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old video 1923 on violin making in the us


saintjohnbarleycorn

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Can anyone expand a little on that plate tuning method with the sand? Enjoyed it all

I'd think that would be the finished product.  I used saw dust when I tried that once.  I'd probably still do it if I had a low buck bow to use for that but tried a homemade bow instead using dacron strands - didn't work as well.

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Can anyone expand a little on that plate tuning method with the sand? Enjoyed it all

 

Chladni pattern plate tuning.  In the video, he's using a bow to excite the M2 plate mode.  Most folks today would use a loudspeaker and a signal generator if they wanted to do that kind of thing.

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Chladni pattern plate tuning.  In the video, he's using a bow to excite the M2 plate mode.  Most folks today would use a loudspeaker and a signal generator if they wanted to do that kind of thing.

 

Thereby also exciting other modes - correct?

 

I spoke with Carleen Hutchins quite extensively, many years ago, (via phone) about this very topic.She was very honest and forthright woman. Still, on the other hand, I spoke with many other makers and players along the way also, as I had slightly different opinions about how we came to make the instrument voice exactly what we'd like to hear, and why and how the corpus worked.

 

Pretty much everyone else I spoke with (oh - those many eons ago) who had experience with her instruments - found them "wanting"... tone-wise - sometimes in the extreme.

 

??

Unfortunately I never got to hear or play one of hers, for myself.

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As a luthier and a student of Carleen Hutchins, I was amazed at what this filmed showed regarding what we now call "free-plate tuning." Like many "discoveries," we find out that much more was known much earlier than we believed. Since the first motion pictures with sound appeared in the 1920s, and this film was "approved" by the National Board of (Movie) Review, formed in 1909, we can pretty well determine when the film was produced.

 

The major free-plate modes of a violin (1, 2, and 5) can all be excited by bowing. No electricity or special equipment needed. Seeing it in the film shows unarguably that this form of plate tuning has been used for at least a century, and probably even longer, in the shops of violin makers and out of the realm of scientific hypothesis.

 

Seeing that Rembert Wurlitzer was a student in Carlisle's shop goes a long way toward explaining why Hutchins received a friendly welcome at Wurlitzer's 40 years later. Wurlitzer already knew about the process and probably appreciated its value.

 

Now, all we have to do is find out the name of Carlisle's teacher!

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Seeing that Rembert Wurlitzer was a student in Carlisle's shop goes a long way toward explaining why Hutchins received a friendly welcome at Wurlitzer's 40 years later. Wurlitzer already knew about the process and probably appreciated its value.

 

Now, all we have to do is find out the name of Carlisle's teacher!

I think I remember from one of the old directories that he was initially self-taught, from Ashland, Ky.  I think his formal training came from being employed at Wurlitzer in Cincinnati. 

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