A balsa violin

Chris Walthama兲
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada V6T 1Z1
共Received 23 November 2007; accepted 17 September 2008兲
Almost half a century ago John Schelleng determined the scaling rules that show how violins can
be made from nontraditional materials. These principles suggest that balsa wood may be a possible,
if unlikely, construction material. To test this idea, a balsa violin was constructed and found to be
playable. Its vibrational behavior is shown to be in agreement with Schelleng’s scaling rules. The
instrument was not difficult to build, and its construction can be repeated by anyone of moderate
skill with a chisel and sandpaper and access to an audio frequency analysis program. The reward is
a tactile appreciation for the vibrational behavior of materials and the physics of musical instruments
that is difficult to gain otherwise. © 2009 American Association of Physics Teachers.
关DOI: 10.1119/1.2996482兴

I. INTRODUCTION
The violin is generally regarded as being close to a perfect
string instrument. This level of perfection was achieved
around 1700 by the masters of Cremona, notably Amati,
Guarneri del Gesù, and Stradivari.1 Since then a long and
often intense effort has been made by physicists and others to
understand why the Cremonese design works so well, and
what makes a great violin. Over the past 200 years, only
small changes have been made to the classic Cremona form,
mostly in the 19th century.1 This dearth of innovation in
violin design is in contrast to other orchestral instruments,
many of which were unknown in 1700. In recent years, more
attention has been paid to novel materials for violin making,
and this paper discusses one approach to employing a radi-
cally different type of wood: balsa.2
II. VIOLIN BASICS
Musical instruments usually have three functional parts: a
part that allows energy to be introduced to the system, a
resonator that yields the required pitch, and a radiator that
ensures a reasonable fraction of the input energy ends up as
sound. For the violin the energy is provided by the bow.3 We
will adopt a regular bow for the balsa violin. The resonators
are the strings,4 tuned in fifths to G3 共196 Hz兲, D4 共293 Hz兲,
A4 共440 Hz兲, and E5 共660 Hz兲 共for an explanation of the
notation, see, for example, Ref. 5兲. The strings are stretched
between the nut and the tailpiece of the violin. In between
these two end points is the bridge, whose function is to con-
vert the transverse mechanical vibrations of the bowed
strings into radial 共outward and inward兲 motion of the body
of the violin, the primary sound radiator. The vibrating
length of the strings is the distance between the violinist’s
finger on the fingerboard 共or the nut if playing an open
string兲 and the bridge. The bridge should be stiff enough to
allow the string to vibrate properly, and yet be light and
flexible enough to respond to the string, and to move the top
plate of the violin body. This requirement is complicated and
involves the relative sizes of the characteristic 共mechanical兲
impedance of the string and the mechanical impedance of the
bridge and body. Mechanical impedance is the ratio of force
to velocity in a vibrating system and is a straightforward
analog of ac electrical impedance. No more will be said
about the strings except to note that their impedances should
be small compared to those of the supports at each end.
The subject of this study is the body of the violin. The
body consists of a thin shell of wood formed by the top plate
共often called the belly plate兲 on which the violin’s super-
structure of strings and supports is built, and the back plate,
with the ribs 共the side walls兲 separating the two. In the top
plate are cut two holes, called f-holes because of their shape,
which allow the air inside to move in and out. The top plate
is traditionally made of spruce 共picea excelsia兲, with grain
arranged longitudinally and with the radial direction of the
grain lying in the plane of the plate. Spruce is a very light,
resonant softwood with low internal energy loss; that is, it
has a high quality factor. The back plate is traditionally made
of maple 共acer platanoides兲, which is a heavier hardwood,
and has approximately double the impedance of the top
plate. This ratio seems to be critical to the radiative quality of
the violin.6
The top and back plates are connected by a small cylin-
drical wood soundpost placed just in front of the right hand
foot 共viewed from the player兲 of the bridge 共the E-string
side兲. The top plate is strengthened by a thin strip of spruce
called a bass bar, bonded on the inside, running lengthwise
past the left hand foot of the bridge. This broken symmetry
of the top plate means that when the bridge pivots upward
about its right foot, most of the top plate can move outward
while the back plate, pushed down by the soundpost, also
moves outward. Hence the top and back plates participate in
a significant breathing mode which considerably enhances
the sound output.
Weinreich has analyzed the behavior of a thin shell 共two
plates separated by ribs enclosing a volume of air兲 with a
hole in terms of the monopole radiation it emits when one
plate is driven.9 Monopole radiation is considered because at
the frequencies we are considering 共a few 100 Hz兲, the violin
body is small compared to the wavelength, and monopole
radiation dominates the sound output. Weinreich showed that
the quality of this sound radiation depends crucially on the
relation between the lowest air resonance and the lowest
wood resonance. The distinction between the two is as fol-
lows. If the top plate moves downward 共that is, falls toward
the center of the instrument兲, two competing effects occur in
the air surrounding the instrument: the air pressure may be
reduced due to the downward velocity of the plate, or it may
be increased by the air flowing out of the f-hole. For a given

30 Am. J. Phys. 77 共1兲, January 2009 http://aapt.org/ajp © 2009 American Association of Physics Teachers 30
resonance all parts of the instrument move to some extent,
and there are no exclusive “wood” or “air” resonances 共the
latter would be called a “Helmholtz resonance”兲. In addition,
the sign of the phase relationship between the air pressure
and plate velocity switches as each resonance is crossed.
However, if the air pressure above the top plate falls as the
plate falls when the frequency is just below below resonance,
the mode of vibration is known as a “wood” mode. If the
pressure rises as the plate falls 共again just below resonance兲,
it is an “air” mode. In other words, the wood mode has a
volume flow caused by the plate motion which is greater
than that caused by the air issuing from the f-holes, and vice
versa for the air mode. Above the resonant frequencies the
phase relationships change sign. The combination of one of
each kind of mode means that in the frequency range domi-
nated by these modes, the radiativity is never zero. Hence for
the player there are no “dead notes” to be overcome. A reader
wishing to know more about this mechanism will find no
better place to start than Ref. 10.
Although the resonant frequencies of the violin body have
a complex relation to the resonances of the isolated plates,
the vibrational behavior of the plates is the most important
determinant of the quality of the violin.11 Violin makers have
learned by trial and error and intuition what resonant quali-
ties of the free plates produce desirable resonances in the
completed instrument. Historically a plate was tuned by fre-
quent tapping with the fingers during carving, while holding
it with the fingers of the other hand in such a way as to
enhance one mode or another. These tap-tests required an
excellent ear before electronic frequency analyzers became
ubiquitous; there is no harmonic structure to the mode fre-
quencies, which makes the tap frequency difficult to discern.
Necessary but not sufficient conditions for a good violin
body have been given in many places; we use the findings
and notation of Ref. 12. They are 共a兲 the existence of a low-
est air mode 共A0兲 with a frequency just below the frequency
of the D-string 共260– 290 Hz兲, 共b兲 the lowest sound-
producing wood mode mostly involving the top plate 共T1兲 in
the mid-400s Hz, and 共c兲 two body flexure modes 共C3 and
C4兲 in the mid-500s Hz and around 700 Hz, respectively.
Jansson has converted these properties into a set of specifi-
cations for creating the top and back plates,13 and these are
used in this work.
III. SCHELLENG’S SCALING RELATIONS
Schelleng has given the scaling relations6 for the vibration
of the plates of a string instrument, particularly the violin. He
considered a wooden violin plate of thickness h, length ᐉ,
mass M, and density ␳, with longitudinal sound speed c and
elastic modulus E. He found the relations
S ⬀ Eh3ᐉ−2 , 共1兲
M ⬀ ␳hᐉ2 , 共2兲
f b ⬀ 共S/M兲1/2 ⬀ chᐉ−2 , 共3兲
where S is the stiffness of the plate and f b is a vibrational
frequency of any given mode. Equations 共2兲 and 共3兲 can be
rearranged to obtain the dependence of the plate thickness,
impedance Z, and mass on the properties of the wood:
f bᐉ 2
h⬀ , 共4兲
c bands stretched across a frame such that they held the block
31 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 77, No. 1, January 2009
␳
Z ⬀ 共SM兲1/2 ⬀ 共E␳兲1/2h2 ⬀ f 2bᐉ4 , 共5兲
c
␳
M ⬀ f bᐉ 4 . 共6兲
c
The derivation of these relations can be understood in a
straightforward way by consulting any standard treatment of
the vibrations of a bar or thin plate, for example, Ref. 7. The
form of the impedance Z is less well known, but dimensional
analysis suggests that it should be proportional to the product
of the mass and the resonant frequency 共that is, 冑SM兲. The
exact form can be derived from the theory given in Ref. 8.
We can use these relations to make an instrument similar
to a Stradivarius out of different materials. In principle, we
can change the size of the instrument, but that would involve
scaling considerations not considered up to this point, espe-
cially the air resonance modes, which do not behave like
plate modes. If the modal frequency and the length are fixed,
it can be seen from Eqs. 共4兲–共6兲 that the impedance, mass,
and stiffness depend only on ␳ / c, and the plate thickness
depends only on c.
Schelleng’s work has formed the basis of many revisions
of the design of the violin family of instruments, notably the
violin octet of Hutchins.14 If we wish only to build a well-
established instrument with standard dimensions but with a
different material, we have to scale the plate thicknesses with
the inverse of the sound speed to keep the resonant frequen-
cies the same. The main difference will be that the volume of
sound produced varies with the impedance of the plates,
which depends on c / ␳.
Schelleng suggested several nontraditional woods on the
basis of similar or better c / ␳ and quality factors than spruce
and maple. One wood he did not mention that has a very
high value of c / ␳ and a reasonable Q is balsa 共ochroma
pyramidale兲.15 The obvious limitation of balsa is its lack of
strength and poor surface quality. However, it has recently
received attention from serious luthiers such as Curtin, who
was inspired by the experimental work of Martin.2
IV. BUILDING THE VIOLIN
Following a presentation by Curtin at the May 2005
Acoustical Society of America meeting in Vancouver,16 I de-
cided to build a balsa instrument as a lecture demonstration
that would show to a wide variety of audiences that basic
physics controls even such a magical device as a violin. I
elected to use the traditional shape of a Stradivarius instru-
ment in contrast to Martin’s more innovative designs and
simply changed the top and bottom plates to consist of balsa.
I used patterns from Heron-Allen’s classic treatise17 and fol-
lowed Jansson’s procedures for making the plates.13 By
keeping the shape and size the same, I avoided any difficul-
ties caused by changing the air mode frequencies. As a neo-
phyte luthier I purchased a violin with a badly damaged top
plate from a local music store and cannibalized this instru-
ment for all parts except the two plates.
A. The wood
Four balsa blocks were obtained18 and subjected to tap
tests to measure the sound speeds and quality factors for the
balsa. To do this test the blocks were balanced on elastic
Chris Waltham 31
Table I. Measured physical properties of the balsa plates used in construct- 140
ing the balsa violin. The spruce and maple data are taken from Ref. 15.
120
Plates Top 共spruce兲 Top 共balsa兲 Back 共maple兲 Back 共balsa兲 Balsa (top, this work)
100 Balsa (back, this work)
␳ 共kg/ m3兲 460 108⫾ 2 680 173⫾ 2 Balsa (BP)
c 共m/s兲 5350 3950⫾ 120 3800 4000⫾ 120 80 Balsa (WH)

Q
Spruce (BP)
E 共GPa兲 13.5 1.7⫾ 0.1 9.9 2.8⫾ 0.2 60 Spruce (WH)
Q 125 66⫾ 1 80 90.3⫾ 0.2 Maple (BP)
40 Maple (WH)

20

at the nodes of the fundamental bending mode, that is, 22.4% 0

of the block length from each end.7 The block could be mod- 0 10 20 30 40
eled as a plate with free ends in terms of the desired me- (a) c/
m /s.kg
4
chanical properties of the material.19 For a plate of length L,
thickness h, and longitudinal sound speed c, the frequency f 10
of the fundamental mode is7 9
Balsa (top, this work)
3.0112␲h 8
f= c. 共7兲 Balsa (back, this work)

16冑3L2 7 Balsa (BP)

Balsa (WH)

cQ/ 10 m/s
6 Spruce (BP)
The simple way to make the measurement is to tap one of Spruce (WH)

the blocks in the center, holding it lightly at one of the 22.4%
points, record the sound produced with a microphone, and
observe the spectrum. From the geometry and the frequency
we can extract the sound speed c from Eq. 共7兲, and the qual-
ity factor from the width of the peak in the spectrum.
Tap tests suffice for most purposes. However, we made an
equivalent and somewhat more sophisticated admittance
measurement. Admittance is the ratio of the velocity to force
共that is, it is the inverse of impedance兲 for a vibrating system.
It was measured using a small and light 共0.2 g兲 Endevco
Isotron 25B accelerometer20 and an impact hammer fabri-
cated with a piezo-electric crystal from a barbecue lighter.
The voltage outputs from the hammer and accelerometer
were read by a Measurement Computing USB-1208FS ana-
log digital converter 共ADC兲.21 The ADC was a 12-bit device,
with up to four differential inputs, operating at a maximum
total sample rate of 50 kHz 共25 kHz for each of the two
inputs used here兲. It was connected by a USB cable to a
computer and operated by a data acquisition program. The
hammer was calibrated by measuring the inertance 共defined
as force/acceleration兲 of a known mass by tapping it with the
hammer. The voltage output from the crystal was integrated
by the data acquisition program to give a value proportional
to the force applied by the hammer. The constant of propor-
tionality was determined by the measured acceleration of the
mass. The details of the manufacture and calibration of the
hammer are given in Ref. 22. This apparatus was also used
on individual plates and on the completed violin, as de-
scribed below. The admittance measurement was made in the
same manner as the simple tap test, except that the acceler-
ometer was placed in the center of the bar on the opposite
side from that being struck lightly with the hammer. Once
the admittance was determined as a function of frequency,
the fundamental resonance mode was isolated and character-
ized, yielding the sound speed and quality factor as before.
The results are shown in Table I.
The measured properties of balsa are compared in Fig. 1
with those of spruce, maple, and other samples of balsa.15,23
Reference23 does not include the quality factor, so these val-
ues are taken to be the same as for similar woods in Ref. 15
or, for balsa, the mean value found in the present work. In
Fig. 1共a兲 the quality factor Q is plotted against c / ␳. The
5
5
Maple (BP)
4 Maple (WH)
"Good wood" line
3
2
1
0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
(b)
/c kg.s/m4
Fig. 1. Properties of the balsa used in this work, compared with traditional
woods. The data on spruce and maple are taken from Refs. 15 and 23. The
Q values are assumed to be the same as, or the average of, samples from the
other data sets. The graph in 共a兲 follows the presentation of Ref. 6 and 共b兲
Ref. 24. The “good wood” line represents Yoshikawa’s criterion for usable
tone wood.
highest values of c / ␳, the quantity that determines imped-
ance, are for the balsa samples. However, Q is found to be
lower than that of spruce and maple. It is also lower than the
value given for balsa in Ref. 15. Balsa is a highly variable
wood; the samples used for the violin differed in density by
almost a factor of 2 共108 to 173 kg/ m3兲, and the quality fac-
tors were 66 and 90 共Ref. 15 gives a value of 90兲. In Fig.
1共b兲 cQ is plotted against ␳ / c. According to Yoshikawa24 a
good indication that nontraditional materials are worth pur-
suing for musical instruments is that they lie close to the line
in Fig. 1共b兲 labeled 共“good wood”兲, as do spruce and maple.
From this plot it is clear that Q for the balsa samples reported
here would have to be about a factor of 3 higher to satisfy
this criterion. As will be seen, the tonal quality of the com-
pleted violin is consistent with this observation.
B. Construction
The densest balsa block was used for the back plate 共in
place of maple兲 and the least dense for the top plate 共in place
of spruce兲. The wood was cut in the standard manner with
the grain running lengthwise in the plates and the radial di-
rection in the plane of the plates. Balsa is a very soft wood,
and the plates were cut with a bandsaw and shaped using a
small chisel and sandpaper. No specialist luthier’s tools were
used.

32 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 77, No. 1, January 2009 Chris Waltham 32


Fig. 2. The shapes of modes 1, 2, and 5 for the plates of a violin. Adapted
from Ref. 13 with permission.
Once the projected shape of the plates was cut out and the
two halves glued together, the plates were gradually thinned,
following the procedure given by Jansson.13 This procedure
aims to reproduce the tap frequencies of the three most im-
portant modes of the top and back plates, which have been
determined by examining the plates of many successful vio-
lins. These modes, shown in Fig. 2, are normally labeled 1,
2, and 5. The frequency of mode 1 is determined by the
torsional stiffness of the plate, that of mode 2 by the longi-
tudinal 共that is, along the length of the violin兲 stiffness of the
plate, and that of mode 5 by the transverse stiffness. Modes 3
and 4 are less useful as diagnostics, having a more compli-
cated relation with the degrees of freedom of the plates.25
Jansson has given frequencies to aim for at each stage of
thinning, starting with the uncarved block and ending with
the finished plate, which in the case of the top includes the
bass bar and f-holes. Directions are given on how to hollow
out the plates to tune the modes more-or-less independently,
so if one mode is out of tune, it can be corrected without
pushing the other modes out of tune in the process.
C. Measurements on the plates
The modes of the plates were measured in three ways. A
very quick method was to hold the plate at a suspected node
and to tap it at suspected antinodes, recording the taps with a
microphone and computer, and observing the spectral shapes.
This method was very useful during the shaping of the
plates. The modal shapes and approximate frequencies were
assessed by the venerable method of Chladni patterns. The
plates were mounted on foam rubber pads on top of a
speaker driven by a function generator and a normal audio
amplifier. The plates were dusted with fine sand that had
been washed and sieved. When the function generator was
tuned to a modal frequency, the sand was blown around,
33 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 77, No. 1, January 2009
Fig. 3. Chladni patterns for the top 共top row兲 and back plate 共bottom row兲.
Modes 1, 2, and 5 are shown from left to right.
except for that sitting on nodal lines. Figure 3 shows these
patterns for modes 1, 2, and 5 on the finished plates. A slight
adjustment was necessary to arrange the foam pads under the
nodal lines. In some cases the nodal lines are incomplete
because it was impossible to get the sand to stay along nodes
where the curvature of the plate was large. The top plate was
generally tricky, as the bass bar got in the way of the move-
ment of sand. Mode 1 was the most difficult to get a good
pattern for, because it is a torsional mode that requires plac-
ing the plate off-center on the speaker, which causes consid-
erable center-of-mass vibration of the plate, which disturbs
all of the sand.
The third method is to hold the plate lightly near a sus-
pected node and to place the accelerometer near an antinode
and tap on the other side with the impact hammer. The ac-
1
data
fit
0.1
Y (s/kg)
0.01
0.001
0 100 200 300 400
f (Hz)
Fig. 4. Driving-point admittance of the top plate, measured at the center,
with the plate held lightly near the top end of the bass bar where it is crossed
by the nodes of modes 2 and 5. Mode 1 is not visible because it has a node
at the center; the visible admittance peaks are those of modes 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Chris Waltham 33
 Table II. Modal frequencies for the top and back plates, a comparison of target frequencies from Ref. 13 and
those achieved with the balsa plates. The values are given for the top plate with the bass bar installed and
f-holes cut. The shape of the modes are given in Fig. 2. For the data from Ref. 13, ⫾ indicates the range of
acceptable values; for the achieved values, ⫾ indicates the experimental error.

Mode f 1 共Q1兲 f 2 共Q2兲 f 5 共Q5兲

Top plate, Ref. 13 80⫾ 10 Hz 165⫾ 24 Hz 350⫾ 34 Hz

Top plate, achieved 92.8⫾ 0.1 Hz共45.0⫾ 0.3兲 159.1⫾ 0.1 Hz共19.1⫾ 0.3兲 345.8⫾ 0.1 Hz共39.5⫾ 0.3兲
Back plate, Ref. 13 112⫾ 12 Hz 171⫾ 20 Hz 396⫾ 36 Hz
Back plate, achieved 95.3⫾ 0.3 Hz共25⫾ 1兲 169⫾ 2 Hz共10⫾ 3兲 320⫾ 2 Hz共11⫾ 3兲

celerometer was very light and had little effect on the mea- ommended 3 / 16 in. 共4.8 mm兲 for a back made from maple
sured modal frequencies. The measured admittance was used with a very similar sound speed to that of the balsa used here
to extract modal frequencies and quality factors. An example 共see Table I兲.
is shown in Fig. 4. The accelerometer was placed in the
center of the top plate, which was held on the centerline V. THE COMPLETED INSTRUMENT
close to the nodes of modes 2 and 5. Modes 2–5 show up
very clearly; mode 1 is missing here because it has a node at The completed violin is shown in Fig. 5. After this photo-
the center. graph was taken, a small piece of birch veneer was intro-
The admittance Y共␻兲 was fitted to the following general duced under the bridge to stop the bridge feet from sinking
form for a system with many resonances:8 into the soft balsa top plate.
The most often quoted diagnostic measurement of a violin
N
An is the driving-point admittance at the bridge on the bass bar
Y共␻兲 = 兺 . 共8兲 side 共by the G-string兲.12 The point where the strings cross the
n=0 ␻n − ␻ + i␻2n/Qn
2 2
bridge is the point at which the bridge-soundbox system is
excited by the strings. The bass bar side is chosen because
Here An is the complex amplitude of mode n whose fre-
the other side of the bridge sits close to the soundpost and
quency is ␻n and whose quality factor is Qn. A summary of
thus tends to pivot about this point; that is, this side is the
the measurements on the individual plates is given in Table
more mobile.
II. The top plate generally functions better than the back,
The admittance of the balsa violin was measured with the
because the modal frequencies are the desired ones and the
accelerometer placed at the foot of the bridge, tapping with
quality factors are higher. The wooden block used for the
the impact hammer close by. The admittance as a function of
back plate had a higher density and, uncarved, a higher qual-
frequency is shown in Fig. 6 and is compared to that for a
ity factor. It was also less uniform, as became apparent dur-
standard factory-made instrument.26 The admittance was
ing the carving of the plate. More careful selection of wood
taken to be the average of ten taps, and the tap-to-tap repro-
is an obvious area for improvement.
ducibility in the frequency range of interest had a standard
The final dimensions of the plates are given in Table III.
deviation of 26% 共that is, an 8% error of the mean for ten
Although no explicit attention was paid to the curvature dur-
taps兲. The overall calibration uncertainty is of the order 10%.
ing manufacture, the arch heights are consistent with Jans-
The shape of the response is similar to published data,27 and
son’s recommendation of less than 2 cm.13 The curvature is a
four peaks lie at the similar frequencies to the important
strong determinant of the plate stiffness, in the same manner
resonances identified in Ref. 12. The resonance around
as a rolled-up sheet of paper is much more rigid than a flat
300 Hz is the primary air resonance mode A0. The peak just
piece; it allows the plates to be both stiff and light. The
below 400 Hz is probably the top-plate mode T1, and those
fold-out plans in Ref. 17 state that the thickness of the top
at 500 and 700 Hz are the two-dimensional flexure modes
plates should be 1 / 8 in. 共3.2 mm兲 at the center. The balsa top
modes C3 and C4.
plate is 4.0 mm at the center, as would be expected from
scaling by 1 / c 关see Eq. 共4兲 and Table I兴. Despite this extra
thickness, the top plate can be mated with the other parts
from a standard instrument, and there is still a small space
between the plate and the finger board. The central thickness
of the back plate is 5.2 mm, compared to Heron-Allen’s rec-

Table III. Final dimensions and masses of the balsa plates. The arch height
is measured from the bench to the apex of the plate. The top plate mass
includes the bass bar 共approximately 4 g兲.

Plate Central thickness 共mm兲 Arch height 共mm兲 Mass 共g兲

Top plate 4.0 18.0 39.4

Back plate 5.2 14.0 48.0
Fig. 5. The completed balsa violin.

34 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 77, No. 1, January 2009 Chris Waltham 34

 1 the impact hammer, and Domenic DiTomaso for technical
Balsa Violin assistance. The author is grateful to the anonymous review-
"Normal" Violin
ers of this article, whose thoughtful remarks provoked con-
0.1
siderable improvements. Last but not least, the author thanks
Y (s/kg)

Christine Waltham for the occasional loan of her much-

0.01 played Höfner.

a兲
Electronic mail: cew@phas.ubc.ca
0.001 1
N. H. Fletcher and T. D. Rossing, The Physics of Musical Instruments
共Springer, New York, 1991兲, p. 235.
2
A. Cho, “String theory meets practice as violinmakers rethink their craft,”
0.0001
Science 310, 1414–1415 共2005兲.
0 200 400 600 800 1000 3
J. C. Schelleng, “The bowed string and the player,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
f (Hz) 53, 26–41 共1973兲.
4
I. Firth, “Construction and performance of quality violin strings,” J. Cat-
Fig. 6. Driving point admittances at the bridge 共G-string兲 for the balsa violin gut Acoust. Soc. 44, 16–22 共1987兲.
and a standard example 共Ref. 26兲. 5
CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, edited by D. R. Lide 共CRC,
Boca Raton, FL, 1995兲, p. 14–39.
6
J. C. Schelleng, “The violin as a circuit,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 35, 326–
VI. PLAYING THE VIOLIN 338 共1963兲.
7
Reference 1, pp. 58–59.
Between the G string 共196 Hz兲 and the A 共440 Hz兲 the 8
Y. Chen, Vibrations: Theoretical Methods 共Addison-Wesley, Reading,
admittance of the balsa violin is higher—at some frequencies MA, 1966兲, p. 210.
9
by an order of magnitude—than that of its “normal” coun- G. Weinreich, “Sound hole sum rule and the dipole moment of the vio-
terpart. This high admittance is consistent with the expecta- lin,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 77, 710–718 共1985兲.
10
tion from the scaling relations, which predict a factor of G. Weinreich, “What science knows about violins, and what it doesn’t
about 3 increase due to the fact that c / ␳ for the balsa plates know,” Am. J. Phys. 61, 1067–1077 共1993兲.
11
used here is about three times larger than for spruce and J. Curtin, “Tap tones and weights of old violin tops,” J. Violin Soc. Am.
20, 161–173 共2006兲.
maple. As a result, the violin is distinctly loud. The tone 12
J. Alonso Moral and E. V. Jansson, “Eigenmodes, input admittance and
cannot be described as sweet; it is a more appropriate instru-
the function of the violin,” Acustica 50, 329–337 共1982兲.
ment for a jig played in a noisy bar, than for a soft lament. 13
E. Jansson, “Acoustics for violin and guitar makers,”
However, the instrument is playable. 具www.speech.kth.se/music/acviguit4/典.
14
G. Bissinger, “Modal analysis of a violin octet,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 113,
VII. CONCLUSION 2105–2113 共2003兲.
15
I. Barducci and G. Pasqualini, “Measurement of the internal friction and
The surprise is not that this instrument, made out of an the elastic constants of wood,” Nuovo Cimento 5, 416–466 共1948兲.
unlikely material by the hands of a novice, challenges the 16
具asa.aip.org/vancouver.html典.
masters of Cremona—it doesn’t—but that it works at all as a 17
E. Heron-Allen, Violin-making, As It Was and Is: Being a Historical,
musical instrument. The scaling relations clearly work. The Theoretical, and Practical Treatise on the Science and Art of Violin-
exercise of building the instrument was sufficiently straight- Making, for the Use of Violin Makers and Players, Amateur and Profes-
forward that it can be attempted by anyone with moderate sional 共Ward Lock, London, 1885兲.
18
carpentry skills as a demonstration for an acoustics class, or Trillium Balsa, 102 Spruce Street, Tillsonburg ON, Canada N4G 5V3.
19
for an undergraduate thesis project. The process yields in- Reference 1, p. 84.
20
sights into the vibrational behavior of materials and the phys- Endevco Corporation, 具www.endevco.com典.
21
Measurement Computing, 具www.measurementcomputing.com典.
ics of musical instruments that are difficult to gain by merely 22
C. E. Waltham and A. Kotlicki, “Construction and calibration of an im-
reading textbooks.
pact hammer,” preprint.
In light of the experience reported here with the difference 23
D. W. Green, J. E. Winandy, and D. E. Kretschmann, The Wood Hand-
in quality of the top and back plates, I recommend spending book: Wood as an Engineering Material 共Forest Products Society, Madi-
some time on the selection of uniform pieces of balsa to son, WI, 2000兲, Chap. 4.
avoid this problem. 24
S. Yoshikawa, “Acoustical classification of woods for string instru-
ments,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 122, 568–573 共2007兲.
25
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 26
Reference 1, p. 253.
Karl Höfner GmbH, Bubenreuth, Germany; made in 1992.
The author would like to thank Joseph Curtin and Douglas 27
L. Cremer, The Physics of the Violin 共MIT, Cambridge, MA, 1984兲,
Martin for helpful discussions, Andrzej Kotlicki for building Chap. 10.

35 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 77, No. 1, January 2009 Chris Waltham 35