Violin Forum/Message Board

[John Cadd]

While looking for info about tuning violin bridges I came across a neat coincidence.The bridge tuning experiments are in an article by Jansson, Fryden and Mattsson from Sweden. Very practical tips for tuning the bridge ,which they recommend to have a frequency of
2.9 khz .
This is also the favourite frequency of the Australian burrowing cricket Rufocephalus. There now,don`t say you haven`t been told.
If you have just made your first instrument take some time to learn as much as you can about bridge tuning as it may give you a boost early on in your career as a maker .

[John Cadd]

I found a site that gives sounds of crickets at 2.9 khz today.
The Snowy Tree Cricket is perfect for tuning your bridge.
Compare the sound with the noise you get when a bridge is dropped onto the sole of a steel plane.Make it rattle by dropping it in a tilted way.(flat but tilted).There is enough of a sound to match the cricket frequency.I have described this on the lop sided guarnerius soundhole thread.
It works like a charm to improve the tone of your violin.
Researchers say that most of the best violins have bridges tuned to 2.9 khz.

[Mat Roop]

Which researchers?
Cheers, Mat

[John Cadd]

See under
Physical parameters of the violin bridge changed by active control.
H Boutin and C Besniaou.
www.acoustics08-paris.org
I took a short cut. It`s a bit of them ,a bit of you and a bit of me.
Don`t forget the internet filing system.If I use the letters and numbers 2.9 khz and burrowing crickets appear ----What can you say?

[ollieken]

Mat it is on the David Langsather site http://www.dalemfg.com/violin_001.htm
or http://www.ask.com/web?l=dis&qsrc=999&siteid=14221&o=14221&q=klh&ifr=1 & type in 2.9 KLHviolin bridge tuning ken

http://www.penguinlovers.net/bridge_adj.html

[Jack Rushing]

I think it would require a large number of bridge blanks on hand, to start
dropping them until you found one that rang 2.9 khz. Or do you use just
one blank, and start trimming until the desired frequency is met?
In other words, the finished blank should register 2.9 khz?
This condition might be met by treating the bridge with chemicals, or
toasting it slightly, or a thin coat of shellac, etc., also.

[John Cadd]

Jack You have zee leetle joke.Yes?

[John Cadd]

Or jam. 3.layers of jam would look pretty. If they were wrong they would taste good too. Crunchy!.

[John Cadd]

Can you see the point of using the insect noise? Forget how you make it.
Can you see any point at all in using this?Think hard now.

[John Cadd]

First report I read on this subject was
"On tuning of the violin bridge."
by Erik V Jansson, Lars Fryden and Gunnar Mattson
Royal Institute of Technology , Stockholm, Sweden.
2.9khz always gave best results.

[John Cadd]

Well first off,2.9 khz sounds like it has some heavyweight support by experts in the field.
Second ,I remember more than once reading that when a maker is choosing a sound post, to drop them ( one at a time !!!) to see which one had the highest pitch. One at a time and not all together, OK?
Third .If you try to match the sound with a piano, F sharp (two and a bit octaves above middle C ) you will have a much harder job to distinguish the note comparison.
The cricket chirp has a very similar sound to a bridge being dropped on a hard surface.
Fourth .If you test bridges until they "go off",you are slightly working with a blindfold on.Plus , you end up wasting bridges .
Fifth ,Why waste money on fancy dan equipment to do a simple job.
It takes less than an hour to try it out .Do yourself a favour and try it .Only one bridge is required for this test .Alternatively buy a huge sackfull and hope to get lucky.

[John Cadd]

The site with cricket recordings can be hard to find.
This is the exact site title ; Sample songs of Crickets and Katydids.
Look for Oecanthus Fultoni (Snowy Tree Cricket) with the 2.9 khz frequency.
Once you have a sample bridge tuned it can be used for tuning all the others.