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closeStradivarius or just natural aging process of the wood?
Posted by celsoaguiar on 08 Jul 2008 at 20:14 GMT
Dear Sirs,
Your article basically compares differences in density differentials (late/early growth grains) of classical Cremonese violins against modern violins. It later concludes that those differentials "... may contribute to the generally recognized superior sound production of classical Cremonese violins". Fair enough, they MAY. But one could also say that the natural aging process of the wood could be as good or better candidate to explain your findings. Still, I cannot find any elements in your research that could refute that possibility. Supposing you were comparing classical Cremonese violins versus classical 'mediocre' sounding violins and the same results were found, I'd be very inclined to accept your suppositions.
Thanks for your attention,
Celso Aguiar
RE: Stradivarius or just natural aging process of the wood?
terryborman replied to celsoaguiar on 30 Jul 2008 at 03:32 GMT
Dear Mr. Aguiar,
Thank you for your comments and please excuse the delay responding. Yes, we agree wholeheartedly that the natural aging process may very well explain our findings. When we began our study we had no expectations as to what we would find; now that we have what we consider to be reliable data on modern and classical Cremonese wood chosen by makers the next logical step is to find the mechanism by which these differentials have changed. We are currently planning our next study which will look into the simplest solution mentioned above, natural aging.
Sincerely,
terry borman