Telling musicians to evaluate and choose their instruments in a “scientific” way?

For those who don’t get what this is about, I’m trying to point out how ridiculous the things some people keep saying about how we should evaluate our equipment are, when applied to the music we love, and the instruments it is played on/through.

No one questions when a craftsman chooses materials for, and builds, an instrument guided by his ears, or a musician chooses an instrument the same way. Dare to say you build your home music reproduction system this way, though, and you will get all kinds of grief.

There is a terrific movie, The Red Violin. Fabulous movie. With a scene that makes this point in the most poignant way I can imagine.

The Red Violin is a sort of Stradivarius among Stradivariuses. The movie follows the life of this violin as it passes from one owner to another. A passionate performer. A band of gypsies. An activist in China. Each one building a bond with this wondrous violin. This all reaches a climax with the Red Violin being sold at an auction where all the various families are bidding to have it back.

But not only the descendants who have their own powerful emotional attachment. The world’s foremost authority has been searching his whole life for it as well. He has his own reasons for wanting it. He knows his violins, he is after all the world expert, but he has to be sure. Spoiler alert, the emotional climax of the movie comes when we learn just how the Red Violin came to have its special rare red hue.

The violin is being tested on a bench. The technician pronounces it a perfect acoustical instrument. Everyone else in the whole movie handles the violin like the precious gift that it is. Now it is bolted to a bench, and instead of being played it is being subjected to machines vibrating it. You have to see the movie to appreciate how this is intercut with scenes of the craftsman using his dead wife’s blood in the varnish. She died in childbirth. He had lost both his wife and the son for whom he had created his masterpiece. The contrast between the craftsman and his love of music and the technician and his abominable numbers has never been more clear.

Especially acoustic string instruments, regardless of measurements, sound vastly different. And measurements, as in HiFi, only tell part of the story. They do not measure tone. In guitars (or violins), the artistry of the builder, method and materials have a great impact on tone. Brazilian rosewood has acoustic properties that make it vastly better sounding than East Indian rosewood. All woods used have a great impact on the ultimate sound. And the of the age of the cut is also significant. The older the better. Especially the age of the finished instrument. Eg.; a 1930s Martin Guitar can sound amazingly good and can sell for hundreds of thousands, mostly, because of the tone. Not to mention a violin of a great builder that is hundreds of years old! A new guitar, or violin, can also sound good but the tone will open up with playing. All these instruments will improve in tone the more they are played. This is also a central factor in old instruments. In comparison, quality of Audio gear is certainly dependent on skill, method and materials. But, aside from the break in, age can wear our certain elements like caps and bearings. However the “ear” of the builder is central to the ultimate tone of the component.
And, as said, the measurements only tell part of the story. They cannot measure the tone.

Another marvelous video, craftsman walking a stand of very special trees high in a mountain forest. He thumps on each one and you hear a unique sound, like so much different than any tree trunk you ever thumped you cannot believe it. Walks along thumping, thumping, until he finds the right tree.  

This one select tree is then cut down, aged, sawn into lumber, aged some more. Eventually years later some choice piece is selected and sawn by hand, shaped by hand, no machine tool touches it, ever. There is no guide, no rule that says it must be this thick here, that thick there. Nothing like that. Just the craftsman and his hand tools and his skill.   

They do not go to all this trouble to play a 440 A. They do this because such a fine musical instrument in the hands of a skilled performer can be made to bring tears to your eyes.    

If anyone can find that video I surely would appreciate a link. Thanks.

Millercarbon, this is a side of you I’ve never seen before, sensitive, artistic. Not tech stuff. Well done, I’d love to see these films.
And right on point.