quote:The wood bar you've mentioned is called a soundpost, and you're correct - all members of the violin family have one. It's a spruce dowel, positioned vertically inside the body of the instrument, slightly below the treble side foot of the bridge, and held in place only by the downward pressure of the strings. It?s function is to provide support, but also to transfer the vibrations to the back. The fit is crucial? too loose and they tend to fall out of place, too tight and you kill the sound. There?s a special tool we use to install the soundpost, called a setter. It?s made so the soundpost can be moved around a little once inside, as sometimes you can alter the instrument?s tonal response by moving it.
I wanted to point something out to Joey - even though it shines a spotlight on my own idiocy, as I explained - that shows the tremendous skill involved in even the most minor details with violin family instruments, and a lesson from that Skool of life's hard knocks Greg was talking about.
He said; the fit is crucial and that the soundpost goes in between the top and the back (both curved surfaces) and even then, not in the middle. It has to go off to one side, under the foot on the bass side of the bridge.
So the ends of the post have to be angled perfectly to make full contact, and placed precisely, or it has a profound effect on tone because it's transferring the vibrations from the top to the back.
Look at the angles of the cuts on the ends of the soundpost. How does someone gauge that, through an f-hole? That's where experience, knowledge and mentors come in (none of which I have ).
