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A soundboard (or sounding board) is the surface of a
Classic Guitar Construction
', p.20. Bold Strummer. . "The sound board is the most important element in the guitar." The soundboard operates by the principle of forced vibration. The string gently vibrates the board, and despite their differences in size and composition, makes the board vibrate at exactly the same frequency. This produces the same sound as the string alone, differing only in
A soundboard (or sounding board) is the surface of a string instrument
In musical instrument classification, string instruments, or chordophones, are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners.
Musicians play some ...
that the strings vibrate against, usually via some sort of bridge
A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...
. Depending on the instrument, it is also called a ''top'', ''top plate'', ''resonator'', ''table'', ''sound-table'', or ''belly''. It is usually made of a softwood, often spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...
.
Piano
A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
s, guitar
The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...
s, banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin.
...
s, and many other stringed instruments incorporate soundboards. The resonant properties of the soundboard and the interior of the instrument greatly increase the loudness of the vibrating strings. "The sound board is probably the most important element of a guitar in terms of its influence on the quality of the instrument's tone ."Sloane, Irving (1989). Classic Guitar Construction
', p.20. Bold Strummer. . "The sound board is the most important element in the guitar." The soundboard operates by the principle of forced vibration. The string gently vibrates the board, and despite their differences in size and composition, makes the board vibrate at exactly the same frequency. This produces the same sound as the string alone, differing only in
timbre
In music, timbre (), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes sounds according to their source, such as choir voices and musical instrument ...
. The string would produce the same amount of energy without the board present, but the greater surface area of the soundboard moves a greater volume of air, which produces a louder sound. "Generally, stiffer boards will give a brighter edge to the sound than softer, more flexible boards....A good, dry soundboard has a certain 'live' tone while a poor one will have a relatively dead response," which the luthier
A luthier ( ; ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments.
Etymology
The word ' is originally French and comes from ''luth'', the French word for "lute". The term was originally used for makers of lutes, but it came to be ...
may test during construction by thumping the board and listening for "brighter, more noticeable ring ng so as to work the board "to the appropriate thinness".
Soundboards are traditionally made of wood (see tonewood), though other materials are used. Skin or plastic are found on instruments in the banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin.
...
family, and harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...
makers have experimented with metal soundboards. Wooden soundboards, with the exclusion of those found on keyboard instruments, typically have one or more sound holes of various shapes. Round, oval, or F-hole
A sound hole is an opening in the body of a string instrument, stringed musical instrument, usually the upper Sound board (music), sound board.
Sound holes have different shapes:
* Round in flat-top guitars and traditional bowl-back mandolins;
...
s appear on many plucked instruments, such as guitar
The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...
s and mandolin
A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...
s. F-hole
A sound hole is an opening in the body of a string instrument, stringed musical instrument, usually the upper Sound board (music), sound board.
Sound holes have different shapes:
* Round in flat-top guitars and traditional bowl-back mandolins;
...
s are usual in violin
The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...
family instruments. Lute
A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.
More specifically, the term "lu ...
s commonly have elaborate rosettes.
More generally, any hard surface can act as a soundboard. An example is when someone strikes a tuning fork and holds it against a table top to amplify its sound.
Production and material
Wood for working a soundboard must be specially prepared. Ideally, it should be naturally dried. The natural drying process takes at least one year, but it is the only process that preserves the natural structure of the fibres and pores of the wood, which determine the resonance and frequency characteristics of the material. Not only is this process lengthy, but it is also expensive. Although it would be far quicker and cheaper to subject the wood to artificial drying, its quality would be compromised. The acoustic properties of an instrument are also influenced by the wood's cutting profile, the direction of its fibres and the lack of knots.See also
* Piano acoustics * TonewoodReferences
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