Violin bridges (was The Soundboard according to McFerrin)

Richard Brekne Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no
Sat, 05 Jan 2002 15:04:59 +0100


Phillip L Ford wrote:

> Actually I think that a violin bridge is more illustrative of Ron's position
> than your own.  If the violin top is being activated by compression
> waves then what difference would it make what the bridge looked like?
> It could just be a solid piece.

I dunno Phil... The more I read on all this the more clear the message comes
through. No matter what else is happening, compression waves are very very much
in the picture when ever vibration energy is exchanged from one medium to
another. I don't see how one can avoid that. That it is difficult to
conceptualize I will grant you but that just means we have another one of those
interesting challenges in front of us.


> The bow is moving the string side to side.
> The top needs to move up and down to move the air so that we can hear
> the violin.  So violin makers have cleverly devised a bridge and soundpost
> system to convert the side to side motion of the string to up and down
> motion of the top.

Ok wait a sec... even if the string is moved side to side.... (which it is not)
you cant draw the conclusion you make from the "observation" about string
movement.  You CAN indeed ponder it... pursue the thought and see if its
correct. But to just conclude "that's how it works" is not a good idea.

The more I get into this "vibration and sound" thing the more evident it seems
to me that we all need to take a closer look at just what is happening when
something is vibrating. It seems like we are too easily caught up in vibration
as something you can touch, see, or feel... the transverse component.

Conjecture is a good thing... as far as it goes. Makes you think out loud,
bounce ideas, and hopefully stimulate one to looking deeper and deeper to find
better answers to questions we think we know something about.  Think ON !! :)

--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no




This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC