Correlating properties of stringed instruments

Abstract

Stringed instruments can be characterized by their individual body shapes, sizes, types of strings, and sounds. Many studies for stringed instruments exist. Most analyses have been made on violins, guitars, and pianos, but comparative studies on these and less-popular instruments have not been done. These stringed instruments, such as the mandolin, banjo, mountain dulcimer and strummer have not been extensively studied. The main focus of this research is to perform string and body resonance studies on these instruments and compare them to the more common instruments. The experiments included spectrum analysis, body resonances using Chladni patterns, and high-speed videos to visually observe the string oscillation modes. The spectral analysis was done on all instruments with the strings plucked or picked at different locations. String resonances were compared to the body resonances to see the synthesis between the two. The results were combined to investigate how the varying body shapes influence the sound that is produced by the specific instruments. Analyses showed how these components work together to create the individually characterized sounds of the different instruments.