Secrets of the Stradivarius Explained

[Milton Bradley]

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/07/secrets-of-stra.html?npu=1&mbid=yhp

Scientists may finally have discovered the secret of Stradivarius violins.

In a study published yesterday in Public Library of Science ONE, Dutch researchers ran five of the peerless instruments, made in the early 18th century by Italian craftsman Antonio Stradivari and synonymous with harmonic perfection, through a CT scanner.

The resulting three-dimensional X-rays revealed that wood used in Stradivari's violins possessed an exceptionally uniform density, with little variation in growth rings added by trees each season.

Summertime growth typically outpaces wintertime growth, producing broad rings of relatively permeable wood that alternate with narrow, dense winter bands. That differential affects the wood's harmonic qualities.

Fortunately for Stradivari, he lived during the Little Ice Age: trees grew little more in summer than in winter. Hence the uniformly dense wood, hence three centuries of experts baffled by the resonance of Stradivarius violins, which have been variously attributed to varnishes, boiling and submersion in ponds.


Video at link...

[Milton Bradley]

Interesting stuff.


I wonder if anybody will start growing the trees hydroponically in an attempt to recreate what nature does only periodically?


I imagine the market is there for anybody craft enough to achieve the proper results.

[Pookie]

Wooooooo!! I am a lover of musical instruments and that makes perfect sense to me. Wow. Too bad more of violins produced in those times haven't survived.
Purrs,
Pookie

[BoogyMan]

Extremely interesting read Milton, thanks for posting that.

[Milton Bradley]

Extremely interesting read Milton, thanks for posting that.


Heh, I thought so as well.


I had seen a television show about this very subject, but their analysis basically ended being like all the rest, just speculation, and myth. I believe they only had one instrument to fiddle with ( pun intended ), and I don't believe they ran the same test on it.


This may have finally gotten to the bottom of the puzzle.


How would a Gibson hollow body guitar sound made from similar wood? Mmmmm... I'd love to know. Perhaps some day...

[Buck Laser]

First-growth wood is being recovered from swamps and deep fresh water in several parts of the world, including northern Wisconsin and New Zealand that's far superior to the wood available today. Much of this wood is from logs headed for the sawmill that sank in the holding areas. Deep immersion in fresh water or a swamp protects wood from decay by keeping oxygen away from it. I've read about the process of recovery and drying, and how fine craftsmen are clamoring for the wood. I've seen luthiers mentioned specifically as seeking the wood.

One part of the uniqueness of the wood Stradavari and Guarneri used, as I understand it, was that the wood tended to grow in mountainous terrain, thus contributing to its density and slow growth. That would lead me to believe that the logs were small and perhaps unsuitable for larger projects like furniture.