Samples of acoustical variability of woods used in violin construction:
Frequency in HZ
...This photo shows a good example of natural tone variability in instrument woods. I purchased these 18 ebony tuning pegs at one time, they are identical dimensions from the same maker, first quality. When dropped on my maple work table they make tones of D#5 (an octave above middle C) up an entire additional octave to D#6 (1246 cycles per second).
...Notice how their tones are spread out with only three pairs producing the same tone.
...I believe this illustrates the importance of final wood shaping by the acoustical approach rather than relying only on traditional use of measurements of famous instruments.
...The wood reference blocks in the backgorund are my tone references for acoustical adjusting of the various parts of the violin. It is important to have a wood reference tone when evaluating a wood sound to give the ear a good comparitive sound.
...I separated the tuning pegs into four groups: from the naturally highest pitched tuning pegs I make 'E' string pegs and so on. I then cut them to finished lengths and shaved the tapered section until they produced the actual tone of the string they would be anchoring. So beginning with my opus #08 violin, if you took the tuning pegs off and dropped them on a hard surface they produce the tone of their respective open string.
Center of tree
...This example is a fifteen inch long piece of cello top spruce (first quality). The tree is 150 years old (tree ring count) with the outside of the tree being the wider strips. I have sawed it into 0.220" thick strips for use as superior bass bars (fine straight grain).
...I then checked the tone of the strips and you visually see the results above. The wood nearest the center of the tree exhiblits a tap tone of C#5 (an octave above middle C), the next section of the tree is a semi-tone higher at D5, while the outer 59% of the tree exhibits a D#5 tap tone, another semi-tone higher. 		...The higher the natural tone of the wood the more desireable it will be for making instruments because the part made from it can be made lighter.
...Violins tops are normally made from smaller diameter trees while the example above shows that the outer wood of an older tree is naturally more musical (responsive). I believe there are several advantages to cutting the violin top wood from the outer 60% of cello (wide) top wood. This should result in a more responsive instrument that is potentially slightly lighter as well.
...I used only the D#5 wood for my bass bars. The lower toned wood is not used at all.
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