Dear Patrick, you wrote:
> http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/12/08/stradivarius.secret.ap/index.html > > This is an interesting story about the wood that was used by > Stradivari; the "Little Ice Age" that gripped Europe from the mid-1400s > until the mid-1800s that slowed tree growth and yielded uncommonly dense > Alpine spruce. > What does this mean for us? Were soundboards like this used for lutes, > and is it possible for us to replicate this kind of wood. This is a very interesting idea! But if is is true, you still can find this dense spruce today from here very north, from my Finland. ;-) And of course also from Canada and Russia! We have lots and lots of dense spruce in our wast forests, just take a look to the map! By the way, my tiny chitarrino, renaissance guitar, see http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/wikla/mus/LutePics/Chitarrino.gif has its soundboard made of 1500 century wood! The maker, Finnish lutenist Eero Palviainen, managed to buy a small part of the wall of a 1500 century house in Central Europe, and he used that material for my instrument! Perhaps that explains the very good and strong sound of my chitarrino? Arto
