Every music lover, being at least something of an audiophile too, will have already compared one or two audio systems with a real musical instrument, especially when the reproduced sound comes very soon after the real event. Musical timbres are also compared to colours, tastes, and flavors, exactly like good wines are. In both cases, however, excellence is rarely due to chance…
Do you know how one creates a musical instrument, exactly?
Let us take as an example the double bass, truly a masterpiece of the luthier’s work. Everything in this instrument reminds one of fine art and elegance.
Clues to technical matters are not obvious, so fascinating is the instrument’s beauty. Yet, the instrument maker is in addition to being a skilled woodworker and perhaps even a musician, a pure technician.
The huge pull the strings apply to the neck requires failsafe engineering know-how.
Materials not only need to resist to that formidable traction, they also have to last, for quite a long time indeed.