Posted on January 13, 2010May 27, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Circles in Classical Violin Design Letter: Circles in Classical Violin Design by Jim Blilie Originally published in American Lutherie #89, 2007 Hi Tim, I’m sure Michael Darnton has infinitely more experience with violin design and a much more sensitive eye for the form of violins than I do (See The Power of Circles). That being said, I was really bothered by his article. Mr. Darnton writes that his theory of circles in the design of classic Cremonese violins seems to be the only one that will produce aesthetically pleasing shapes. I have no doubt that circles were used extensively in the design of violins, since they are much easier to draw than parabolic, hyperbolic, or elliptical curves. But he goes on to say that essentially all the extant violins of the height of the Cremonese school do not follow his plan. He posits various reasons for this, but in engineering, if the data don’t match your theory, you go back to the drawing board and find a new theory! Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 11, 2010May 27, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Acoustics of Wood by Voichita Buchur Review: Acoustics of Wood by Voichita Buchur reviewed by Nicholas Von Robison Originally published in American Lutherie #57, 1999 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Five, 2008 Acoustics of Wood Voichita Buchur CRC Press, 1995 ISBN 0849348013 Voichita Buchur’s book Acoustics of Wood is a synthesis of over fifty years of work by the scientific community into the physics of how this complex material responds to vibrational wave stimuli. With almost 800 references into the literature and about ten years from inception to its being published in 1995, it is a tremendous resource for the luthier’s understanding of his/her main material. I don’t get the feel from the text that the author is a maker herself, even though she is a member of the Catgut Acoustical Society. The book is heavily weighted towards violin family instruments, but this doesn’t make the book any less valuable to guitar makers. After a short, well written, general discussion on the anatomical structure of wood (macro, micro, and molecular), a brief outline is presented dividing the book into three major sections. Part One explores the physical phenomena associated with the effects of acoustic waves in forests (windbreaks to attenuate noise) and architectural acoustics (concert halls, office buildings, restaurants) with wood being used as a construction material and insulator in conjunction with other nonwood materials. A survey of six European concert halls and their geometrical, acoustical, and construction data is pretty interesting. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 11, 2010May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Research Papers in Violin Acoustics 1975–1993 Review: Research Papers in Violin Acoustics, 1975-1993 edited by Carleen Hutchins and Virginia Benade Reviewed by David Hurd Originally published in American Lutherie #59, 1999 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Five, 2008 Research Papers in Violin Acoustics 1975–1993 Carleen Maley Hutchins, Editor Virginia Benade, Associate Editor Acoustical Society of America, ISBN 1563966093 It is with some trepidation that I pen this, my first book review for American Lutherie. As I noted to Tim Olsen, “But I’ve never made or even played a violin. How can I review such books and do them justice?” “Well,” he replied, “most of our readers are in the same position. And, having written the review, you can keep the books.” So began several months of fascinated reading of this two-volume set of violin research papers. A little over half of the papers in this collection are from the Journal of the Catgut Acoustical Society, Series 1 or 2 and the Society Newsletter. Both the Society and the journal are still alive, well, and active in mostly violin family instrument research. The remainder of the articles come from such technical journals as: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Acustica, Journal of the Acoustical Society of Japan, Journal of Audio Engineering, Journal of the Violin Society of America, Scientific American, Wood Science and Technology, Acoustics Australia, Acta Metallica, Music Perception, American Journal of Physics, Interdisciplinary Science Review, Strad, and Physics Today. Papers from the proceedings of several conferences on acoustics and modal analysis are also represented. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 11, 2010May 29, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Replying to Keith Hill’s Opinion Column Letter: Replying to Keith Hill's Opinion Column by David J. Cohen, Ph.D. Originally published in American Lutherie #64, 2000 Dear Tim: I’m led to wonder at the origin of some of Keith Hill’s ideas in his Opinion column in AL#63. In his first paragraph, he divided practitioners of lutherie and other crafts into those who love the craft — “good guys” — and those who love being involved in the craft — “bad guys.” I think such questioning of motives is divisive. If I was put off by his first paragraph, his third and sixth paragraphs got to me personally. As a lifelong chemist, chemical educator, and avocational aficionado of musical acoustics and lutherie, I did take umbrage at his labeling of acoustical physics as “pseudo-science.” So I want to be careful not to attack him personally. He expressed his opinion well. I think his opinion deserves a response that is considered and not angry. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 11, 2010May 20, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Violin String Tension Letter: Violin String Tension by Ernest Nussbaum Originally published in American Lutherie #9, 1987 Dear Tim: I’d like to point out that the article “Fiddle Facts” contains at least two non-facts. 1) The author says that raising the pitch of a violin’s “A” string to 442 (presumably from 440) is an increase of 0.05%. Wrong: it’s 0.5%. 2) More serious: He says that string tension is thereby increased by 10%. He should have said 1%. (Raising the frequency increases tension according to the square of the raise, i.e., (442/440)2 which is 1.009 or about 1.01 — therefore 1% higher. Maybe it’s bad for old violins to replace gut strings with steel. On ’cellos it seems to do no harm in most cases.
