| Subject: | Re: [RESOGUIT-L] Acoustical Properties of Wood - Am.J.Bot. alert | | Date: | Wednesday, October 25, 2006 06:01:45 (-0700) | | From: | Betty Wheeler <bettywheeler @.....com>
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Here's an interesting article in the new issue of the American Journal of
Botany, of potential interest to -- well, Dick DeNeve and Charlie Campbell?
-- and all you other technical-minded dobro nerds. Entitled "Wood for
Sound," it explores the unique mechanical and acoustical properties of wood
for musical instruments. Author: Ulrike G.K. Wegst, the Max-Planck
Institut fur Metallforschung and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,
Materials Science Division. Alas, only the abstract is available without
charge (see link below). Here's the heart of the abstract (with nary a
word, oddly enough, as to why xylophone bars are examined, but dobros are
not):
"Using material property charts on which acoustic properties such as the
speed of sound, the characteristic impedance, the sound radiation
coefficient, and the loss coefficient are plotted against one another for
woods. We analyze and explain why spruce is the preferred choice for
soundboards, why tropical species are favored for xylophone bars and
woodwind instruments, why violinists still prefer pernambuco over other
species as a bow material, and why hornbeam and birch are used in piano
actions."
http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/abstract/93/10/1439
Next time anyone asks me about Purple Haze, my answer is going to be all
about loss coefficient...
Betty
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