Abstract
Almost all the instruments described in this book have their origins in historical cultures dating back over many centuries. In contrast, the electric guitar and violin are clearly twentieth-century innovations. They are products of the electronics age following invention of the rectifying thermionic valve (tube) by John Ambrose Fleming in 1904, the amplifying triode valve (tube) by Lee de Forest in 1907, and the vacuum-filled amplifying valve (tube) by Irving Langmuir in 1915. By 1916, such valves were already being used in radio receivers, and important advances were being made in microphone, amplifier, and loudspeaker design. This, and the increasingly wide distribution of mains electricity in the 1920s, provided the technology and infrastructure for the development of the electric guitar and violin and their lower-pitched relations – the bass guitar, viola, cello, and string-bass. Although we focus here on the electric guitar and violin, almost everything discussed in this chapter is also relevant to their lower-pitched relations.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bacon T (2006) Electric Guitars: The Illustrated Encyclopedia, Thunder Bay Press, San Diego, CA
Day T (2000) A Century of Recorded Music (Yale University Press, New Haven and London)
Dünnewald H (1991) Deduction of objective quality parameters on old and new violins. J Catgut Soc (Series II) 1, 1–5
Errede S (2008) http://online.physics.uiuc.edu/courses/phys199pom/Labs/ElectricGuitarPickup_Measurements.pdf
Evans T, Evans MA (1977) Guitars: From the Renaissance to Rock (Paddington Press, New York & London)
Fritz C, Cross I, Moore BCJ, Woodhouse J (2007) Perceptual thresholds for detecting modifications applied to the acoustical properties of a violin. J Acoust Soc Am 122, 3640–3650
Gautschi GH (2002) Piezoelectric Sensonics (Springer, New York)
Gaydecki P (2007) A new multi-channel real-time digital signal processing platform for acoustic signal processing and sensor response emulation. J Phys Conf Ser 76, 012048
Gough CE (2005) Measurement, modeling, and synthesis of violin vibrato sounds. Acta Acustica/Acustica 91, 229–240
Graesser H, Holliman A (1998) Electric Violins (Verlag Erwin Bochinsky, Frankfurt)
Heaney BA (2007) A Short Illustrated History of Stroh Violins, 1899–1949 http://www.digitalviolin.com/StrohViolin1.html
Mathews MV (1969) The Technology of Computer Music (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA)
Mathews MV, Kohut J (1972) Electronic simulation of violin resonances. J Acoust Soc Am 53, 1620–1626
McIntyre ME, Schumacher RT, Woodhouse J (1981) Aperiodicity in bowed-string motion. Acustica 49, 13–32
Mellody M, Wakefield GH (2000) The time-frequency characteristics of violin vibrato: modal distribution analysis and synthesis. J Acoust Soc Am 107, 598–611
Meyer J (1992) Zur klanglichen wirkung des streicher-vibratos. Acustica 76, 283–291
Radio News (1927) Vol. 8, No. 10, April
Ratcliffe A (2005) Electric Guitar Handbook (New Holland Publishers, UK)
Smith RR (1987) The History of Rickenbacker Guitars (Rickenbacker Int Corp, Fullerton, CA)
Weinreich G, Curtin J (2007) Michigan Daily, March 22. http://media.www.michigandaily.com/media/storage/paper851/news/2007/03/22/TheBSide/Making.The.Perfect.Violin-2786562.shtml
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gough, C. (2010). Electric Guitar and Violin. In: Rossing, T. (eds) The Science of String Instruments. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7110-4_22
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7110-4_22
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-7109-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-7110-4
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)