Bow & Bridge Violin and bow makers, as the old books printed them

Books › The Violin: A concise exposition of the general principles of construction.., 1871 › scan 80

Scan 80

The Violin: A concise exposition of the general principles of construction.., 1871

4 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.

1ence, all these three systems of thicknesses were applied to the bellies of the Cremona instruments of various makers, the first by Stradivarius; the second by Joseph Guarnerius; and the third by the Amatis; but all agreed in having the backs thickest in the centre, the respective qualities of the three classes of instruments being, power and mellowness, great power and brilliance with less mellowness, and sweetness but little power. Now, which is right? Tradition and prejudice is in favour of the last, the Amati style; but eventually will the student find his favorite method to be equal thickness throughout the belly.
3Is it not remarkable that there should be so close a parallel between the respective qualities of the three classes of instruments and the three systems of thicknesses. The Joseph Guarnerius, on the one hand, with the greatest thickness round the edge, have the greatest power; while, on the other hand, the Amatis with the greatest thickness in the centre, have comparatively little power, but great sweetness. Against these two extremes we have the Stradivarius instruments, with equal thickness throughout, combining the good qualities of both. In an article of Savart's, published in the "Annales de Chimie," entitled, "Recherches sur les Vibrations de l'Air," he states certain facts which throw considerable light upon what ought to be the form of the mass of air contained in a Violin. If we take a long, narrow vibrating column of air, as an organ pipe for instance, it will give a certain sound, which, with its harmonics, are the only sounds that can be derived from the pipe, and it will resound to no other vibrating body except

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