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Dec
01

Napster For Music Shops?

Musicians Centre Uncategorized 2011-12-01
Stadivarius Copy

Stadivarius Copy

We found an article recently about building a new copy of a Stradivarius violin using a CAT scanner and replicating the densities on 3D CAD software and then replicating the build into a brand new violin.

While this is an amazing use of technology and impressive in concept, it threw up a few questions to us in the wider area of musical instrument manufacturing.  While throughout the years we have certainly seen high points (and low points) in terms of classic design and workmanship, this direction gives the impression that the best instruments have already been made.

We can’t get over the fact that this outlook is pessimistic at best and anti-innovative at worst.  Why do we have to keep going back and trying to replicate the past when it comes to instruments?  Why not itterate and innovate so that people in 100 years will be looking back at us and saying, “Wow, they made amazing progress in the early 2000s when it came to amazing instruments.”

Some companies are better at this than others.  Yamaha guitars for example constantly itterate and improve their designs.  Listening to people who give them feedback and keeping an eye on returns and where the weak points in their products are and fixing them in the next version.  They should be applauded for this, Yamaha are one of the few companies that do improve dramatically model on model.  Tanglewood Guitars are another company that we have found listen to us and while the process of improving a musical instrument product is not a quick one it is going in the correct direction.

While it is a slow process in physical goods, if you look towards the software technology  sector where software is updated sometimes daily, you can see how companies compete at such a rate that consumers are getting an often amazing and constantly improving product.

 

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  • Guest

    Sounds like you know a lot about guitars but not much about violins.  I don’t appreciate guitar/general music shops pitching in on a subject you don’t know much about – high end, quality made violins.  Please just stick to what you know.  Thanks!

  • Anonymous

    That’s a fair comment and I did come at it from a guitar perspective. Would you say then that there’s no more innovation to be done in building violins? That all we can do now is try and get as close as possible to violins made in the 18th century? Genuine question, not trying to start an argument, I just want to learn more. – Michael

  • Jordan

    That truly is about the extent of it.
    I approach this as someone with firm knowledge of both backgrounds. I’ve played cello for over 15 years and my second bachelors degree is in music performance. However, I am now a PhD graduate student in the physical sciences (I’m a chemist). I understand the fundamentals of what these instruments allow for and what these people elucidated from the data they obtained.

    When you think about the sound of an electric guitar, people use lots of pedals and other devices to alter the sound being created by their guitar, and can even manipulate the timbre of the instrument. What Yamaha does to improve the sound and feel of their instruments is to try and attain that sound that people like, using just the instrument and less technology to tweak the sound.

    In the world of classical music, however, the standard of sound has already been set. If you’re ever lucky enough to hear someone play a Stradivari instrument in person, you’ll begin to understand. The sound produced by those instruments is what we classical musicians have come to accept as “how a stringed instrument is SUPPOSED to sound.”

    This scientific use of nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry and xray computer tomography to discover the “magic” if you will, behind these amazing instruments in mind blowing.

    To relate this to guitars, Stradivrius lutes are also appreciated in a very similar manner. It’s the beauty of the -acoustic- instrument; to be able to produce the desired sound quality merely by plucking the string, and not through post-sound production alteration of the pitch, timbre, dynamic or clarity thereof. That being said, the world of guitars is still slightly different. What a “guitar” consisted of is very different now than it was when Stradivarius made instruments. Due to that fact, there is still room for improvement in the design of the modern guitar.

  • Anonymous

    Thank you. That’s much more the information I was interested in.