I certainly neglected to mention banjos, which have no soundboard bracing, and are LOUD, and the 8 string guitar of Paul Galbraith, made by David Rubio, which has a tailpiece to hold the strings (I have no idea what the internal bracing of that guitar is, but Paul Galbraith states very clearly that increasing volume was a high priority in the project). The point is that bracing, whether ladder or fan, that gives strength to the top so that it does not come apart due to string tension, suppresses vibration and thus volume and sustain. So the bracing could be minimized if the bridge/top did not need to cary the tension of the strings.
A. John Mardinly, Ph.D., P.E. On Jun 30, 2019, at 8:09 AM, ido66667 <[1]ishdai...@gmail.com> wrote: I don't think the main reason is the lack of frets. Fretless acoustic guitars, nylon strings or not, are both fretless and plucked and their sound is decent, both with regards to tone and sustain. On Sun, 30 Jun 2019, 16:59 Miles Dempster, <[1][2]miles.demps...@gmail.com> wrote: Violins, violas etc. don't have frets. When plucked (rather than bowed) the string vibration is dampened by the soft fingertip at the stopped end. I don't think that the sustain depends significantly on how the bridge connects to the soundboard. Miles On Jun 30, 2019, at 9:01 AM, Edward Mast <[2][3]nedma...@new-old-mail.cs.dartmouth.edu> wrote: 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 <[3][4]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 [4][5]https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.cs.dar tmouth.edu_-7Ewbc_lute-2Dadmin_index.html&d=DwIBAg&c=l45AxH-kUV29SRQ usp9vYR0n1GycN4_2jInuKy6zbqQ&r=VLPJ8OE-c_C6joGeE1ftlvxMmQPq9N6mpKZON BRt90E&m=eqcReZc_h0V-oNUhDyGAxeTGNr5XaMO2xL6rAqw4bBk&s=E4t5dhShK6Htw vMulobNgvr1D1t4_18SiOUonYqrSUE&e= -- References 1. [6]mailto:miles.demps...@gmail.com 2. [7]mailto:nedma...@new-old-mail.cs.dartmouth.edu 3. [8]mailto:john.mardi...@asu.edu 4. [9]https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.cs.dartmouth .edu_-7Ewbc_lute-2Dadmin_index.html&d=DwIBAg&c=l45AxH-kUV29SRQusp9vYR0n 1GycN4_2jInuKy6zbqQ&r=VLPJ8OE-c_C6joGeE1ftlvxMmQPq9N6mpKZONBRt90E&m=eqc ReZc_h0V-oNUhDyGAxeTGNr5XaMO2xL6rAqw4bBk&s=E4t5dhShK6HtwvMulobNgvr1D1t4 _18SiOUonYqrSUE&e= -- References 1. mailto:ishdai...@gmail.com 2. mailto:miles.demps...@gmail.com 3. mailto:nedma...@new-old-mail.cs.dartmouth.edu 4. mailto:john.mardi...@asu.edu 5. https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.cs.dartmouth.edu_-7Ewbc_lute-2Dadmin_index.html&d=DwIBAg&c=l45AxH-kUV29SRQusp9vYR0n1GycN4_2jInuKy6zbqQ&r=VLPJ8OE-c_C6joGeE1ftlvxMmQPq9N6mpKZONBRt90E&m=eqcReZc_h0V-oNUhDyGAxeTGNr5XaMO2xL6rAqw4bBk&s=E4t5dhShK6HtwvMulobNgvr1D1t4_18SiOUonYqrSUE&e= 6. mailto:miles.demps...@gmail.com 7. mailto:nedma...@new-old-mail.cs.dartmouth.edu 8. mailto:john.mardi...@asu.edu 9. https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.cs.dartmouth.edu_-7Ewbc_lute-2Dadmin_index.html&d=DwIBAg&c=l45AxH-kUV29SRQusp9vYR0n1GycN4_2jInuKy6zbqQ&r=VLPJ8OE-c_C6joGeE1ftlvxMmQPq9N6mpKZONBRt90E&m=eqcReZc_h0V-oNUhDyGAxeTGNr5XaMO2xL6rAqw4bBk&s=E4t5dhShK6HtwvMulobNgvr1D1t4_18SiOUonYqrSUE&e=