A good question, Dr. Mardinly. What one notices, though, is that when violins, violas, cellos and string basses have their strings plucked rather than bowed, the sustain of the note is short (string basses doing by far the best, and violins doing the worst with pizzicato - plucked notes). It thus seems to me that the method of having the strings stretched over a non-fixed bridge as they are for the bowed instruments, works very well for transmitting the vibrations of the strings to the instrument when they are bowed, and not so well at all when they’re plucked. The fixed bridges with strings attached as on guitars, lutes, etc. seems to be the best way of transmitting the vibrations to the instrument when the strings are plucked, rather than bowed. A luthier’s explanation of this would be welcome. Ned
> On Jun 29, 2019, at 3:50 PM, John Mardinly <john.mardi...@asu.edu> wrote: > > Spot on explanation of what physics does to sound boards. The big question > that I have never had answered is why do plucked string instruments have the > string tension carried by the soundboard itself, instead of having the string > tension carried by the body of the instrument via a tailpiece the way > violins, violas, cellos and string basses do? > > A. John Mardinly, Ph.D., P.E. > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
