On the use of tonewood leftovers for elastic parameter estimation of soundboards

Estimating the elastic properties of tonewood is an integral part of the instrument making process. Luthiers can use experience-informed methods, such as tapping or bending the actual instrument soundboards, or more state-of-the-art techniques involving measurement equipment and computational methods. These methods often require rectangular pieces, and for that purpose, leftover tonewood can be used. This paper investigates the feasibility of using leftover pieces in the workshop to estimate the elastic parameters of instrument soundboards. The verification is done by comparing the vibrational patterns obtained by the numerical models computed with the estimated elastic parameters to those of the actual soundboards. Measurements are performed by two different methods that represent different ends of the technology involved in the measurement: experimental modal analysis with a laser Doppler vibrometer and Chladni pattern detection with an inexpensive exciter.