The tone quality of the violin was related with several components such as sound post, sound bridge, string, bow, and more. Excluding parameters from a player’s performances, the location and quality of the sound post were considered as dominant factors. The physical properties of the sound post could change the psychological perception of tone quality and, in practice, this adjustment of the sound post has been performed on the basis of trial and error. In this preliminary experiments on violin tone control, a reliable automatic bowing machine was developed to eliminate a violin player’s variables and to explore the possibilities of tone quality control through systematic adjustments of the sound post to shape the harmonic structures of the open string tone.
KEY WORDS:Bow·Harmonic structure·Violin.