Working in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Stradivari had access to a special type of wood that grew between 1645 and 1715 when temperatures stayed on the cool side all year round. During those years, the trees grew very slowly resulting in a particularly dense wood with high elastic properties. Finding wood with similar properties is downright impossible these days, but Professor Francis W. M. R. Schwarze, a wood researcher at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, has found a way to artificially recreate it.
It turns out that two species of fungi — Physisporinus Vitreus and Xylaria Longipes — can decay Norway spruce and sycamore trees in such a way that increases the wood’s density while retaining its ability to resonate, vastly improving its tonal quality. Lumber that’s been treated with the fungi is known as mycowood, and working with modern violin makers Martin Schleske and Michael Rhonheimer, Schwarze created a violin with the material and pitted it against a Stradivarius from 1711. Surprisingly, in a blind test a panel of experts was unable to distinguish the fake Stradivarius from the real thing.
Besides requiring experts to up their game when it comes to spotting fakes, the fungal technique means that all violinists might have the chance to play — and maybe even afford to buy — an instrument that sounds like it was crafted by Stradivari himself. [ScienceDaily via Geekosystem]
Image: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
I want a guitar made with this stuff. Bring it on!
Could you imagine the sustain?! It would be a dream come true
Seeing many people can't tell Cat Stevens' music from Bruce Springsteen's in a blind test the report doesn't mean much.
I'm sure they would have analyzed the sound spectrum too. Still, trained ears can pick up these quirks just as well... Also, it depended on who partook in the blind test... Was it people fully familiar with the original Violin, or was it just random people off the street, who listen to dubstep every day?
"in a blind test a panel of experts"
In a blind test I doubt that anyone could tell the difference between a Stradivarius and a cheap violin bought from the local music store. Did you know that a cello and a violin are exactly the same size? It's only the size of the violinists swelled head that makes the instrument look smaller.
blind test was done recently: http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2012/01/02/144482863/double-blind-violin-test-can-you-pick-the-strad
TLDR: even professional musicians couldn't tell the difference.
I didn't know that, I guessed the second one and got it right. But it as much a guess as tossing a coin.
Maybe I'll retract.
I watched a show talking about food additives and they tricked an amateur wine tasting group by adding food dye to white wine and got a red wine tasting result. They didn't do experts or didn't show it.
I reckon it might have fooled some, just like this test.