Turn OFF the background music. I don't care how famous it is or the composer! It's hard to hear / concentrate on what your saying with all that background noise.
What a great experiment. Thank you so much for publishing this. I was so surprised how little the F holes affect the sound. Yes, it's noticeable, but not so much as expected. All this talk about the exact shape of the F holes as determined by Stradivari being important is an exaggeration.
I would have used an oscilloscope, or even better, a spectrum analyzer, to monitor the sound visually as well as listening to the changes. But from what I heard, it wasn't a drastic change, but the sound seemed to develop more harmonics (?) as the F holes increased, and it sounded more like a regular violin. I hope you continue to experiment with the increase in size of the F holes!
What an amazing experiment. Harmonics are responsible for the timbre. Low wavelength are effected more by the form because of the effect on the harmonics. We can see the difference in timbre of the violoncello and that of the violin.
Tom; What a wonderful experiment. I myself have been doing experiments along the same lines, Using the J. Bell Strad violin as the acoustical model, and preproducing the width variations of the long part of the sound holes (18 steps), and transfering these dimensions to three Strad violins I had made. It really can make a difference. Also, as you tap along the sides of the opening the tap tone will increase from upper to lower ends. You will get best results with this being a smooth transition with the upper frequency at 213 HZ (same as top plate) and bottom end (toward tailpiece) at 461HZ. You can not believe the difference! Of, you have to tune each side of the long hole separately and make them match and the upper hole area is evenly 213 and the larger bottom hole area evenly also to 461HZ... David L. {what a lot of work!}
That was interesting! There is definately a more rich sound with fully opened f-holes but not to the degree one would expect! Soundpost position, bridge shape and tonewood choices are likely far more important then. There's been studies on that lately and they don't support what luthiers have been teaching over the centuries!
2:14 I heard that current debate is about which brand of super glue he used.😉.. For a second you actually got me thinking...what?! Excellent work on your violins! I wish there was TH-cam to follow (40 years back) when I have made my two fiddles. I watch D. Sora just for relaxation..
What a BRILLIANT experiment. Stuff I’d love to do but never will - just amazing that it made any sound with no f holes. Wow. Don’t suppose you’d keep Increasing the size of the holes to see the point of vanishing returns? As an amateur builder - a big thank you!
Thanks! I do plan on increasing f-hole size further. But I'm trying to decide if I want to experiment with any other parameters before I do so....(maybe the bass bar?). I've increased the f-hole size before on another cheap shop-made violin and it quickly became very loud and harsh.
@@tpistor I find that if I stick to the ‘established’ Strad/Guanari specs on belly/back carving and use the best wood I can afford I get surprisingly good results. It’s great that you wander off the beaten path as it’s nice to see the ‘what Ifs’. I’m planning working on using CNC (I’ve carved a few as well so not all heresy) to refine plates to the fractional mm of the great violins to see what they sound like. Still hand built but refining a bit.
I was wondering the exact same thing, especially on lower end, student violins/violas. Could increasing F hole size on them help produce a better, richer tone?
@@BigCarmine I don't know for sure, but my gut feeling is that increasing beyond the normal size causes the tone to quickly become very harsh. I have increased the f-hole size on cheap violin and it didn't turn it into a nice sounding instrument. I think the wood and perhaps the grading of the plates become the limitation of the sound which cannot be improved by altering the f-hole size.
It occurs to me that without the f-holes, the violin sounds like a rebec. I wonder what aspect of the violin is most important to the sound quality between the two.
DeR camron burnett! I also agree ditto it allows super tweeter to chirp and on bassbar sde for the teeter totter to rock head to toe instead of obliquely. In other words the flexibility of a cross? G whizz Antonio certainly was clever! I know the f hole came before stradidvari but just humor me!😊
People erroneously think the sound comes out from the instrument through these f holes. Wrong! Their function is allow the air inside the instrument to flow in and out as the body of the instrument vibrates. The sound actually comes directly from the vibrating wood.
Quite educational. It seems as if f-holes does not contribute to the sound quality. So, they are more of esthetic value and for the purpose of sound post setup. Thank you very much for your presentation.
They don't seem to contribute to the quality of the high notes, but they do contribute significantly to the quality of the low notes. Additionally, as you mention, they are needed for setting the sound post.
Mmh you need a new pair of ears :D They definitely do contribute to the sound quality, by opening the top, and making it more elastic. Especially the low notes are affected.
But why does a violin have F holes, when a Viola da Gamba have C holes? And for that matter, why doesn't the violin have a round hole like a guitar? That would be an interesting experiment. Interesting video. Thanks. Jon
I think the f-holes evolved from C-holes. I think a single round hole could work too. But one thing I know for sure - violinists, especially classical, usually won't even consider touching a violin that doesn't look like the classic violin shape. Fiddle players are more open :)
Interesting. So the f-holes have very little effect, and only serve to give a little reverb and volume to the low notes. Had zero effect on the high notes.
It may be difficult to hear from the video, but I would say they have a very dramatic effect at the low end and a surprisingly small effect at the high end. It's definitely not just volume at the low end, it really opens it up. Without the f-holes, the low end is very tinny, nasal and weak.
From my understanding of studying second year physics at uni, the forced standing waves of the string are transmitted to the 2D surface that forms a ‘box’ via the bridge and sound post. Since the area of the box is greater than the area of a line, the sound is then amplified. So, I thought amplification has is nothing to do with the f-hole. Your results are not a huge surprise, except for, as you pointed out, the bass end seems more affected, which is very interesting indeed … I do find 2D an 3D standing waves fascinating! I look forward to your next experiment … Try get this experiment published!!!!
My understanding is that the sound comes mostly from the motion of the top plate. The top plate is light and stiff and has large area and displaces a lot of air when it moves. The sound holes allow the box to "breath". Without the f-holes, the motion of the top plate is dampened by the pressure compaction/rarefaction in the sealed box. As for why the f-holes make more difference to the low tones - here's my theory: your ear has a limited frequency response - which tapers off at around 10kHz. I think it's probable that the f-holes not only affect the fundamental harmonic, but also affect the higher order harmonics. If our ear only hears the harmonics below 10kHz, when you play A220 on the G-string, your ear hears more harmonics than when you plane A880 on the e-string (specifically, it hears 2 more harmonics). For the highest notes, if the f-holes were affecting the higher harmonics, we won't even hear it cause those higher harmonics are out of range. (I guess basically, this means any note above 5 kHz played on different instruments should sound the same - mostly like a pure sine wave).
Why the violin has no fine tuners in the samples with no Fs , but it has in all the strings with the F samples? A comparison requieres that all the conditions be the same.
Actually in the sound recordings, the violin has fine tuners for both the no f-hole case and the case with f holes. So it is consistent. It's just that when I edited the video, I realized I didn't take a picture of the violin before I drilled the first f-hole. So I used a previously taken picture. The pictures are not consistent, but the sound recordings are. You can even see the color tone of the no f-hole picture is different from the color tones of the f-hole pictures.
Ive noticed in sub comments about desire to test bass bar patameters. Curious if you did any experiments and what it sound like. Im curious how would violin soundn like without bass bar. Does bass bar like its name says increase the bass/low frequencies making the sound more bold? Does it affect mostly G,D or maybe it affects E and A too? Some say that bass bar helps to spread vibrations over whole plate but not sure to what degree it is true as if plate wasnt conducting vibrations good enough. What would happen if the bass bar was too big? Would the sound have too much bass and the 'break in' required to make sound would be bigger because of increase of mass?
I heard that the f holes effect the elasticity of the top, so I guess that makes sense that it effects the lows more. There was a video I was watching the other day that talked about the treble "tweeter" being more to do with the thickness near the treble side F hole (th-cam.com/video/c8-rOvWeV8k/w-d-xo.html). It would be cool to do the same experiment if you found the spot and take 0.1mm off at a time or something. I'm only just prepping to make my first violin at home so I don't really know anything but there sure is a lot of fascinating information floating around on the internet. Thanks for the effort doing the experiment :).
Thanks for comments. I did watch that video you referenced, I was surprised to learn about the difference in stiffness across the grain and along the grain. I'm not sure I believe his action of doing a tiny bit of sanding in those particular locations made much difference to the sound. I couldn't hear any. Though I think it's an interesting thing to try. In a future video, I may make another sacrificial top and shave it down from the top side as it is played.
If you like, see the build video of my first violin, I reference three different TH-cam makers which I suggest you watch their videos. Also of course there is makingtheviolin.com . Good luck with your first build!
Well then! It would seem that the f hole only gives a muniscule difference in volume so as to be negligeable!. What then is the f hole for? Its for cleaning the interior of the violin and placing the soundpost. And allowing moisture to escape uniformly from the wood. Your test was eye opening and I thank you for doing it. My comments were not necessarily accurate they were just quick reactions to your interesting study. By the way your daughter plays beautifully! Thank you for this fastenating study! So in conclusion based on your presentation the top and bottom plates radiate sound and the f holes are there predominantly for insertion of sound post. And i dare say to allow the plates to dry unformly. Tone would seem to have insignificant roll other than bottom floor bass resonance. However it is just possible that Im wrong. I do woder though about projection could you hear the violin in another room? In an auditorium in the bleachers there is the phenominon of wolf notes and ultra high frequency and infralow frequency to consider. I think its basically an insertion aid and projection aid.400 years cant be wrong!
Thanks for your comments. Actually, the video clearly shows that the low notes are highly affected by the presence of the f-hole. Perhaps you did not see that part of the video? The high tones are not strongly affected, but the low tones are definitely affected by the presence of the f-holes. If you did watch the whole video, perhaps listen with some headphones. My theory, and it's only a theory, is that whatever tone is being played, the f holes affect the higher harmonics. In the case of a low tone, the higher harmonics are still audible. But in the case of a high tone, the ear can't hear the higher harmonics, and even if they are affected, we would never know. Like 10,000 Hertz. The second, harmonic is 20,000 Hertz which is already at the limit of human hearing. So if it were affected by the f-hole relative to the first harmonic, we'd never know because we can't hear it.
I guess listening live the difference would be more prevelant than in recording. The sound is definitely a bit thinner without f holes when listening on headphones. Wondering how it would sound like with different hole shape. I guess its 'f' shaped instead of 'I' shaped because the sides of violin are curved.
There is definitely a difference in listening to a violin live compared to even the best recordings. Somehow live, it fills the room and seems to come at you from all directions. Using headphones can definitely help compared to speakers. I do plan to continue increasing the f-hole size to see what happens. I would like to try different shapes, but need to build a few more top plates. Luckily I have access to more of the exact same wood.
What wood? Sitka? Engleman? Portorford cedar Canadian spruce blues puce Italian spruce willow others too! What about that wood that grows up at 5 though 8 though Arellano pine Swiss stone pine sycamore pear others too. Send me some genuine Arolla pine and I'm your friend for life.😅
There is also a so called pine that is actually a fir species it is extinct now from which Stradivari made his tops. Then there's the Sycamore Maple that your overlooking! My dad worked in lumber, it's a guy thing!😅
Oh yeh! I forgot! Adirondack spruce! Gee there's so many. Some say Sytradivari relieved wood from boats in Venice and the Baltic I don't buy it! Had to have been local wood from Cremona. HE was poor despite what they say that he was tax collector. Why import wood on a raft of unknown origin? NO INCENTIVE! HE WAS AN APPRENTICE OF AMATI! THE PLAGUE WAS RAMPANT. NO ONE HAD ENOUGH MONEY TO PAY AN UNKNOWN LUTIER. AMATI WAS GOD! AMATI DID NOT USE FANCY WOOD! JUST STUFF IN HIS AREA. SAME WITH ANTONIO. YA GO WITH WHAT YA KNOW. HIS TURN AROUND TIME WOULD BE SLOWED BY HASTLES WITH EXOTIC WOOD MAN FROM RUMANIA RUSSIA ETC. WHY BE SLIWED DOWN BY WOODSY OWL?
I submit to you ladies and gentlemen Antonio Stradivari more than likely used local woods available to him. Treated them for worms ergo lead oxide alum layer down a coat of beeswax scraped and finally varnished the damn thing. He would have done exactly as Amati with his own changes . The biggest thing everyone overlooks is Stradivari used red hot square nails driven into the neck block. This helped sustain, that is along with the Willow liners the big so called secret your grumbling about!! Red Hot Jesus Nails! That's why Stadivari are so sought after...they ringgggggg. Anyone who blaspheme a Stradivarious with removing those nails, guilty of Herresey and abomination! God put those nails by Stradivaris Blessed hands! You change the neck on an original Stradivarious you commit sacrilege! Only those Stadivari Instruments with the original necks and Forge driven nails will sing! It is given! Any toying about with Antonio Stradivarius instruments is Sacriligeon! And they sell his instruments for millions of dollars! What a shame! Anything other than a nailed neck by the master is mutation! Someone other than Stradivari bold enough to alter his original neck is asking for mediocher sound. The resonance comes from the iron nails driven with sweat and blood for in my opinion for Jesus! I may be entirely wrong but that's how I see it. I would love to play an untouched Stradivarious violin with the nails and un arched neck but probably never will! That's where the hype came from ladies and gentlemen the red hot iron nails that sustain each and every note! God give you rest Mr.Stradivari and thank you for your surviving instruments.God give you rest.
![F.HERO Ft. JSPKK x ลำไย ไหทองคำ x M-PEE - ไม่สนิทบิดหมด (Thai Riders Anthem) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kPJZ0UihBfk/mqdefault.jpg)
Turn OFF the background music. I don't care how famous it is or the composer! It's hard to hear / concentrate on what your saying with all that background noise.
True, I got a little carried away - that was my 3rd violin being demo'd. Next time I'll lower it way down.
@@tpistor - better to delete the music.
@tpistor your composition is good dont listen to these fools
What a great experiment. Thank you so much for publishing this. I was so surprised how little the F holes affect the sound. Yes, it's noticeable, but not so much as expected. All this talk about the exact shape of the F holes as determined by Stradivari being important is an exaggeration.
I would have used an oscilloscope, or even better, a spectrum analyzer, to monitor the sound visually as well as listening to the changes.
But from what I heard, it wasn't a drastic change, but the sound seemed to develop more harmonics (?) as the F holes increased, and it sounded more like a regular violin.
I hope you continue to experiment with the increase in size of the F holes!
What an amazing experiment. Harmonics are responsible for the timbre. Low wavelength are effected more by the form because of the effect on the harmonics. We can see the difference in timbre of the violoncello and that of the violin.
Nice experiment sir. Thanks for letting us know.
Thank's a lot!! Quite a good experiment ..
Interesting. And Thanks to Claudia. Nice playing.
Tom; What a wonderful experiment. I myself have been doing experiments along the same lines, Using the J. Bell Strad violin as the acoustical model, and preproducing the width variations of the long part of the sound holes (18 steps), and transfering these dimensions to three Strad violins I had made. It really can make a difference. Also, as you tap along the sides of the opening the tap tone will increase from upper to lower ends. You will get best results with this being a smooth transition with the upper frequency at 213 HZ (same as top plate) and bottom end (toward tailpiece) at 461HZ. You can not believe the difference!
Of, you have to tune each side of the long hole separately and make them match and the upper hole area is evenly 213 and the larger bottom hole area evenly also to 461HZ... David L. {what a lot of work!}
Thanks. Wow, you've done a lot of work here. I subscribed to your channel and am checking out some of your videos. Very interesting stuff.
Enjoyed every second, excellent work
Thanks!
That was interesting! There is definately a more rich sound with fully opened f-holes but not to the degree one would expect! Soundpost position, bridge shape and tonewood choices are likely far more important then. There's been studies on that lately and they don't support what luthiers have been teaching over the centuries!
Yeah, tonewood is generally bullshit.
Thank you for sharing with us. With ff holes Is better resonate....and prettiest sound.
2:14 I heard that current debate is about which brand of super glue he used.😉.. For a second you actually got me thinking...what?! Excellent work on your violins! I wish there was TH-cam to follow (40 years back) when I have made my two fiddles. I watch D. Sora just for relaxation..
Thanks! D Sora is definitely The master. So true, I can watch hours of his videos.
Very interesting. Thanks! I was surprised how little effect on the E string the f hole made. The G was very dramatic.
Even on the e string, there was more difference from the low notes to the high notes.
Hey trade design I agree with you 100% its distrcting. If your gonna do a test keep it simple!
What a BRILLIANT experiment. Stuff I’d love to do but never will - just amazing that it made any sound with no f holes. Wow. Don’t suppose you’d keep Increasing the size of the holes to see the point of vanishing returns? As an amateur builder - a big thank you!
Thanks! I do plan on increasing f-hole size further. But I'm trying to decide if I want to experiment with any other parameters before I do so....(maybe the bass bar?). I've increased the f-hole size before on another cheap shop-made violin and it quickly became very loud and harsh.
@@tpistor I find that if I stick to the ‘established’ Strad/Guanari specs on belly/back carving and use the best wood I can afford I get surprisingly good results. It’s great that you wander off the beaten path as it’s nice to see the ‘what Ifs’. I’m planning working on using CNC (I’ve carved a few as well so not all heresy) to refine plates to the fractional mm of the great violins to see what they sound like. Still hand built but refining a bit.
@@Jeff034 I hope you'll post about it, I look forward to seeing.
I was wondering the exact same thing, especially on lower end, student violins/violas. Could increasing F hole size on them help produce a better, richer tone?
@@BigCarmine I don't know for sure, but my gut feeling is that increasing beyond the normal size causes the tone to quickly become very harsh. I have increased the f-hole size on cheap violin and it didn't turn it into a nice sounding instrument. I think the wood and perhaps the grading of the plates become the limitation of the sound which cannot be improved by altering the f-hole size.
It occurs to me that without the f-holes, the violin sounds like a rebec. I wonder what aspect of the violin is most important to the sound quality between the two.
DeR camron burnett! I also agree ditto it allows super tweeter to chirp and on bassbar sde for the teeter totter to rock head to toe instead of obliquely. In other words the flexibility of a cross? G whizz Antonio certainly was clever! I know the f hole came before stradidvari but just humor me!😊
What I heard was your skill at violin building.
People erroneously think the sound comes out from the instrument through these f holes. Wrong! Their function is allow the air inside the instrument to flow in and out as the body of the instrument vibrates. The sound actually comes directly from the vibrating wood.
Quite educational. It seems as if f-holes does not contribute to the sound quality. So, they are more of esthetic value and for the purpose of sound post setup.
Thank you very much for your presentation.
They don't seem to contribute to the quality of the high notes, but they do contribute significantly to the quality of the low notes. Additionally, as you mention, they are needed for setting the sound post.
Mmh you need a new pair of ears :D They definitely do contribute to the sound quality, by opening the top, and making it more elastic. Especially the low notes are affected.
But why does a violin have F holes, when a Viola da Gamba have C holes? And for that matter, why doesn't the violin have a round hole like a guitar? That would be an interesting experiment. Interesting video. Thanks. Jon
I think the f-holes evolved from C-holes. I think a single round hole could work too. But one thing I know for sure - violinists, especially classical, usually won't even consider touching a violin that doesn't look like the classic violin shape. Fiddle players are more open :)
Interesting. So the f-holes have very little effect, and only serve to give a little reverb and volume to the low notes. Had zero effect on the high notes.
It may be difficult to hear from the video, but I would say they have a very dramatic effect at the low end and a surprisingly small effect at the high end. It's definitely not just volume at the low end, it really opens it up. Without the f-holes, the low end is very tinny, nasal and weak.
A single f hole to enable proper soundpost placement would be interesting.
I'm waiting to get more tone wood out of my buddy's barn. Then I can do a whole bunch more experiments.
From my understanding of studying second year physics at uni, the forced standing waves of the string are transmitted to the 2D surface that forms a ‘box’ via the bridge and sound post. Since the area of the box is greater than the area of a line, the sound is then amplified. So, I thought amplification has is nothing to do with the f-hole. Your results are not a huge surprise, except for, as you pointed out, the bass end seems more affected, which is very interesting indeed … I do find 2D an 3D standing waves fascinating! I look forward to your next experiment … Try get this experiment published!!!!
My understanding is that the sound comes mostly from the motion of the top plate. The top plate is light and stiff and has large area and displaces a lot of air when it moves. The sound holes allow the box to "breath". Without the f-holes, the motion of the top plate is dampened by the pressure compaction/rarefaction in the sealed box.
As for why the f-holes make more difference to the low tones - here's my theory: your ear has a limited frequency response - which tapers off at around 10kHz. I think it's probable that the f-holes not only affect the fundamental harmonic, but also affect the higher order harmonics. If our ear only hears the harmonics below 10kHz, when you play A220 on the G-string, your ear hears more harmonics than when you plane A880 on the e-string (specifically, it hears 2 more harmonics). For the highest notes, if the f-holes were affecting the higher harmonics, we won't even hear it cause those higher harmonics are out of range. (I guess basically, this means any note above 5 kHz played on different instruments should sound the same - mostly like a pure sine wave).
Why the violin has no fine tuners in the samples with no Fs , but it has in all the strings with the F samples? A comparison requieres that all the conditions be the same.
Actually in the sound recordings, the violin has fine tuners for both the no f-hole case and the case with f holes. So it is consistent. It's just that when I edited the video, I realized I didn't take a picture of the violin before I drilled the first f-hole. So I used a previously taken picture. The pictures are not consistent, but the sound recordings are. You can even see the color tone of the no f-hole picture is different from the color tones of the f-hole pictures.
@@tpistor Ok. Quite convincent. Good experiment!
At least have it published in Strings magazine if thoes Harvard and Stanford and Yale snobs turn up there snouts for it.
What's the tune that plays in the background at the start of the video?
Gavotte en rondeau by Bach
Thanks Tom
@@tpistor
Ive noticed in sub comments about desire to test bass bar patameters. Curious if you did any experiments and what it sound like. Im curious how would violin soundn like without bass bar. Does bass bar like its name says increase the bass/low frequencies making the sound more bold? Does it affect mostly G,D or maybe it affects E and A too? Some say that bass bar helps to spread vibrations over whole plate but not sure to what degree it is true as if plate wasnt conducting vibrations good enough. What would happen if the bass bar was too big? Would the sound have too much bass and the 'break in' required to make sound would be bigger because of increase of mass?
Why next time do the top make all aluminum
I heard that the f holes effect the elasticity of the top, so I guess that makes sense that it effects the lows more. There was a video I was watching the other day that talked about the treble "tweeter" being more to do with the thickness near the treble side F hole (th-cam.com/video/c8-rOvWeV8k/w-d-xo.html). It would be cool to do the same experiment if you found the spot and take 0.1mm off at a time or something. I'm only just prepping to make my first violin at home so I don't really know anything but there sure is a lot of fascinating information floating around on the internet.
Thanks for the effort doing the experiment :).
Thanks for comments. I did watch that video you referenced, I was surprised to learn about the difference in stiffness across the grain and along the grain. I'm not sure I believe his action of doing a tiny bit of sanding in those particular locations made much difference to the sound. I couldn't hear any. Though I think it's an interesting thing to try. In a future video, I may make another sacrificial top and shave it down from the top side as it is played.
If you like, see the build video of my first violin, I reference three different TH-cam makers which I suggest you watch their videos. Also of course there is makingtheviolin.com . Good luck with your first build!
Interesting.
Well then! It would seem that the f hole only gives a muniscule difference in volume so as to be negligeable!. What then is the f hole for? Its for cleaning the interior of the violin and placing the soundpost. And allowing moisture to escape uniformly from the wood. Your test was eye opening and I thank you for doing it. My comments were not necessarily accurate they were just quick reactions to your interesting study. By the way your daughter plays beautifully! Thank you for this fastenating study! So in conclusion based on your presentation the top and bottom plates radiate sound and the f holes are there predominantly for insertion of sound post. And i dare say to allow the plates to dry unformly. Tone would seem to have insignificant roll other than bottom floor bass resonance. However it is just possible that Im wrong. I do woder though about projection could you hear the violin in another room? In an auditorium in the bleachers there is the phenominon of wolf notes and ultra high frequency and infralow frequency to consider. I think its basically an insertion aid and projection aid.400 years cant be wrong!
Thanks for your comments. Actually, the video clearly shows that the low notes are highly affected by the presence of the f-hole. Perhaps you did not see that part of the video? The high tones are not strongly affected, but the low tones are definitely affected by the presence of the f-holes. If you did watch the whole video, perhaps listen with some headphones.
My theory, and it's only a theory, is that whatever tone is being played, the f holes affect the higher harmonics. In the case of a low tone, the higher harmonics are still audible. But in the case of a high tone, the ear can't hear the higher harmonics, and even if they are affected, we would never know. Like 10,000 Hertz. The second, harmonic is 20,000 Hertz which is already at the limit of human hearing. So if it were affected by the f-hole relative to the first harmonic, we'd never know because we can't hear it.
I guess listening live the difference would be more prevelant than in recording. The sound is definitely a bit thinner without f holes when listening on headphones. Wondering how it would sound like with different hole shape. I guess its 'f' shaped instead of 'I' shaped because the sides of violin are curved.
There is definitely a difference in listening to a violin live compared to even the best recordings. Somehow live, it fills the room and seems to come at you from all directions. Using headphones can definitely help compared to speakers.
I do plan to continue increasing the f-hole size to see what happens. I would like to try different shapes, but need to build a few more top plates. Luckily I have access to more of the exact same wood.
What wood? Sitka? Engleman? Portorford cedar Canadian spruce blues puce Italian spruce willow others too! What about that wood that grows up at 5 though 8 though Arellano pine Swiss stone pine sycamore pear others too. Send me some genuine Arolla pine and I'm your friend for life.😅
There is also a so called pine that is actually a fir species it is extinct now from which Stradivari made his tops. Then there's the Sycamore Maple that your overlooking! My dad worked in lumber, it's a guy thing!😅
Oh yeh! I forgot! Adirondack spruce! Gee there's so many. Some say Sytradivari relieved wood from boats in Venice and the Baltic I don't buy it! Had to have been local wood from Cremona. HE was poor despite what they say that he was tax collector. Why import wood on a raft of unknown origin? NO INCENTIVE! HE WAS AN APPRENTICE OF AMATI! THE PLAGUE WAS RAMPANT. NO ONE HAD ENOUGH MONEY TO PAY AN UNKNOWN LUTIER. AMATI WAS GOD! AMATI DID NOT USE FANCY WOOD! JUST STUFF IN HIS AREA. SAME WITH ANTONIO. YA GO WITH WHAT YA KNOW. HIS TURN AROUND TIME WOULD BE SLOWED BY HASTLES WITH EXOTIC WOOD MAN FROM RUMANIA RUSSIA ETC. WHY BE SLIWED DOWN BY WOODSY OWL?
I submit to you ladies and gentlemen Antonio Stradivari more than likely used local woods available to him. Treated them for worms ergo lead oxide alum layer down a coat of beeswax scraped and finally varnished the damn thing. He would have done exactly as Amati with his own changes . The biggest thing everyone overlooks is Stradivari used red hot square nails driven into the neck block. This helped sustain, that is along with the Willow liners the big so called secret your grumbling about!! Red Hot Jesus Nails! That's why Stadivari are so sought after...they ringgggggg. Anyone who blaspheme a Stradivarious with removing those nails, guilty of Herresey and abomination! God put those nails by Stradivaris Blessed hands! You change the neck on an original Stradivarious you commit sacrilege! Only those Stadivari Instruments with the original necks and Forge driven nails will sing! It is given! Any toying about with Antonio Stradivarius instruments is Sacriligeon! And they sell his instruments for millions of dollars! What a shame! Anything other than a nailed neck by the master is mutation! Someone other than Stradivari bold enough to alter his original neck is asking for mediocher sound. The resonance comes from the iron nails driven with sweat and blood for in my opinion for Jesus! I may be entirely wrong but that's how I see it. I would love to play an untouched Stradivarious violin with the nails and un arched neck but probably never will! That's where the hype came from ladies and gentlemen the red hot iron nails that sustain each and every note! God give you rest Mr.Stradivari and thank you for your surviving instruments.God give you rest.
Is there bassbar settled inside?
Yes, there is a proper bass bar.
Go watch TH-camr Olaf the Violinmaker. He's a professional violinmaker-repairman.
I have seen some of his videos. They're good. They seem aimed at the non-violin maker.