Significant Characteristics of Good Violins and Other Wooden Musical Instruments

Abstract

The acoustical characteristics of musical instruments depend greatly on the material from which they are constructed. In wood, damping for transverse vibrations is relatively low at low frequencies and increases relatively rapidly at the higher frequencies. As a consequence, wooden instruments have relatively pronounced low-frequency transients and are low in high-overtone content. Because of their pronounced transients. they can be easily located in the orchestra; their sound is soft and agreeable because of the damped high overtones. Old wood has particularly low damping at low frequencies, and more damping than recent wood at higher frequencies. Because of the low damping at low frequencies, old violins usually have much better carrying power than new violins. Varnishing increases the damping at high frequencies and may render new instruments soft and agreeable, but it cannot make up for the greater carrying power of the older instruments. Since the main feature of a good violin is its carrying power in the orchestra, judgment of individual violins in solo leads necessarily to wrong conclusions. It is not accidental that bell metal has absorption characteristics similar to those of wood. Interesting experiences with musical instruments are discussed in this paper.