Jude Reveley/Absolute Piano wrote: > It is still another thing yet, to then draw any conclusion from a > comparison of a violin to a piano, the piano being strain bearing. > Just pluck a violin string. It makes a wonderful thunk we call > "pizzacato," and it is used with extraordinary and delightful effect > by all the masters; but it is the last type of sound I would want on > anything resembling a piano. We hear the violin analogy with some regularity, probably because of the continuing fascination with the "secret" of Stradivari's tone. As one expert puts it, the secret is that there isn't a secret. Anyway, as you point out, violins have too many differences from pianos to make a useful analogy. I'm more interested in the similarities between pianos and guitars. Soundboard is a flat panel of spruce: check. Spruce ribs/braces which impose a crown in the panel: check. Steel strings, plain and wrapped, which impose a strain on the crowned panel: check. Plucking yields a sustained tone: check. Failure modes include soundboard cracks and rib separation: check. I'm preparing a chapter technical comparing the design/construction/voicing of these two belly systems - is anyone aware of any existing work out there that I could refer to? thanks Mike
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