ASA 127th Meeting M.I.T. 1994 June 6-10

5aBV6. Vibrations in violins with tuned fingerboards: A case study of instrument feedback.

Erik V. Jansson

Anders Askenfelt

Dept. of Speech Commun. and Music Acoust., Royal Inst. of Technol., P.O. Box 700 14, S-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden

All traditional musical instruments vibrate more or less during playing. These vibrations serve as a silent feedback from the instrument to the musician, and the feedback is likely to be an important component of the instrument response. Work has been done to study if an enhanced vibration level in the violin is perceived as favorable by the musician, and if such a change results in a change in playing. The vibration level in the instrument was varied by tuning a fingerboard resonance in relation to the Helmholtz's resonance (A0). The level was measured prior to and after the tuning of the fingerboard, using two ``types'' of violinists; a PC-controlled bowing machine and professional violin players, respectively. The quality of the instrument as judged by the musicians with and without tuned fingerboard, respectively, gives an estimation of the degree of feedback from instrument to player. [Work supported by the Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences.]