It is generally accepted that every violin has different tone quality and color. The best violins are made by experienced luthiers who craft each instrument with precision to produce the best possible tonal quality. The quality of the finished violin is dependent upon both the specific shape and the quality of the wood used in the construction. Because the hard wood used in violin construction is inhomogeneous, the composition and structure of material used is critical to the final product. The vibrational characteristics of the violin components are unique and therefore optimized for each individual violin. Although measuring how the material affects the resonance changes of the unattached front and back plates has been done for many years, the results have been difficult to quantify. Using an accelerometer attached to a free plate, we have developed a two-dimensional method of analyzing how these vibrational modes of the plates change on the surface of the plate. The vibrational movements of the components are recorded and the relative amplitudes and frequencies mapped. Using this method, the effects of chemical treatment on unattached violin plates can directly measure the changes in the tone quality and vibrational modes in comparison to the untreated plates. The results from the test runs done using the method described above will be discussed.

Method development for analyzing vibrational modes of unattached violin plates

253rd National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.