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Regarding sustain and body motions: Notes which are close in frequency to the peak frequencies of body modes have noticeably shorter characteristic times, while notes which are not close to body...

What I have observed is (a) good volume, (b) strong attack, i.e., what players sometimes describe as "pop", and (c) good balance (as in bass/treble balance). Note that I specifically referred to...

It's not quite correct to say that what is going on inside an instrument body is irrelevant to what is heard. True, the movement of the air mass in the soundhole region is what ultimately propagates...

Iirc, Paul Ruppa, of the Minnesota Mandolinn Orchestra, has written some about mandolin orchestras and their histories. Might do a search on something like "Paul Ruppa and the mandolin"? And/or,...

THe longitudinal (aka parallel) modulus does indeed follow density. However, the cross-grain (aka perpendicular) modulus can be all over the map, and for a variety of reasons. Per Graham...

I just skimmed the article yesterday, but took away a few things that I already knew - sorta. At one point, I did interferometry and a few other things on a 1921 (?) Calace that Mike Schroeder had...

I've imaged the mandolin body modes both with and without a bridge and strings in place. I found no difference in either mode shapes or modal. frequencies, with only one exception. One mandolin had...

If you draw a vector diagram of the forces, you will see that the down force on the top is nowhere near the full string tension. The formula for the down force of the strings on the bridge/top plate...

If your hygrometer doesn't have a calibration function, you can still deFacto calibrate it. Do a google or duckduckgo or bing search for hygrometer calibration methods. Most online sites will...

In general, the biggest problems arise when instruments are built at a higher EMC, then sent to a location where the RH is much lower. For instance, free guitar tops and/or back plates can shrink...

Update: I couldn't find the Meyer work at MARL, although there is a lot of other useful information there. Then went to the website of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. Comes up in Swedish, but...

Try MARL (Musical Acoustics Research Library) at Stanford. Free, Iirc.

Not a book suggestion, but a reference to the paper(s) that Sunburst mentioned:

(1). Meyer, J.; Quality apects of the guitar tone. In "Function, Construction, and Quality of the Guitar" (E.V....

First, your description of fretting the string at the 1st fret and measuring the height of the strings at the 2nd fret is giving you information about the effect of the saddle height, NOT the nut...

The scale length (nut to bridge) is twice the distance from the nut to the 12th fret (not counting compensation). So by similar triangles, the amount by which you raise the bridge saddle height...

Necks are definitely part of iit. See my recollection about the whole body + neck barlike bending motion(s) in post #5 above. You want the peak frequency of one of those bending modes to go as High...

".......half deaf old geezers......"

I kinda resemble that remark - kinda. I Recently took a hearing test at the recommendation of my ENT after an appointment for cleaning my ears, among other...

Attention to repeated failures is the way we initially learn most things. BUT, I don't think it is the ONLY way to learn. We are Homo Sapiens Sapiens, which literally means "the knowing ape". So...

Yes, the "pop" is due to pumping air in the sound holes. Mandolins and most other plucked string instruments have low-frequency and high-frequency modes (not the same as vibrational modes) of sound...

Too bad about that human element. ;<)

So back to what can be done with a "lesser" piece of wood: If you measure the longitudinal or parallel modulus for several pieces of wood, you will see that its value is proportional to the density...

IDK if responsiveness has a physical definition. As I see it, acoustic volume is certainly part of it, but not all of it. Responsiveness is not only the instrument's capability to produce...

Considering every vibration that the instrument can make is a pretty tall order. Deciding whether any one of those vibrations either contributes to sound or is just wasting energy is an even taller...

There are a number of factors contributing to responsiveness in mandolins, or in any plucked string instrument for that matter. How the top and back plates are arched is one factor. The...

As a luthier, I am involuntarily caught in the quest for "tone", whatever that may be. As a scientist, I have gradually been forming the opinion that "tone" whatever it may be, is over rated. The...