Useful Tools...
(Modified 4/2023)
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..Here is some good news! Several of these helpful in measuring and adjusting Violin tap tones. {The results for 20 years of research.} New areas are included for the Wood Tone method of Violin wood selection. Just click on photos (or text) to learn more about each.
..For those interested in Vidgorchik Violin Plate Tuning :
{Which can be used for violin plate fine tuning...}
..Before using you need to hammer on the two ends of the leather roll with a heavy hammer to loosen up the binding so you get the proper response...I used a framing hammer, with the other side of the mallet on a steel plate... strike hard about 10 times on each end. When the tap on a sample wood block sound the same as the tap of the first knuckle of your middle finger, it is ready to use!
..The Poor Man's Wood Tone Identifier Tool:
..The First Knuckle of the middle finger gives the same response as a leather mallet. (compare to the above and below leather mallet tools to verify for your self)...
..For Tap Tone; Second Knuckle...
...The first knuckle is all you really need to identify Wood Tone match or not...
However, if you have much wood to sort, the knuckle can get rather tender. Also, if you are picking out larger wood blocks from a large collection of possible pieces, the rawhide mallet is an important adjunct.
..As none of my wood tapper tools were useful, I decided to try a leather mallet I had heard about (raw hide mallet), so I made one for myself from a deer skin hide I had purchased; cut into a long strip and tightly rolled and attached it to a wood dowel.
..Using this tool to tap these prepared identical wood boards, I was able to produce a unique response tone. Comparing these to my tap tone reference tool revealed that they were all on the same scale frequencies; yet completely different from a tap tone measurement.
..I decided to call this wood property, a 'wood response' tone; or "Wood Tone".
...Incidentally, the wood tone is the same no matter on what part of the wood sample you tap on. Is is a property of the wood itself and unique to that particular tree.