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Carbon & Music
From the earliest construction of string instruments, far back in antiquity, wood has been the dominating material used.
But if the old and innovative masters had had available a material with better qualities, they would have used it. And the search for the optimal wood continues until today: Wood type, growth conditions, age, fiber density, processing and surface treatment, etc., are the major “ingredients” for an optimal vibration transfer along and across the fiber direction and therefore crucial for playability and sound.
Carbon-hydrogen bonds, are the core components of all organic life on earth. The manifold manifestations in organic and inorganic form go from fossil oil and coal to graphite and diamonds.
After a short use of “natural” carbon fiber from bamboo, “technical” carbon fiber has been in increasing use since the mid-twentieth century. The currently available carbon fiber sheets, when used in combination with an appropriate epoxy resin and properly cured, excel in mechanical stress resistance with relatively low weight.
The desired mechanical properties can be precisely achieved by intelligent application of fiber thickness and direction. Therefore we see an increased use of carbon fiber materials, in short “carbon,” in today’s high-tech products such as aeronautics and racing.
In addition to the developing industrial uses, carbon fibers represent a costly premium material with excellent acoustical properties which are beneficial in the building of high-end string instruments.