from edge: 13 Mensure: 193 (if you’re Del Gesu), or 197 (if you’re making the ‘Soil’) Width of scroll: 41 Narrowest point of scroll: 11 Length of scroll: 103 Neck length: 13 (cm) Coincidence? I think not! Is it a coincidence that the moon is made of cheese? Is it a coincidence that the Sun is the center of the galaxy, nay, universe?! I think not!
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I have very often discussed different aspects of violins and violin trim/setup with my son Sebastian (http://www.sebastiansilen.com/) a professional violinist. One aspect that we have discussed is the response of the violin, how fast and accurately does a tone start/catch. If the violin reacts well to the intentions of the violinist then the player is able to use more of his "mental energy" to produce music in stead of continuously forcing the instrument to behave in the intended manner. When a tone is played the process starts with the bow touching the string which causes the string to vibrate and then starts different vibrations all over the violin. It seems obvious that a violin with thick plates will require more energy input before an audible tone is generated. After discussions with Sebastian we think that measuring the response of pizzicato could be an easy and fairly objective way of measuring the response of a violin. The pictures below show pizzicato on the open G-string for the Strad #1 I am working on presently, an Alto violin (Edmund Paulus Markneykirchen) and my first Guarneri. The Paulus Alto obviously has fairly thick plates and at least so far it looks like the assumption of a slow response and high damping with thick plates is true. Birds eyes Strad pizzicato on G-string. Maximum amplitude reached in 5 - 8 ms. Notice the sustain compared to the Paulus alto. Compared to the Guarnerius it seems like there still is work to do both on the top and the bottom. Alto violin pizzicato on G-string (Edmund Paulus Markneukirchen). The maximum amplitude is reached in roughly 18 ms. Notice the fast damping. Pizzicato on the G-string on my first Guarnerius copy. The maximum amplitude is reached in 5 - 8 ms. Notice the sustain compared to the Paulus alto violin. Are there better/easier ways of measuring the response of a violin? Comments are welcome. The original article in swedish is http://larsil2009.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/fiolbygge-experiment-med-omojligt-material-8/ .
