Moving 'Sound Centers' of top and bottom Plates

April 13, 2007 at 10:52 AM

Here is the article which I found by typing violin tap tone in at Google Search.

http://www.scavm.com/Lively.html

Also, when tapping the tops and bottoms of a violin to see if the plates have a 1/2 to a hole tone difference, I discovered this - always have the plate facing you when you tap it - never tap the bottom while it is not right side up. The tap tones will be changed and could be inaccurate especially on the half tone, if it is present. You could get a 50% error if you do not keep the plate you are tapping up and facing you.

I am going to record the weight of my violin wood when it arrives next week from Canada; date it and expose it to my climate. I will probably do this every three months and record the changes. When it stabilizes I think it will be acclimated and I can start my building project.

Also, I have heard of cellos being shipped to new owners in the NE and the boxes are being opened and the instrument is being set up or tuned immediately while the wood is still frozen.

Guess what - ruined! You must let the instrument warm to room temperature first.

I just received a violin made by Gotz in Germany and cleaned it up and noticed dents in a semi-circle below the sound post. They start under the right f hole and curve upward. Da - here is a company in Germany back in 1991 that knew exactly how to move the sound center to the post area. Four are deep and the two last ones are very faint and all are about 1/4" apart.

Update: The factory denies that they ever made such alterations and tells me someone that owned the violin prior to me must have done the alterations - but ... the alterations are under the original finish ... which is a point that I told them about to start with.

There are workmen that will follow their genius no matter what. In the Navy during overhaul one of our radios was found to have circuits never before seen. They tore them out because they didn't understand them. That radio never operated like it use to and was full of static.

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Moving 'Sound Centers' of top and bottom Plates

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