JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Special Issue Composites for Sports, Health & Leisure - November 2020 - 34

APPLICATION acoustic

The sound of composite violins investigated
For centuries, wood has been the material of choice for violins. Carbon fiber instruments have entered the market as
an alternative. In contrast to popular opinion that composite
violins have or lack a specific sound quality, our recent study
provides insights in the diverse sounds and timbres violins
from fiber-reinforced polymers can create.
This is a shortened version of the academic paper Listener
evaluations of violins made from composites. Published
online by JASA April 2020.

he soundboard of a violin
has, with few exceptions, always been made out of wood,
more specifically of high quality
spruce (Picea Abies). However,
due to environmental changes and
other factors, wood for music instruments is said to be depleting,
becomes more expensive, but also
lowers in quality [1]. Meanwhile,
the increase in use of technical
composites such as carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP)
and their qualities with regard to
moisture stability and durability,
has generated research that inves-

Tim Duerinck1, Geerten Verberkmoes1,
Claudia Fritz2, Marc Leman3, Luc Nijs3,
Mathias Kersemans4 and Wim Van Paepegem4
1
Instrument Making - School of Arts
Gent KASK & Royal Conservatory
2
Institut Jean le Rond d'Alembert, Sorbonne Université / CNRS
3
Department of Art, music and theater
sciences, Ghent University
4
Department of materials, textiles and
chemical engineering, Ghent University

important to the listeners? What
possibilities do composite materials offer to expand on the violin's
sonic palette as we know it today?
To answer these questions six composite violins were designed and
built with top plates from different
materials. We ran two experiments
with the instruments. In both cases, we examined how experienced
listeners judged the timbre of the
instruments on a broad spectrum
of possible qualities. We examined
which instruments were favored
and why, in order to shed light on
what sound listeners prefer from
such composite violin.

tigates their material properties
and compares them to wood [2,4].
Consequently, in recent years, research has resulted in prototypes
and commercially available instruments made from composites [5,9].
However, no comparative studies
that assess the sound of composite
violins with the same design and
setup under controlled conditions
is found in literature. How do composite violins sound? Which variations in the construction of the
soundboard influence the volume
and timbre of the sound? What
possible quality factors are more

Fig. 1: Prototype violins
with soundboards from
5 different materials
constructed for the study.
Only one of the TwillC
violins is displayed here as
the two instruments are
visually identical

Construction of
the prototype violins
The goal was to build all violins
identical except for the top plate,
which was made from different
materials between the violins. To
achieve this goal, all prototype violins were constructed by the same
luthier. The making process was
previously featured by JEC online
in the How It's Made series.
The soundboards were made either
from a selection of four composite
materials or from spruce, which

jec composites magazine / November 2020 / SPECIAL ISSUE Sports, Health & Leisure

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Special Issue Composites for Sports, Health & Leisure - November 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Special Issue Composites for Sports, Health & Leisure - November 2020