The finite life of wood grain

[Euphonious Thumpe]

A prevailing theory is that he soaked the wood in Venetian sea water. 
3 sets ( that I know of ) of scientists, over the last 100 years, have independently ( and seemingly unaware of each others' research ) come to this conclusion.

Euphonious Thumpe


--- On Fri, 10/24/08, Jude Reveley/Absolute Piano <juderev at verizon.net> wrote:

> From: Jude Reveley/Absolute Piano <juderev at verizon.net>
> Subject: Re: The finite life of wood grain
> To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
> Date: Friday, October 24, 2008, 7:52 AM
> Hi Jason,
> 
> "Some experts, however, dispute the significance of
> the study."
> 
> -Journal reference: Nature (vol 444, p 565)
> 
> 
> I agree with the experts that dispute this study. It's
> one thing to observe a variation in the composition of wood
> several hundred years ago and compare it to a sample of a
> tree grown today. It is an extraordinary leap to then impart
> some mystical and magical quality to this wood or for that
> matter the varnish.
> 
> 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.
> 
> Cheers,
>   
> Jude Reveley, RPT
> Absolute Piano Restoration, LLC
> Lowell, Massachusetts
> (978) 323-4545
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Jason Kanter 
>   To: Pianotech List 
>   Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2008 12:29 PM
>   Subject: Re: The finite life of wood grain
> 
> 
>   I may have missed this piece of discussion in years past,
> but it seems relevant to compare soundboards to violins.
> There is this research indicating that the quality of
> Stradivari was due to chemical treatment of the wood prior
> to manufacture. Of course piano soundboards are subject to
> much different pressures and stresses than a violin, but is
> it not conceivable that treating the wood might affect how
> it ages?
>   Jason
> 
> 
>   ======from
> http://technology.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn10686===========================
>   Why do Stradivari's violins sound sublime?
>     a.. 18:00 29 November 2006
>     b.. NewScientist.com news service
>     c.. Paul Marks
>     d.. 
> 
>     e.. A wood preservation technique was probably
> responsible for the exquisite sound produced by violins of
> the 17th-century Italian instrument makers Antonio
> Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri. 
>   Chemical analysis of wood shavings scavenged from two
> instruments while under repair has given fresh clues as to
> their exquisite acoustics.
> 
>   Joseph Nagyvary of Texas A&M University, US, used
> infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to
> analyse the chemical properties of the each instrument's
> backboard - its largest resonant component.
> 
>   Along with colleagues from Colorado State University, US,
> and Brigham Young University in Utah, US, Navygary found
> that a chemical wood preservative used in timber yards
> around Cremona in Lombardy, where both violin makers worked,
> appears to have given the violins their signature sound
> quality.
> 
>   Brutal treatment
>   Navygary's analysis of the wood shows that it has a
> different chemical composition to maple grown in the region
> today. "The great Italian masters prepared their wood
> by artificial means. The violin backs appear to have been
> brutally treated with salts of copper, iron and chromium as
> wood preservers," Nagyvary says.
> 
>   It is these salts, he suggests, that provided the
> mellifluous tone. Some metal ions – like copper – have
> powerful fungicidal properties, which is why they were used
> to treat the wood. But these salts may also have altered the
> mechanical and acoustical properties of each instrument.
> Nagyvary now plans to find out exactly which salts were
> used.
> 
>   Navygary says the preservation was probably not meant to
> alter the acoustics. "They would just find salt
> crystals in local quarries and dissolve them in water –
> they didn't know what they were throwing in."
> 
>   Bow selector
>   Nagyvary has made analysing the Stradivarius violins –
> and making similar-sounding modern versions – his
> life's work. In 1998 he discovered that treating a piece
> of modern maple with salt water and grape juice could
> produce a violin backboard with some Stradivarius-like
> resonances. Then in 2001 he found that borax, the
> anti-woodworm treatment Stradivari used, also had an
> appreciable effect on the violin's sound.
> 
>   Some experts, however, dispute the significance of the
> study. "The more detailed the science becomes the more
> sceptical I feel," says Jon Whiteley, curator of music
> at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, UK, which owns two of
> Stradivari's violins and one of his guitars.
> 
>   "The quality of the alpine wood and the varnish is
> critical of course," he says, "but it's the
> shape of the resonating soundbox, and the curvaceous,
> arching way it bows outwards that gives the unique
> tone."
> 
>   Journal reference: Nature (vol 444, p 565)
> 
>   ============================================