Neck Resonance

[Don Noon]

1 hour ago, A432 said:

Don: they used baked wood?  

No, they did not, as far as we know.  However, they built violins that are now 300 years old.  That is something impossible to do for any living maker.  Processing the wood is a way to (kindof, maybe, but probably not quite) get some age effect in a short period of time and seems to do some beneficial acoustic things.  I do believe that natural aging is a bit different, but have no way to find out exactly what the differences might be.

Solving the problem in terms of understanding is one thing.  That doesn't mean one is free to physically solve it, due to insurmountable limitations.  And it doesn't mean everyone would believe it, even if the theoretical solution actually happens to be correct.

[LCF]

On 6/7/2026 at 8:10 PM, A432 said:

In other words, since it cannot be modelsd using dialectical materialist axioms, it cannot be real. Even though everyone hears it. 

Hears it?

Or feels it?

 

PS to clarify, I am meaning the haptic experience of the bow. 

Edited June 8 by LCF
PS

[Michael Darnton]

@LCF. I can rephrase that if you'd like: "Just because deaf people can't hear it and people with no sense of touch can't feel it, doesn't mean it isn't happening. "  :-) 

This is a common problem discussing the subtleties of violin behavior: there's a percentage of behavior that most people , even if they happen to think that they know everything, won't get. I like what Solti told the Chicago Symphony: "Most of the audience doesn't understand what [we] are doing--we do it for ourselves."

[Dorisch]

The thing about the neck pushed on objects was not to make them louder, but just a lack of wanting to hold the violin up long times. This is well documented and still visible in the low angles of holding the violin in some fiddling environments.

 

One also has to distinguish between the neck itself vibrating or just its anchor point making it “swing around”. As said before, the eigenfrequencies and mass is way off to have much influence for both cases. 
However, it having negligible influence does not mean that it can’t transmit vibrations, just that it is not influencial to the sound. Just as the table next to the played violin also vibrates with the sound, even if it is far off his eigenfrequencies.

As a player it sometimes feels like the scroll is extremely resonant when we put our hands on it while playing, but that is mostly a lack of sensory possibilities to distinguish between reference points and our brain going nuts about that.

Guitars are a whole different story, there the neck can basically preload the body  by twisting the neck what many players do accidentally. However, they also do not “sound through the neck”.

 

Comparing it to the bow stick phenomenon is utter bs (sorry). Of course this has influence with the slip mechanism. But that is not because the stick produces sound or anything, but how the Helmholtz driver works.

[Marty Kasprzyk]

6 hours ago, Dorisch said:

The thing about the neck pushed on objects was not to make them louder, but just a lack of wanting to hold the violin up long times. This is well documented and still visible in the low angles of holding the violin in some fiddling environments.

 

One also has to distinguish between the neck itself vibrating or just its anchor point making it “swing around”. As said before, the eigenfrequencies and mass is way off to have much influence for both cases. 
However, it having negligible influence does not mean that it can’t transmit vibrations, just that it is not influencial to the sound. Just as the table next to the played violin also vibrates with the sound, even if it is far off his eigenfrequencies.

As a player it sometimes feels like the scroll is extremely resonant when we put our hands on it while playing, but that is mostly a lack of sensory possibilities to distinguish between reference points and our brain going nuts about that.

Guitars are a whole different story, there the neck can basically preload the body  by twisting the neck what many players do accidentally. However, they also do not “sound through the neck”.

 

Comparing it to the bow stick phenomenon is utter bs (sorry). Of course this has influence with the slip mechanism. But that is not because the stick produces sound or anything, but how the Helmholtz driver works.

Some players like the lively feel of the neck vibrations.  Attached is a study about this.

The_Role_of_Haptic_Cues_in_Musical_Instrument_Qual.pdf

[Dorisch]

I enjoy them during tuning as well, actually.