Swamp Ash

[John OlsenParticipant @johnolsen79199]

Well of course music does involve special skill, which, having listened to Hillary Hahn playing the Sibelius violin concerto earlier this evening I could not deny. And I would also say that playing like that is so difficult that it would be churlish to deny her anything that helps, whether it can be justified on theoretical grounds or not. But as far as say the reproduction of music goes, I came to the conclusion many years ago that it was best to just make sure the gear is good enough that you can live with the imperfections and just listen to the music. So for instance, even knowing that a typical tone arm on a record player has a tracking error of up to 2%, thereby contributing a similar amount of actual harmonic distortion in places along its travel, still provides a good listening experience and most people do not notice it. So why pay over the odds for linear tracking. Of course, now that we have digital recordings, that one need no longer be a concern, except to people who like to think that vinyl is somehow better.

For Michael's point, well, pretty well all of our models of how the universe works are approximations, or are likely to turn out to be so with later discoveries. That does not mean that a pendulum is useless for a clock, the results are good enough to be useful. (so long as you stay on this planet!) And no structure is actually really rigid, but that can be a useful approximation for many purposes. For critical things like aeroplane wings, the flex does have to be taken into account.

John

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by John Olsen on 30/10/2020 09:53:30:

[…]

For Michael's point, well, pretty well all of our models of how the universe works are approximations […] the results are good enough to be useful. […]

.

Yes, John … that was my point

Finesse is a step or two above useful though …

MichaelG.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Volume has a significant impact on tone with electric instruments – the amplifier and speaker response changes, the listeners ears change their response. Yes I can see that 'tonewood' might affect feedback, but there are other factors at play here – for example (and intuitively) semi acoustic guitars are far more prone to feedback.

Try and decide what you feel the differences are before the end of this where the guy tells you what he thinks. I won't post my thoughts:

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

He made all three bodies weigh the same which seems to me to nullify his test straight away since, surely, the 1st order difference between the woods is their density

It's not science it's marketing

Rod

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Sorry … been otherwise occupied today

1. Rod makes a good point: I think a much more ‘focused’ test would be to use the same dimensions, and let the weight be whatever it is.

2. YouTube audio is hopelessly inappropriate for a test like this

3. I would rather start by comparing the behaviour of three simple rectangular ‘plates’ of timber, of equal dimensions, in a simple modal analysis test. [but of course I worked for a vibration test-house. not a custom guitar components supplier]

MichaelG.

.

For a brief introduction, see Section 2, here:

https://www.crystalinstruments.com/basics-of-modal-testing-and-analysis

 

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 30/10/2020 22:22:58

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