Since I began working with Joseph Curtin, we have collaborated on several projects which have tried to improve the object that is the modern day violin. I am excited to report that we have evidence of some amount of success in our endeavors. The proof is that musicians are starting to request some of our inventions!

The photographs above show a fingerboard that features a new geometry we designed (digital model, FB just after milling, and FB on an instrument), as well as a next generation violin bridge, and a digital model of a standard bridge. Our improvements to these violin components are as follows. The new fingerboard geometry optimizes the area underneath each string to make depressing and playing a string as easy as possible, while our innovative bridge design reimagines the way bridges are constructed. This new method allows us to strengthen several fragile areas of the bridge, conferring the added benefit of improving sound conductivity between the strings and the soundboard. When our design is applied to traditionally shaped bridges, it improves the quality volume of a violin’s sound. These improvements are made even more dramatic when coupled with our inventive ultralight bridge shape.

This design needs a lot of work before it is complete. Nevertheless, I wanted to post an update of my progress. Three weeks ago I milled out this plastic prototype. It will help me to physically work through some of the design challenges concerning the shoulder/neck rests, back, and neck assembly.

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I am working with a sound engineer (John Bell), violin maker (Joseph Curtin), and U of M physicist (Gabriel Weinreich) to design a next-generation electric violin. The violin is an incredibly iconic object, so even a minor aesthetic change noticeably affects the viewer’s response to the instrument. At first, I worked to solve this problem by creating an electric violin that would conform closely to the familiar aesthetic of the traditional violin, but the Mirra task chair by Herman Miller inspired me to approach this challenge in a completely new way. In this design, a flexible plastic surface with a rigid backbone replaces the wooden box traditionally used for a body. Once refined, these early models will be printed in three dimensions using ABS plastic.