Influencing the sound of musical instruments with ‚,acupuncture'' – describing a new system for tuning bowed and plucked stringed instruments.
Since the beginning of my career, I have been intrigued by all questions relating to tonal sound. Within the traditional craft of violin making as I had studied, however, there was no concept for specifically shaping the sound of an instrument. Thus, the results of my work remained dissatisfying. After intensive consideration of various tonal problems, I came to the conclusion that only a concept which harmonizes the principles of music acoustics, together with the musician and instrument, could produce a satisfactory sound quality.
On my quest for such an artistic comprehensive concept for stringed instruments, I discovered the correlation between the violin and the human body. Based on the phenomenon that a good singer utilizes their whole body as a resonator for their voice, and can thereby control the sound, I searched for similar relationships between sound quality and the different parts of the violin. While engrossing myself in the subject of osteophony (the art of listening, methods of Francois Louche), together with the work of A. Tomatis and the research of the Russian violin maker Denis Yarovoi, I came across an exact analogy between the individual parts of the instrument and the different parts and organs of the human body with respect to their resonance function.
Through auditory training, I was able to sense the resonance of the violin with my own body. A deeper exploration into the analogy of the violin to the human body enabled me to establish that every individual element of an instrument has an influence on its sound. All parts, even those that are normally considered to be mere technical accessories (the tailpiece, tuning pegs, fingerboard, etc.) or decoration (scroll), are of significance. Hence, when one of the individual components is not in tune with the whole instrument, it produces a disruptive influence on the tonal sound.
In order to achieve the best possible tonal sound, the various resonance areas of the instrument must be balanced both separately and collectively, as well as together with the musician.
When crafting a new instrument, I have the opportunity to influence the tone through the selection of wood, as well as the design of the arching and relative thicknesses. This is no longer possible with a finished instrument; however, I still have the option to replace accessories or to tune existing elements according to my system. In doing so, I apply minimal form changes on these parts and utilize a new method of acupuncture which I have developed.
The notion of employing acupuncture to modify the sound of an instrument evolved from my search for a means to influence the tuning of an instrument without material modifications, as well as from the study of certain special characteristics that are exhibited by particular classical Italian instruments. In order to ease the musician, I want to note that when applying acupuncture, I don't work on any part of the instrument that is considered to be of significance to the value (top, back, ribs, scroll with pegbox or varnish). Moreover, the individual pricks are so minute that they are hardly noticeable. Through the positioning and adjustment of the bridge, for example, it is possible to influence all tonal ranges. The relationship of the bridge to the instrument is similar to that of the ear to the human body in acupuncture. It represents the whole instrument and thus offers numerous possibilities for shaping the sound.
I always work together on an individual basis with the musician and their instrument (particularly after the replacement of, for example, the bridge and soundpost). In this manner, the musician plays various tonal realms for me and we subsequently analyze them in respect to balance, responsiveness, tonal presence, loudness and projection. Problem areas, such as wolf tones, are also addressed.

I then adjust the individual registers in small increments whereby the musician controls the success of each step until we are both satisfied with the overall tone. The ideal case results in an instrument that is balanced, full sounding and present in all registers. With an optimally adjusted instrument, the listener is more intensively engaged in the soundscape.
To date, I have successfully used this method to treat all types of stringed instruments and bows (violins, viola, cellos, bass), as well as guitars, electric guitars, harps, pianos, various woodwinds and brass instruments.

A documentation of changes in the sound range was carried out in cooperation with musicologist Prof. Dr. Rolf Bader (University of Hamburg). Resonance profiles (graphical) and sound recordings from before and after the handling reveal the changes that were audibly and visually demonstrated.
