Hints for Area Tuning the Violin

by Keith Hill

Originally published in American Lutherie #1, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000

See also,
Area Tuning the Violin by Keith Hill



In my article “Area Tuning the Violin” I presented my discovery of one of the theoretical principles governing the acoustical quality of the violins made by Stradivarius and his numerous Italian contemporaries. Because I believe that the area-tuning principle is the most important of all the acoustical principles pertinent to violin making, I deemed it best to present it in isolation.

I would be less than open with you if I did not say that the American Acoustical Society and the Catgut Acoustical Society both rejected the worthiness of the area-tuning principle. I feel that their reasons were full of vested self-interest. I tell you what I told them: Paying attention to flexibility of free plates is a waste of time and attention. Consider the following points.

First, thousands of violins have been made using this notion for the last century, yet no consistently superior results have been produced.