Musical instrument lumber recovery from Romanian resonance spruces

Abstract

Increasing demand for resonance spruce has led to gradual depletion of resources in traditional areas. Consequently, to meet the need for raw material to manufacture musical instruments, sorting has become the key operation of exploitation. This study was completed on the largest Romanian resonance wood resource, to maximize outputs of flitches for violin, cello, and double bass instruments by optimizing traditional requirements regarding quality of raw material with its current level. Ten resonance spruces were felled and gradually turned into semi-manufactured musical instruments. The material was analysed for defects in all stages of conversion. The frequency of zero defective samples was 60%. Evolution of defects along the trees indicated the tree section from 1 m to 12 m above the ground for musical instruments manufacturing. Output in terms of flitches ranged from one tree to another: between 19 and 32% if calculated from logs volume, and between 13 and 30% if calculated from volume of the standing trees. The results advocated for relaxing traditional requirements on resonance logs, at least regarding buttress and knottiness. Thus, recommendations are made, from the perspective of increasing efficiency, on the admissibility of defects and size diversification of musical instruments.