New project idea! - CD rack from cello... *LINK*

Re: New project idea! - CD rack from cello...

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>Beats our worries about painted panther saws all hollow (sorry - couldn't resist the pun).

Bill, who had a good buddy in h.s. who was (and probably, since she went off to college to be a music major, still is) a cello player

Re: New project idea! - CD rack from cello...

Jim Shaver Oakville, Ont

>Hi John,

I know, I cringed...oh that would have been a terrible loss.

Take care,

Jim

Re: New project idea! - CD rack from cello...

Mark Harrison -- in Sydney, Australia

>Thank goodness she isn't clueless! I like her attitude though. She has a good idea with what to do with the reward money.

Re: New project idea! - CD rack from cello... *LINK*

Jonathan Peck - N.Y.

>This got me to thinking a little bit, not of tools, but of the great Cremonese violin makers. Was it magic varnish, superior craftsmanship, or slow growth dense wood from the forest of the violins that make these instruments so sought after by the greatest players? So why do old instruments sound better?

It would seem that there were a set of circumstances that to date are imposible to re-create to produce instruments of such fine tonal quality. Much the same can be said of oldtools, or antique furniture.

Stadivari made more than 1,100 instruments, of which more than 600 survive today. This includes the most celebrated violin in the world, "The Messiah". A majority of these instruments are in the hands of "users" as well as "collectors". The conditions do not exist whereby these instruments can be re-created by contemporary means, only restored, and appreciated.

If your interested......research is now pointing towards the phenomenon known as the Maunder Minimum - a unique climate condition between the years AD 1645-1715 in which reduced solar activity lowered temperatures creating longer winters and cooler summers. These conditions produced wood that had slower, more even growth. Combined with environmental setting ("Forest of the Violins" in the Parco Naturale Paneveggio in the eastern part of Trentino, Italy) known to produce fir trees of resonance "Only trees that have grown at higher elevations on North facing slopes (and perhaps in thin, nutrient poor soils) have the slow growth and dense wood grain that help instill a superior tone and brilliance in violins"

After more than a century of vigorous debate, the question of modern makers reproducing a violin of the same tonal quality remains highly contentious, provoking strongly held but divergent views among players, violin makers, and scietists alike. All of the greatest violinists of modern times certainly believe it to be true, and invariably perform on violins by Stradivari or Guarneri in preference to modern instruments.

It is important to recognize that the sound of the great Italian instruments we hear today is very different from the sound they would have made in Stradivari's time. Almost all Cremonese instruments underwent extensive restoration and "improvement" in the 19th century.

Skilled violin makers optimize the tone of an instrument during the construction process. They begin by selecting a wood of the highest possible quality for the front and back plates, which they test by tapping with a hammer and judging how well it "rings".

One reason for the excellent tone of the best violins is the attention top players give to the violin set-up. Rather like the way in which a plane is tuned to get the best performance

If you think saws that cut on the pull stroke vs. saws that cut on the push stroke, the las vs the standard smoother and electrozapping are hotly contested topice, check out this attacked link.


Science and the Stradivarius

A Saw Screams at Midnight

Roger Nixon

>by Carl Reiner. Yep Carl Reiner wrote a humorus woodworking book back in the '50's. One of the project plans is how to turn a Stradivarius violin into a planter.

Don't miss this opportunity

Roy from Cincy

>This is a great opportunity for the DIY network. They could make it into a trivet. They make everything into a trivet. A cello probably would be awkward sitting on the kitchen counter, but it would have great insulating qualities. All that dense old growth wood on top and bottom and the huge air gap between. Think of the R value!