As a habitual lurker on this list I have read this exchange with interest and it sent me to my copy of the sixth edition (1962) of the classic book "The Physics of Music" by Alexander Wood. This produced an observation that is not directly relevant, but perhaps interesting nevertheless, that the way the violin bridge is constructed facilitates the transmission of vertical, rather than longitudinal vibrations to the soundboard. Those of us who haven't looked recently might need to be reminded that the violin bridge has a pattern of cutouts that give it a narrow waist (and therefore flexibility in the longitudinal direction) and two feet, one of which is above the soundpost and therefore acts as a pivot and the other of which transmits the vibrations to the soundboard (except, I suppose, if you have an authentic early violin without a soundpost). According to this account the flexible waist tends to absorb the longitudinal vibrations and the foot to transmit the vertical vibrations.
Eric Crouch On 28 Aug 2006, at 11:42, Charles Browne wrote: > > The following link to the proceedings of a 1983 conference of > Swedish guitar > makers is quite interesting and there is a reference to the acoustic > differences between plucking 'vertically' or 'in parallel' to the > soundboard. A > vertical 'pluck' producing a strong ,but short, tone and a parallel > 'pluck > produces a weaker but more sustained tone. Jonsson makes the point > that the > direction of pluck is normally a mixture of these two extremes and the > resulting combination gives both the initial 'attack' and the ensuing > 'sustain'. There is a lot of background research information > including Chladni > Interferograms. > The whole publication is about 106 pages long! > have a good read! > Charles > > http://www.speech.kth.se/music/publications/kma/papers/kma38- > ocr.pdf#search=%22 > Jonsson%20Acoustics%20for%20guitar%20makers%22 > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
