Scan 113
The violin & its story : or the history & construction of the violin, 1905
10 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 97. See the scan on archive.org.
1very excellent instruments are to be met with the belly-wood of which is of a very close grain, others equally excellent are found with broad-grained wood.
3Makers have universally agreed that pine is the best belly-wood; but there is not the same unanimity as to the best wood for the back and sides. It is quite true that by far the greater number of instruments made in Italy have backs and sides of maple; but even in Italy this was not always the case. Thus the writer knows a 'cello, said to have been made by Guarnerius del Gesu, which has a back of very soft wood. Among seventeenth century makers of the second and third rank, frequent use was made (for backs and sides) of pine, fir, and lime. Dr. Schebek has in his possession a 'cello, made in 1659, of which the back is of lime and the sides of beech. There are of course various sorts of lime-wood; and I have seen a letter from a great connoisseur of instruments, who owns a G. B. Ruggieri 'cello with a back of Italian lime, in which he expressly states that this is a particularly hard wood.
5Modern makers universally use maple for backs and sides, and they prefer wood which has the most "flame" in it, because it increases the beauty of the instruments. But it is now believed that wood without "flame" is best fitted for the production of a good tone.
7However pleasant, sweet, and round may be the tone of old instruments made with backs and bellies both of soft wood—and those qualities are especially found when back and belly are cut the same way of the grain—that tone is, all the same, not so powerful, nor does it "carry" so well, as when the back is of maple. The tone at once gains in power when the soft back is taken from an instrument and a maple back put in its place.
9This fact proves that the back has a somewhat different function to discharge from that of the belly. Vibration is not the main function of the back, which to a certain extent only echoes, or repeats, the vibration of the belly. If the back vibrates with the same power as the belly, it would seem that its effect would be to
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