BRIDGES
TOP PHOTO PAULINE HARDING. ALL OTHER PHOTOS, GRAPHS AND DIAGRAMS JOSEPH CURTIN
The bridge and soundpost are ground zero for set-up. Where the post is a simple, timeless design – a spruce rod whose important parameters are mainly its length and position, the bridge is a complex structure whose design has changed dramatically over the centuries, and whose important parameters are, after several decades of scientific research, only now becoming clear. This article outlines some of the experiments done at the VSA/Oberlin Acoustics Workshop, and the light they shed on both the evolution of the bridge and the possibilities for optimising violin sound via ‘bridge tuning’.