Stradivarius: in blind testing, virtuoso violin players can't pick them out

[tinitus]

well, you can use carbon fiber to build violins, and they will probably all sound about the same

btw, I noticed that carbon fiber have become popular for making violin bows

[Loudthud]

Originally Posted by tinitus

who knows
they are still valid today
and not forget a Fender bass

Now you are speaking in an area where I have some experience. The Fender Jazz and Precision basses have a serious dead spot around the 5th fret on the G string. The fundamental tone dies away very quickly leaving the 2nd harmonic and above. This makes the note sound very thin. It's not noticeable unless the mids are dipped really low by the amps EQ centered around 800 Hz.

The old Motown bass players used to lean the headstock against a wall to eliminate the dead spot. Leo Fender hired a consultant to solve the problem. The result was the larger headstock on basses starting about 1956 or so. It has something to do with the mass of the neck, string tention, trussrod and the mass of the body. A device is available that bolts onto the headstock to add mass. It doesn't work as well as I would like.

For about a year I tried to find basses that didn't have the dead spot. I bought a Rickenbacker bass thinking that because it had two truss rods, it wouldn't have a dead spot. It had two dead spots! Virtually every 34 inch scale bass with a bolt on neck has the dead spot. Basses with graphite necks don't have the dead spot, but they don't have the woody resonance of a Fender bass. I found a Kawai bass (Alembic knockoff with neck thru construction) that doesn't have the dead spot if the truss rod is adjusted just so. Hollow body basses and those with 30 inch scales tend to not have it.

Fender basses certainly have the iconic look that could withstand the test of time, but a high tech solution needs to be found this nagging little flaw.

[gaetan8888]

Originally Posted by tinitus

btw, gaetan, your link seems broken

Hello

Here is a working link:

CAS Forum Home Page

Bye

Gaetan

[Fiddlesticks]

While the study does not impress me in the slightest, the discussion does. There is no objective qualitative test to definitively determine "the best from the rest". I like Marshall, you like Fender. Meh.
And while I do disagree with a lot of the things said about the technical/mechanical sides here, they're irrelevant at the end o' the day.

...however...
How many guitarists here know they're instrument is out of tune?
No really, if you are playing a guitar with frets, I'm sorry that A you're playing is really Bbb (B double flat). And whilst on paper and in theory they are one and the same they are (were) in fact two completely different frequencies. You can thank Johann Sebastian Bach and his Well Tempered Klavier. Before that, his Klavier was causing nasty **** everywhere. Har-de-har-har.

Now for a twist. Whilst studying for an exam in my teens, coming to a tricky double/triple stop involving octave intervals (damn Barr chords lol) my teacher told me to play the upper octave very slightly flat otherwise they would sound out of tune. Wtf? Ok, so I do. And she was right. The upper octave must be slightly flat in order to remove the dissonance in the interval. Tested with a chromatic tuner with anologue/needle readout.

So, if our ears (brain really) cannot perceive an octave precisely, or most intervals for that matter, this study means...no need to spend $1M on a fiddle?
Besides, with so many string, bow, bridge, rosin, acoustic settings, and personal technique and playing style combinations to tinker with (yes, even a change of rosin on the bow can dramatically alter tone and timbre), why would I need to add more technical/mechanical doodads to my violin?

Tho a wammy bar would look *really* cool.

[PeteMcK]

re:'How many guitarists here know they're instrument is out of tune?' - depends how long you've been playing, once it never bothered me, now it drives me crazy, particularly intonation on the B string. Sometimes you've just got to forget about it and play...
Listen to Hendrix live, his guitar was rarely in tune, he simply bent the notes to where he wanted them, & it worked...

[phase_accurate]

Apart from the fact that the well tempered tuning is a compromise (evenly distributed errors) we further have the problem that strings don't behave like the theoretical ideal.
The first thing is that the different string thicknesses need slightly different string lengths for proper intonation . I.e. the "active length" of the low e- string is slighty longer than the high e-string on a guitar. And even then the adjustment is just a compromise.
Furthermore the overtones are not exact integer multiples of the fundamental. This can make cords sound raspy. And this is also the reason why the octaves on a piano for instance are lightly stretched or compressed (don't know the proper english expression for this) by the piano tuner.

Regards

Charles

[neutron7]

Originally Posted by MiiB

Instruments are tremendously different and changes with time and grows when used...Instruments that are not played die and looses their sparkle....my daughter plays her piano almost every day, but at times she's withe her mother for a few days, and when she returns the piano is a little dull...and needs to be played....(not tuned, but played).

thats got nothing to do with the piano. its either in your perception, or her becoming familiar with the instrument again.

[Fiddlesticks]

Originally Posted by neutron7

thats got nothing to do with the piano. its either in your perception, or her becoming familiar with the instrument again.

Actually, it may be the piano. Not being a pianist I can't refer to a piano, however this very true with my violin. There's even a huge difference in summer (warmer sound) to winter (very raspy and 'dry').