Giant Violin Bridge

When trying to perform a modal analysis on a standard violin bridge, which weighs between 1 and 3 grams, the weight of the sensors placed on the bridge will often impact the results of the experiment. To overcome this, Joseph Curtin has asked me to create a violin bridge that is roughly 5 times bigger than the standard one. Because the larger bridge is made form the very same material as a normal bridge, it should resonate in more or less the same way. The larger bridge size also means that the weight of the sensors will be a much smaller percentage of the entire system. This should dramatically reduce the sensor’s impact on the results.

The modal analysis will be performed later this week at the Violin Society of America’s Violin Acoustics Workshop at Oberlin College. On Friday at the conference, I will also be giving a talk about electric violin history and design. If everything goes well, we will be demoing our electric violin and 3D speaker on Friday as well. I’ll be sure post more as soon as there is more to post.