Top wood treated with chemicals?

[salt]

I just read this arstechnica article:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021...o-the-varnish/

which investigates the treatment of Stradivari violin woods with various chemicals. I wonder if anyone has read this article and if people have experimented with treating their guitar top woods with the various chemicals mentioned in the article: such as borax, zinc, copper alum and lime water. The article mentions scientific studies on Stradivari violins from roughly 1660 to 1750 that found these chemicals in the wood.

I would like to try this at some point. Has anyone ever heard of this or tried this on their guitar tops? I'm eager to hear any and all facts and opinions and theories and speculations about this.

Thanks
-Salt

[colins]

Welcome as a poster, Salt! That is an interesting article, well worth a read.

I have not read anything about intentional use of chemicals in top woods but I have read that part of the "sound" of wood taken from logs that have been buried or submerged for an extended period is attributed to the minerals from that environment that have leached into the wood.

[xaxinojo]

Interesting article. Thank you.
Psychoacoustics!?!?

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by xaxinojo

Psychoacoustics!?!?

It is the scientific study of the perception of sound, as contrasted to the physics of sound.

Bob

[IndianHillMike]

It's an interesting article, but I think there's a key quote to pay attention to as far as trying to emulate Stradivarius' techniques...

"In fact, a 2012 double-blind study of 21 experienced violinists found that most of the subjects preferred playing the newer instruments; the Stradivarius ranked last in their preferences. Most of them couldn't tell the difference between the old and new instruments, with no significant correlation between an instrument's age and its monetary value."

It's also important to keep in mind that guitars and violins are fundamentally different instruments (downward pressure and constant excitation of the strings on a violin). So, whatever positive attributes a chemical treatment of spruce might add to the sound of a violin might be detrimental to a guitar.

I'm all for experimenting though and would whole-heartedly recommend giving it a try! Ideally you could also get a pretty thorough analysis of the mechanical properties (density, speed of sound, Young's modulus, etc.) before and after treatment. If the chemical treatment has an effect (beyond acting as a preservative), you should be able to measure it!

[tadol]

I’ve read these kind of findings in the past, and I’ve wondered if those chemicals were used by repair people, and preservationists, (even pest control specialists) trying to preserve the instruments, like some of the repair and preservation techniques used on paintings as well. 300 years is a long time for an instrument to be actively used -