The secret of the great Stradivarius and his famous violins undoubtedly lies in the master's ability to find and use resonant wood, unique in its properties.

Since time immemorial, wood has been used by man everywhere, in all spheres of his activity, since it is not only quite easily obtained, but also completely irreplaceable and unique material, and the manufacture of musical instruments is no exception. There are many different materials that have excellent acoustic properties and are superior to wood in terms of sound strength. But none of them is capable of touching the hearts of listeners with that extraordinary tenderness and special timbre of sound that wood provides to the instrument. It is this effect that such great masters as Stradivari, Amati and Guarneri strove to achieve, creating their world-famous masterpieces.

What is resonant wood? Resonant is the type of wood that is used to make musical instruments, more precisely, their main sound-emitting part - the soundboard.

But it is not entirely correct to call such wood resonant in the usual sense of the word. As you know, in physics, resonance is a phenomenon that, at a certain frequency of the driving force, the oscillatory system turns out to be especially responsive to the action of this force. Therefore, resonance has nothing to do with music. But translated from French resonanse or Latin resono, this word means "I sound in response." This is the key: in the manufacture of decks, the acoustic responsiveness of wood in a wide frequency range is especially appreciated, due to which the musical sound acquires the timbre color inherent in this particular material.

The problem is that not every tree is suitable for making musical instruments. And the presence of dendroacoustic properties is not even due to the breed - within the same breed there are both completely ordinary trees and trees whose wood has musical properties, "sounds in response", which, of course, are very few. The situation is aggravated by the fact that there are still no methods and technical means for an objective express diagnostics of standing timber as a potential resonant raw material, and the lack of qualified specialists and investments in the music production industry also affects.

It is generally accepted that the species and growing conditions of a particular tree mainly affect the dendroacoustic properties of wood. But not everything is so simple. In addition to the above indicators, such characteristics as macrostructure, microstructure, color, gloss, wood grain, etc. have a great influence. We will talk about this below. Thus, the quality of wood in terms of its resonance properties depends on the species, on where and under what conditions a particular tree grew, on the physical properties and internal structure of wood, and a large number of factors can affect them, but first of all - an individual feature of a particular tree. The presence of resonant properties is a genetic predisposition. Such trees should in no way be perceived as a special "resonant" form of a tree species, wherever they grow.

The skill of making violin instruments reached its peak during the heyday of the Brescian and Cremona schools in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries. The most striking examples of instruments of the time were created using resonant spruce and various types of maple grown in Italy. But to this day, spruce is considered the breed with the best dendroacoustic properties. The standards for resonant timber allow for the use of Caucasian fir and cedar, but spruce is still superior in quality to other species. For example, spruce, unlike cedar, improves its sound after drying out. It is this breed that best meets the main parameters on which the pure, beautiful sound of the instrument depends.

Resonant spruce

As the scientist - forester G.A. The plowman, who published in 1911 in the Lesopromyshlennik magazine an article “On the suitability of Russian spruce for the production of resonators,” until 1907, Russian music factories used timber of foreign origin. In those days, only such sources of resonant raw materials as the Carpathians, the Tyrolean and Bavarian Alps were known. As a result of the research, it was found that "from Russian spruce, you can get a resonant forest, which is not inferior in quality to foreign ones." Head of the Department of Wood and Environmental Certification of the Mari State Technical University prof. It is not without reason that VI Fedyukov calls the resonant spruce "gold-bearing breed" in his works. After all, the real resonant wood discovered with the help of modern devices, possessing dendroacoustic properties, is of great interest to the world music industry. The cost of such wood is significant, and it is very important to find this valuable wood correctly and on time, because, unfortunately, large reserves of it remain in the forest, are lost or are used for other purposes. One can imagine how negatively the inability to correctly select it, as they say, in the bud, has a negative effect on the harvesting of resonant wood and the development of the music industry, because in Russia the exact areas and reserves of resonant spruce have not yet been identified.

It is known that there are very few trees with the best acoustic properties. The genetically determined biotype of spruce with resonant wood is found not only in mountainous conditions, but also on plains. The results of comprehensive research led by prof. Faculty of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology of the Forestry Institute (currently, the Faculty of HTB of the St. Petersburg Forestry University), specialist in the field of forestry technology N.A. Filippov, showed that taiga forests have not yet lost their importance as a source of resonant raw materials. This fact is also confirmed by the employees of the workshops - laboratories for the production of musical instruments, independently engaged in timber harvesting.

The targeted selection of resonant spruce in the forest is of great importance. In addition, forestry specialists should think about the reproduction of potential stocks of resonant spruce on a genetic basis in plantation cultivation. Targeted forest cultivation with specified acoustic properties of wood is extremely important in the modern world, including Russia. It is directly related to both environmental conditions and the gigantic volumes of both legal and illegal logging, which may ultimately lead to the complete disappearance of the gene pool of resonant spruce.

In 1976 in the Czech Republic, a nationwide program "Resonant wood and its production" was implemented. The main advantage of this program was a comprehensive solution to the problem of rational use and renewal of reserves of resonant raw materials in natural plantings. Such experience must first of all be adopted by Russia, the main forest country in the world. But so far we do not have such programs. It is believed that the problem of growing a resonant spruce should be solved, starting from the stage of forest management, forestry. But it is necessary to understand that methods aimed at obtaining large volumes of wood do not always help in this case.

If we take into account the fact that large reserves of spruce are concentrated on waterlogged soils, due to which this wood is almost never used, as well as the fact that it is in the conditions of bog plantations that the acoustic properties of wood are largely formed, then the proposal of prof. IN AND. Fedyukov about the targeted cultivation of resonant wood. This method is based on the cultivation of resonant raw materials by combining drainage reclamation with targeted forestry. A prerequisite is the maintenance of the drainage network in working order. As an option, you can also consider the creation of archival - uterine plantations of resonant spruce, created on the basis of the use of vegetative propagation methods with the participation of selected valuable forms of tree species, which in modern conditions contributes to the preservation of its gene pool in our forests and the introduction of cell selection by tissue culture. But, by and large, the issues of targeted cultivation of resonant raw materials remain unresolved.

Currently, there are indirect methods for diagnosing resonant wood: by the general appearance and condition of the tree, by the structure and color of the bark, as well as by the appearance of wood (its macrostructure, color, luster, texture, smell).

Appearance. As for the appearance and condition, it is known that the spruce tree must be absolutely vertical, with a symmetrical, narrow and peaked crown; the trunk should have a cylindrical zone (at least 5-6 m long), on which there are no knots and visible damage. These requirements are dictated primarily by technological and economic considerations, the purpose of which is to obtain the maximum output of the business assortment. Studies aimed at identifying the relationship between the acoustic characteristics of wood and the specified parameters of the tree have not yet been carried out.

Some individual masters are of the opinion that descending branches are a sign of resonant spruce. When selecting a resonant tree for craftsmen, it is also important that its trunk does not "curl".

The structure and color of the bark. The craftsmen pay attention to these morphological features both when selecting a standing tree and when selecting round assortments. But even here there is no general opinion about any specific characteristics. French masters are of the opinion that the bark of a resonant spruce should be gray in color and consist of rather small and smooth scales. Kostroma scientists who studied the selection of resonant spruce by phenotype, S.N. Bagaev and V.O. Aleksandrov, argue that the best resonant properties are in smooth-bore trees with a narrow-crown shape, both of the European and Siberian species. In Romania, it is believed that trees with dendroacoustic properties should have oblique branches and that the bark scales should be round and concave. The author of the article "Variability of the resonance properties of common spruce wood against the background of varying anatomical and morphological characteristics within the population", published in 1972 in the collection of scientific papers of the Moscow Forestry Institute (now the Moscow State University of Forestry), N. A. Sankin came to the conclusion that it follows give preference to spruce scales as having the greatest genetic plasticity.

Macrostructure. Such indicators of the macrostructure as the width and uniformity of growth rings, the content of late wood in them are included in the standards of different countries as the main criterion for the selection of resonant raw materials. General requirements for the macrostructure: tree ring width - 1-4 mm, late wood content - 30%. Special attention is paid to the flatness of the growth rings. Wood with narrow layers gives the instrument a stiffness, while wood with wide layers gives a muffled sound. Representatives of Old Italian schools often used wider-graded wood for the manufacture of topside decks. And among the masters of the Cremona school, the type of wood Haselfichte ("Leshtarskaya" spruce, or "Leshtarka") with thick layers and a bright shine, with frequent twists like knots, the so-called twisted wood, was in demand. This spruce is interesting because it never grows in large groups; single trees can be found in Czech and Bavarian forests, as well as in the Alps. Measurements confirm that spruce wood with uneven growth rings is superior in strength properties to wood with even rings.

According to the macrostructure on a radial cut, Russian craftsmen distinguished three varieties of resonant spruce wood: streaky, fiery and red-layered. In striated wood, within straight annual layers, there is a slightly wavy shear of wood fibers. Such wood is elastic, gives pure tones and is most valuable in the manufacture of a soundboard. The fiery structure resembles tongues of flame and is distinguished by a beautiful pattern. In red-layered wood, the zone of the late part of the annual ring stands out sharply with its red color. The density of such wood is higher than that of the first two varieties, but it is less valued.

Opinions differ greatly on the color of the resonant wood. Some craftsmen prefer light, white tones of spruce, while others prefer yellow ones.

One of the ways that craftsmen have long used to recognize high-quality resonant material is by brilliance. Spruce of the Russian northern type with a delicate, silky sheen and, at the same time, pronounced thin layers, gives the timbre of sound tenderness and silvery, and wood of the Haselfichte type - strength, intensity, and sometimes coarseness. German craftsmen prefer a spruce with sharp and large sparkles, the so-called Spiegel ("mirror"). In addition, gloss plays a purely aesthetic role in instruments. It is the grain of the wood that provides the decorative value to the material.

Some craftsmen use the smell of wood as a diagnostic sign. In this way, they determine the resinousness of the material, because resinous substances are known to negatively affect the acoustic performance of wood.

Microstructure. There is not so much information on the microstructure of resonant wood. It is important that the recognition of resonant wood is possible only through a combination of micro- and macroscopic diagnostic methods. It is known that in the manufacture of musical instruments, spruce is preferred due to the clearly expressed growth rings of its wood, in contrast to other species with a similarly high elasticity (birch, beech, etc.). Modern scientists believe that an important role in the anatomical structure of the resonant wood is played by the mutual permeability of cell systems located along and across the axis of the trunk, that is, the tracheids and medullary rays. The Czech scientist Rudolf Ille made a great contribution to research on the biological and technical features of resonant wood used by Italian craftsmen of the 17th-18th centuries. According to Mr. Ille, it is extremely important that the wood has as many permeable pores in the form of a "colon" as possible, especially in the early tracheids, through which sound waves penetrate the entire thickness of the board, passing both longitudinal and transverse directions ...

In addition to indirect, there are also direct methods of diagnostics and selection of resonant wood. They are based on measurements of its density, elastic modulus, sound speed, damping and vibration amplitude, and the amount of energy loss due to internal friction. Acoustic characteristics in the presence of the results of such measurements are determined by calculation, then the suitability of the material for the manufacture of musical instruments is revealed.

Technological factors play an important role in managing the quality of resonant wood - the time and place of harvesting, transportation conditions, drying and storage regimes, etc.

Many Russian craftsmen prefer to harvest resonant wood in the first half of winter. French craftsmen believe that it is necessary to cut a tree either on the last quarter of a full moon or on a new moon.

Previously, it was believed that resonant trunks are more common in high-aged plantations over 150 years old, grow on the northern slopes of mountains with a harsh climate and prefer poor stony soils. However, studies have shown that it is possible to obtain resonant raw materials in lowland forests, including on excessively humid lands.

The transportation of raw materials used to be directly dependent on the conditions of the area and the level of development of technology. In Europe, logs were floated along mountain rivers, which even improved the mechanical and acoustic properties of wood by washing out excess resin from it. Now the resonant spruce is transported mainly by road and rail.

Proper drying and curing of the wood is essential for the quality of the tool. The fact is that over time, wood becomes more and more resistant to temperature and humidity changes in the environment. Many foreign firms, even in an industrial mode of operation, withstand resonance wood for at least three years, and artisanal craftsmen even longer - from 5 to 30 years. Often used is a material that is found at the site of the demolition of old structures, in which it was kept for a very long period of time. Artificial drying of wood is used mainly in the manufacture of musical instruments in an industrial way. Referring to the research results of NIIMP (now defunct Scientific Research Institute of the Music Industry of the RSFSR), we can say that artificially dried wood is not inferior in acoustic parameters to naturally dried wood. But many craftsmen, especially when making custom-made tools, do not trust artificial drying. In Russia, until 1935, wood was dried at the root, this method was otherwise called biological drying of a tree, which was carried out using ringing by debarking, as well as cutting the sapwood at the base of the trunk. There is evidence that even in ancient Rome, the method of ringing trees was used to obtain "fresh dead wood", and it was with such wood that the violin makers worked.

Resonant spruce wood has its own characteristic structural features, its own properties and qualities that distinguish it from ordinary wood of this coniferous species and predetermine the acoustic parameters. I would like to note once again that resonant wood is an extremely scarce material all over the world. The timber industry complex of Russia has a weak scientific and technical base and an insufficient number of qualified specialists to address the issues of conservation and targeted use of resonant timber. One of the main ways of rational and targeted use of this unique natural raw material is express diagnostics and non-destructive selection of promising standing trees, that is, at the stage of forest growing. It is necessary to reconsider the methods of evaluating resonant assortments and introduce mandatory certification, first of all, for export spruce timber in round or sawn form.

Russia needs a program that brings together scientists and specialists in the forestry profile, the music industry, as well as specialists in standardization and certification. Due to the fact that such programs are completely absent in our country (unlike, for example, the Czech Republic), and the need for them is great, this task should become one of the most important for domestic figures and specialists in both the forestry and music industries. Resonant spruce stocks are rapidly declining both in Russia and abroad. Forestry specialists have a lot to think about. We are obliged to preserve for posterity the unique gift of forests - resonant wood, so that future Stradivarius can surpass their predecessors, creating amazing musical instruments, the sound of which will be admired by millions.

Anton KUZNETSOV, Cand. biologist. Sci., lecturer at SPbGLTU,
Maria KRINITSYNA

Is every tree musical? Each, but to a different degree.

Experts consider spruce to be the most musical - resonant - breed. But not all spruce can be suitable.

"Singing spruce" is a special breed, it does not grow anywhere, it is most often found on the northern slopes, where there is less sun and the land is scarce, and its trunk is well protected from the winds. The spruce should not be resinous, otherwise the elasticity will not become and the sound conductivity decreases. It is important that the wood of the trunk is clean and straight-grained, and that it is at least one hundred years old.

Vologda spruces are distinguished by their great "musicality". Their glory has long stepped over the borders of our homeland.

Maple is considered the second breed in terms of musicality. Its best varieties - sycamore maple, or white, streaky - grows in the Caucasus and the Carpathians. For this wood, homogeneity, resilience, long-term aging are important.

The best varieties of plane tree (plane tree) grow in Transcarpathia. Its wood is straight-grained, resilient and flexible, well processed and finished. Pipes, pipes, shepherd's pipes and some stringed plucked instruments made of sycamore are distinguished by a special timbre and melodic sound.

Resonant beech grows in some regions of Russia and the Caucasus, on stony, mountainous soils, at an altitude of 800 meters. His age must be at least 120 years old. The wood is reddish in color, with parallel straight grains, with a slightly glossy surface.

Ebony comes to us from Africa and India. It is completely black or black-brown, uniform, well processed, often used for decorative purposes.

Some musical instruments require more than a dozen different types of wood to create. For example, a xylophone has three to four rows of chromatically tuned wooden blocks lying on straw bundles or thick vein strings. Musical blocks are made of maple, beech, spruce, rosewood, ash, chestnut and some other species.

Selecting a “singing” tree is not an easy task. A person of this unique profession, by the only known signs, should define "musical" trunks out of a thousand trunks.

Bracker, walking through a snow-covered forest with a long-handled wooden mallet, taps each trunk with his ear. Unhurriedly, he listens attentively, as if in the very heart of the forest beauty only a melody that he understands sounds. A felled forest is relatively easier to work with. Here, the braker has a fresh cut, and the secrets of musicality are determined with a magnifying glass. The braker casts a long spell on each tree before he puts a special stamp.

It happens that resonant wood is harvested with trees that have dried up on the vine, as was done in the old days. Having selected a suitable tree, they ring it in winter, that is, they remove the bark below along the entire circumference. In the spring, new shoots and leaves appear on it, drawing all the juices from the trunk. The dried up tree devoid of juices is cut down.

The selected logs are sent to the plant, where they are sawn into boards, dried, and then, in a special way, are converted into resonance boards. Of these, parts of a musical instrument are subsequently glued together - soundboards, keyboard cutouts for a grand piano, more musical than a xylophone bar.

Before the revolution, foreigners who had their own musical enterprises in Russia used the wood supplied to them from the Carpathians, Vosges, Tyrolean, Bavarian mountains, Swiss Alps and mountainous regions of Italy. It did not even occur to them to use "cutting" wood from the forests of Russia, somewhere in the Kostroma or Vologda provinces. Foreign material was purchased for a lot of money.

Under Soviet rule, by the end of the second five-year plan, the search for domestic timber began; and they have been successful. Speaking about this, one cannot but recall Marshal M. N. Tukhachevsky. He loved music, made violin in his free time and played this instrument superbly. Among his friends, he said: "There is nothing more beautiful than music ... this is my second passion after military affairs."

The senior violin instrument maker G. A. Morozov recalled how he once told Tukhachevsky that the workshops he directed at the Bolshoi Theater lacked resonant spruce and maple. The stocks made even before the revolution are running out.

MN Tukhachevsky promised to help and kept his word. A special expedition to the Transcaucasia was set up to search for the required types of wood. Soon the Marshal's gift came to the address of the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR - two carriages of wood. In one of them there were "singing" spruces, and in the other - hardened sycamore, in several girths. Once in the hands of leading masters, the precious material has turned into wonderful musical instruments that have received widespread acclaim.

31.12.2015 16:19

Traditionally, musical instruments are made from high quality materials with resonating properties that have been aged in the natural environment for many years to maintain their acoustic qualities and a stable structure. Resonant wood is harvested exclusively during the cold season. Spruce and fir are unique in their musical properties.

To create a soundboard, spruce or fir is taken in almost every musical instrument. Specialists with particular care are choosing the so-called resonant wood. The trunk of the tree should be flawless and with equally wide growth rings. The tree dries naturally for ten years or more. In the manufacture of musical instruments, the resonance properties of the tree species are of exceptional importance. In this case, the trunk of spruce, Caucasian fir and Siberian cedar is more suitable than others, since their radiation power is the greatest. For this reason, these types of wood are included in GOST.

One of the essential requirements when creating musical instruments is the choice of wood. Resonant spruce species have been of the greatest interest to craftsmen for many centuries. It was difficult to acquire raw materials of the required quality, so the craftsmen had to independently prepare wood for the manufacture of tools.

For a long time, the places where spruce grows with the desired properties have become known. The main violin maker of the Russian direction of the twentieth century, E.F. Vitachek, marked in his writings the territories where the spruce grew. In the Saxon and Bohemian species, a large amount of resin was eaten, it cannot be used in the manufacture of tools of the highest class ... Spruce from Italy and Tyrol was considered the best raw material ... view from the port of Fiume on the Adriatic.

In the mountains near Fiume in Italy, forests practically do not grow. Therefore, it can be assumed that the spruce was not from Italy, but from Croatia or Bosnia. There was also an additional territory, from where spruce was brought for craftsmen from Italy - these were the Black Sea port cities - spruce from Russia, the Caucasus and the Carpathians. As Vitachek wrote, since N. Amati worked, spruce is more often used on the extreme decks of the instruments, which is heavier, denser and coarser, and maple, on the contrary, has a low density. This is a very good combination: the sound becomes similar to the sound of a human voice. Italian craftsmen have always used just this combination of maple and oily wood.

However, spruce can have similar properties only if it grows at the required level relative to the sea surface, that is, in the Alps or in the Caucasus. A variety of the breed "Picea orientalis" growing in the highlands of the Caucasus and Asia Minor at an altitude of one kilometer to two and a half, its qualities are similar to the best species of spruce in the European highlands. As a rule, it grows in the vicinity of Nordman or Caucasian fir (Abies nord-manniana), which also has excellent acoustic characteristics. The famous Russian violin manufacturers of the early twentieth century, in most cases, took to create instruments just spruce from the Caucasus.

Wood species used in the manufacture of musical instruments

When creating low-cost plucked tools, it is possible to use waste from woodworking factories, beams and boards of houses intended for demolition, parts of furniture and used containers. But these materials need special drying and selection. When creating high-quality tools, you need to use uncommon types of trees.

Spruce

Instrument decks and other parts are made of spruce with resonant properties. Various subspecies of spruce grow almost everywhere in Russia. Spruce is taken as a resonant one, mainly in the central part of Russia. Spruces of the north of Russia are more popular and better in terms of their physical and mechanical qualities. One of the best advantages is the presence of small tree rings, making the tree resilient and suitable as a resonant tree.

Resonant trees are selected from the bulk of prepared sawn timber in forestry warehouses. These logs go to sawmills, where they are sawn into 16mm boards. In order to acquire more wood, the logs are sawn in six stages.

Wood for musical instruments should be free of knots, resin pockets, curliness and other imperfections. This is a strict quality requirement. Spruce wood has a white color and a faint yellow tint, and when it comes into contact with open air, it becomes rather yellow over time. Layer-by-layer planing and scraping of the spruce takes place without problems with a clean and glossy cut. Sanding gives the wood surface a velvety and low matte sheen.

Fir

In addition to spruce, to obtain resonant wood, you can take the fir growing in the Caucasus. It does not differ much from spruce, both externally and when checking physical and mechanical parameters.

Birch

Birch forests account for two-thirds of the total forest in Russia. Warty birch and downy birch are used in industrial production. The color of birch wood is white, sometimes has a yellowish or reddish tint, and is easy to process. During toning, the dye is absorbed evenly, and the tone is even. If birch wood is dried evenly and kept for a sufficient amount of time, then it can be used in the manufacture of parts of musical instruments such as necks and rivets. In addition, plywood is made from birch, which is used for the production of guitar bodies. Tools are trimmed with clean or dyed birch veneer.

Beech

Beech is often used in the manufacture of musical instruments. Parts of the necks, stands and bodies of gusli and other plucked string parts in the music industry are made of beech wood. Beech grows in the southeastern part of Russia. The color of beech wood is pinkish with a speckled pattern. The good resonance properties of beech make it suitable for instrument making. Beech wood is processed and sanded by hand. When painted, the stripes remain on the surface, which are visible when finishing with transparent varnish.

Hornbeam

To imitate ebony, dyed hornbeam is used in the manufacture of necks and bodies. Also hornbeam wood has a solid and durable structure. Hornbeam grows on the Crimean Peninsula and in the Caucasus Mountains. Hornbeam wood is white with a gray tint. The wood planes well, but it is difficult to polish.

Maple

Maple is as much in demand for expensive musical instruments as resonant spruce. Maple wood stringed bodies give a good sound. The sycamore and Norway maple species are most widely used. These species grow on the Crimean Peninsula, in the foothills of the Caucasus, and in Ukraine. Maple tree bends well, and its wood pulp has significant density and toughness. In texture, these are stripes of dark color on a pink-gray background. When lacquer is applied to sycamore maple, a beautiful mother-of-pearl surface is obtained. If the staining is done correctly, this property of the maple is enhanced.

Red tree

This name is borne by several types of wood, which have different shades of red. Basically, this is the name of mahogany, which grows in Central America. This type of wood is also used for the manufacture of necks, as it has good mechanical properties. If you cut the trunk across and make a transparent finish, then it will look very nice, although it is inconvenient for processing.

Rosewood

These are several breeds that grow in South America. Rosewood wood lends itself well to cutting and polishing, but in this case filling in the pores and polishing is necessary. During processing, a special sweetish smell appears. Rosewood has very hard and durable fibers, ranging in color from purple to chocolate, and is used to create stringed instruments.

Ebony

A type of ebony that grows in South India. The finest necks and bodies are made from ebony. The highest mechanical properties of wood provide the tools with the required strength and hardness. With more weight on the neck, when using ebony wood, the center of gravity of the instrument shifts towards the neck, which is highly appreciated by professional performers. The ebony shell, when properly polished, avoids overtones if the pick comes off the string. Ebony fingerboards are abrasion resistant and have excellent fret grip.

For the manufacture of medium-quality plucked tools, you can use waste from woodworking enterprises, bars and boards of houses that are being scrapped, furniture parts and unusable containers.

However, these materials require appropriate drying and selection.

For the manufacture of tools of high and superior quality, it is necessary to use rare breeds that are purchased abroad.

Spruce

Musical instrument decks and some other details are made from resonant spruce.

Various types of spruce grow practically throughout the territory of Russia. Spruce, selected mainly in the Arkhangelsk and Vologda regions, is used as a resonant one. Spruce of the northern regions of our country has the best physical and mechanical properties. One of its main advantages is shallow annual layers, which provide a high modulus of elasticity and the suitability of wood as a resonant one.

Resonant logs are taken from the total mass of harvested logs at the lower warehouse of timber industry enterprises. The selected logs are sent to the sawmill frames, where they are sawn into 16 mm thick boards. In order to obtain the maximum yield of wood, the logs are sawn in six stages. An example of cutting a log with a diameter of 0.34-0.36 m is shown in the figure.

The absence of knots, resin pockets, curliness and other defects is a prerequisite for high-quality resonant wood.

Spruce wood is white with a faint yellowish tinge. Outdoors, it turns very yellow over time. The resonant spruce is planed and cycled through the layer very well. The cut is clean, shiny. After sanding, the surface of the spruce becomes velvety to the touch with a faint matte sheen.

Fir

In addition to spruce, Caucasian fir is also used as a resonant material. In appearance and physical and mechanical properties, Caucasian fir differs little from spruce.

Birch

Well-dried and seasoned birch wood is quite suitable for the manufacture of necks handles and rivets of plucked musical instrument bodies. In addition, birch wood is used to make plywood, which can serve as a material for the bottom of guitars. Birch veneer is used for finishing tools in a clean and dyed form.

Birch occupies 2/3 of the area of ​​deciduous forests in our country. Warty birch and downy birch are of industrial importance.

White birch wood with a reddish, less often yellowish, shade is well processed with a cutting tool. When dyed, birch wood evenly absorbs the dye and gives an even tone.

Beech

Beech wood is widely used in the music industry. Handles, heels and heads of bars, stands, gusli bodies and other parts of plucked instruments are made of beech in industrial conditions.

Beech grows in the southern and eastern parts of our country. Beech wood has a characteristic pattern (speckled) and pinkish color. Beech wood has high physical and mechanical properties.

The beech is well processed with hand tools and polished. Its surface looks good under a transparent finish and accepts dyes satisfactorily, but retains unpainted areas (false nuclei) in the form of stripes.

Hornbeam

Due to its good staining with black dyes, high hardness and strength, hornbeam wood is used as an imitation of ebony in the manufacture of fingerboards, shells, etc.

Hornbeam grows in the Crimea and the Caucasus, as well as in Ukraine and Belarus. Hornbeam wood color is white with a grayish tint. Hornbeam wood is planed well, but unlike ebony, it is poorly polished.

Maple

In terms of the quantities consumed in the production of high-quality plucked instruments, maple is on a par with resonant spruce. Maple bodies for guitars, domras, balalaikas, etc. give the instruments a high sound quality.

Of all types of maples, the Norway maple and sycamore, or white maple, are most used. These types of maples grow in the Crimea and the Caucasus, as well as in Ukraine.

Maple wood is dense, viscous, lends itself well to bending. The Norway maple texture is composed of narrow, dark stripes against a gray-pink background. The texture of sycamore maple is especially beautiful, which gives pearlescent reflections under the varnish coating. When the surface of sycamore maple is colored correctly, this texture effect is enhanced.

Red tree

This name has a number of wood species that have a red color of different shades and intensities. Most often, under this name, a species of wood from Central America is found - American mahogany. Having sufficiently high mechanical characteristics, mahogany wood can be used in the manufacture of fingerboards.

Radial sawing mahogany under the clear finish looks great but is extremely awkward to work with. Layers of wood with alternation of 1.5-3 cm go through one "in fervor". Thus, when planing with a hand tool, if the 1st and 3rd layers are planed "on the layer", then the 2nd and 4th - "in fervor." Often, only planing with a zinubel, followed by intensive grinding, allows you to prepare the mahogany surface for finishing.

Rosewood

Very hard and mechanically strong rosewood wood with a beautiful chocolate-brown, brown, violet turning into black color has found application in the manufacture of fingerboards and handles of fingerboards, shells, and in some cases also the bodies of plucked instruments.

The species, collectively called rosewood, are native to the forests of South America. Rosewood is well processed by cutting and polishing, but having the exit of large vessels to the cut surface, just like mahogany, it requires a pore filling operation before finishing. When processed, it emits a specific sugary smell.

Ebony

This is the name of the breeds of the ebony family. These breeds grow in South India. Ebony produces the best fingerboard and neck grips and shells. Very high physical and mechanical properties of wood give the tools the necessary strength and rigidity.

Increasing the neck weight with ebony shifts the instrument's center of gravity towards the neck, which is especially appreciated by professional performers.

The carapace, made of ebony, after high-quality polishing, does not produce overtones from the pick that has come off the strings. The ebony fretboard does not wear out much and also holds the frets better.

With all the beauty of imported breeds, workers with them should be warned against splinters and sawdust getting into the eyes and respiratory tract. Many of them contain resins and oils in wood, which can irritate the mucous membranes or sores if they get under the skin together with a splinter. Splinters should be pulled out immediately and the wound should be cauterized with iodine tincture. When working with an electrified instrument, it is recommended to wear glasses and a gauze bandage that covers the mouth and nose.

Most often, resonant wood is used to make musical instruments - namely, their decks. The main musical instrument that has been made from this type of wood for centuries is the violin. The most suitable materials for producing resonant wood are pine, spruce, Siberian cedar, Caucasian fir and maple. If the wood has excellent acoustic properties, it can be used even if it is defective.

Today, resonant wood species are unique natural raw materials that are very expensive.

Russian manufacturers of musical instruments began searching for resonant wood in Russian forests at the beginning of the 20th century. As a result of research, it was found that domestic raw materials are in no way inferior to foreign trees in terms of their acoustic characteristics and quality. The best physical and mechanical properties were shown by the spruce from the northern regions, which has small annual layers, which provide it with a high modulus of resonant elasticity.

Signs of good resonant wood

The highest quality resonant wood is formed in harsh (for example, mountainous) climates, as well as in dense plantings. According to the instrument makers, a good resonant spruce should be completely vertical, have a narrow, symmetrical and pointed crown, a 5-6 meter zone without knots and a barrel with a cylindrical surface.

Some French masters believe that the bark of resonant spruce should be gray and consist of smooth small scales.

In addition, the number of external signs of resonant spruce includes the absence of resin pockets, knots and other defects. Typically, resonant wood is white with a slight yellowness that intensifies over time outdoors. Also, it should be well planed and looped over the layer, and its cut turns out to be glossy and clean. Sanded resonance wood has a velvety surface with a subtle matt sheen.

There are only three varieties of wood: streaky, fiery and red-layer resonant wood. The streaky one is expressed by a slightly wavy shift of wood fibers, the fiery one has a beautiful patterned appearance and looks like tongues of fire, and the red layer is distinguished by its red color.