As a DIY guy, I follow the old saying if it isn't broken, don't try to fix it. Thanks for your videos Olaf, I'm a DIY woodworker and you showed me that all my chisels were blunt and so I learned how to sharpen them. A blunt chisel is like singing flat and nobody likes that.
~Olaf plays a scale with God Pillar~ Oh, well that sounds pretty all right, maybe God Pillar isn't so bad. ~Olaf plays one note without God Pillar~ Never mind, pack it up, everyone go home, God Pillar is worse than worthless.
This feels like you turned the violin into a cyborg by installing a metal endoskeleton in it. No surprise it became so scary even to test it afterwards.
Based on your demo, the violin was noticeably fuller sounding without the gadget than with it. (It might make a good skewer for shrimp on the barbie, though.😜)
Thank you for doing this so the rest of us don't have to attempt it (not that I would have, anyway, but I was very curious). I think I heard the same thing you did. It lost something in the translation... It sounded to me like there was less resonance, less soul.
Without the pillar, the violin sounds mellower. Meaning resonance on lower mid tones frequencies. In general, a resonance around this tones are appearing in a lot of acoustic instruments. Making it a signature for acoustic sounding like instruments. With the pillar, the violin sounds like it had been apply with plate reverberant alike sound. It has loss the mellow tone yet, emphasize more on the frequencies of higher mid tones. Making it sounding less natural and louder. Which means, the sound has more towards in your face sounding tone. The reason for this is all psychoacousticaly; the way how human ears and brain are designed to perceived sound frequencies. I can say that this method of applying the pillar on violin can worked on certain situation with specific reason.
Also this whole thing is reminding me of a cigar box fiddle I made years ago - I took some design cues from banjos and ended up having a big threaded rod holding the neck to the box body and extending all the way to act as the little end pin part on the bottom where the tailgut (which was a length of steel core clothesline haha) attaches. That fiddle was SO UNCOMFORTABLY HEAVY. Very unwieldy. It didn’t occur to me that it could’ve affected the tone in a particular way, or that it would murder my neck so bad from the weight haha.
In my experience building experimental violins increased rigidity absolutely does reduce the depth and richness of the G string. D too if it's bad enough. My focus is a central structure that creates a pivot point between V shaped flat panels. So far my most successful model is an experiment I did where I built one with the body shape I designed but replaced the central structure with traditional treble bar and soundpost. Side by side with a student grade strad type it has a brighter, clearer tone and higher volume. However it's panels are so very thin that there's a small distortion of the face at the top of the left F hole and a few concerning checks. The face is pine cut from decking board and the back is plywood from an engine shipping crate. Very backyard - barn fiddle materials but given that it's sound is very impressive. This rod may increase structural integrity but I imagine it's also dampening vibration with its mere presence. What I have done so far is a pair of plates which run the length of the body and connect to the top and bottom blocks in a downward facing V pattern. They glue to the apex of the two piece top plate which is a V with less pitch. There's a wedge on the treble side below the bridge foot and that side is thicker. The E string side is very thin and has a sound post which passes through it and connects to the center of the bottom plates at their apex creating a 45* angle. My theory is that the angle will create mechanical advantage and drive the back plate with more force. I haven't built another this way yet. My current project is a slightly wider version with bar and post but it features thinned plates with skeletal structures embossed around the perimeter and a few cross bars to promote integrity. The last one is so thin that the edges curled a bit when I assembled it all together. The way I build these the top and bottoms are 4 plates, first glued to each other at a slight angle, then glued to the top and bottom block and each other at 4 pinnacle points with shunt blocks. Then the top, bottom, and side plates are fitted last. This allows me to file and sand all the edges to a nice bevel which gives them the appeal of an electric guitar body and feels very sleek.
Well, the idea of this is not new: Basically you want reduce the longitudinal pressure on the top by basically taking the corpus out of the equation. The big problem here is that the small screw at the end does not provide a stable connection. Thus the rod will be able to "rattle" a bit, which creates huge issues, and the corpus is still carrying the force of the strings. Usually what you’d want to use is a bit of timber with grain going upwards glued very well to the neckblock.
I"m a relatively new viewer, but an old Amateur Radio operator so have a working knowledge of frequency. and in my opinion anything you put into a cavity of a violin. viola etc. will impede the resonance of it. hell I sometimes think that the thickness of a sound post. bass bar, and even the thickness of cleats supporting a repaired glued crack can alter the chamber resonance and frequency of sound. To me that's what makes the beauty of the builder come out. what he has done to the "Chamber" to make the beautiful sounds it does. alter the chamber you , change the music in my mind and its a simple one when it comes to music. not a trained musician. but love listening to classical music most of my life (now near 80)what i"m watching and the expertise I see in each view. thanks for sharing. ECF
I feel like there is probably a bigger difference when listening to the violin live than on the video, but it's obvious the God Pillar did not improve the sound. Since it's a cheap violin to start with, there was a lot of room for improvement. I also have to wonder how such a contraption might affect the violin over time. Could it cause damage? Perhaps a minor bump that wouldn't normally hurt the violin might be catastrophic if the God Pillar came loose. I agree it's definitely a gimmick that isn't worth the money.
I suspect you're right about the catastrophic failure part. Having all the tension suddenly shift from the bar to the body would probably make it collapse on itself.
Exactly what I thought! I call it losing the undertones. Fullness of sound is lost. Kinda like a baritone singing in falsetto. Pitches are good but timbre is changed. I think it hurts the sound.
In the brass world, one of the reasons why we introduce more mass to certain parts of the horn is to purposefully change the tone. Typically, adding more mass creates a stronger fundamental sound with less-noticeable harmonic overtones. Conversely, lighter-weight horns typically have stronger overtones and can sound brighter. A particular type of music might call for a certain type of sound, so it's not unusual for a trumpet player, for example, to have several horns in their collection in addition to a wide collection of mouthpieces.
i love how the god pillar almost doesnt make difference but the ad says *_wow its going to cure your instrument you are going to sound like a god after this_*
Olaf called it before installation, it reduces vibration throughout the instrument resulting in compressed notes. It also reduces and disrupts resonance which defeats the natural harmonics of the case causing unnatural overtones.
This kind of reminds me of this weird double stacked bass bar that was installed on a really inexpensive viola in a luthier shop where I used to work. it actually sounded AWESOME. I’m not sure why it worked but there was a huge difference between the same viola models with a conventional bass bar.
I would check out some acoustic guitar/mandolin luthier forums as those instruments sounds are heavily dependant on their bracings and people nowadays still design different bracings patterns so maybe someone has an idea as to why it sounds that way
Great video! While this modification seems to be a waste of money, it's always interesting to see how instruments evolve over the years and that it's full of trial and error. What some "traditionalists" don't realize is that there's a world of difference between modern instruments and historically accurate instruments and things will continue to change.
I'm not a musician but there did seem to be a certain loss of resonance. Would not the additional weight make playing more burdensome if it was for more than a few minutes, let alone an entire concerto?
Thanks for the informative video, Olaf! I could hear the loss of sound quality right away, so when you said you thought the rod was having a negative impact on the sound, I had to agree completely. Keep up the good work!
Before listening to the result, this is my guess - I think it will dampen the high frequencies the most, which means if a violin is screechy it could do some good (but better to adjust the soundpost in that case), if it already has a good quality tone it will just become duller. Edit: After listening - it became duller, but more on the G-string than the E-string which wasn't what I expected.
I was going to say something along the lines of "If you need to do something so drastic to an instrument to make it sound good you might as well just buy a better one" but then I remembered that us guitar players do significantly more ridiculous things to our instruments for significantly less reasons. Like swapping perfectly good pickups for some artists signature models because we think it will make us play like our heros.
From what I can see in the instructions it is intended to balance the tension of the strings and reduce the bending force applied to the body of the instrument. I don't think it is necessary. The body of a string instrument is remarkably strong. Ironically, all the compromises and things that go into the design and function of a violin are what make a violin sound the way it does. eg. If there wasn't a need for 'C' bouts to accommodate the bow, would the violin sound as good as it does? I am inclined to think it wouldn't.
It sounds almost tinny on the A and E strings, kind of like the sound a cheap set of strings causes with the God Pilar in it, the deeper voice of the G and D strings has a strange "void" and it definitely doesn't hum as richly, I'd like to see it tested with an audio analyser, this might answer more questions as to what this thing is doing to the sound.
That was a curious experiment! Would be interesting to see John Devereux's bar featured in a future video, but i'd imagine those violins, and especially with a bar remaining are quire rare. (To compensate, there a nice series of photos and a description on the Australian Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences website).
I believe I may have one in my collection. It’s got a post crack on the back of the instrument so I’m trying to raise some money to have it repaired. I will say the instrument is loud as all get out though!
I don't play violin. I play solid planks of wood with metal strings screwed into rather complicated mechanical contraptions, and even I heard it - the mid character just went , but at least it's still swirling the right way.
I liked it. I thought it was much more focused. I put an oak dowel through an ES-175 I made and it trimmed out the design's tubbiness nicely. It's a valid principle. A birch dowel on a viola or cello could be the right thing to firm up a cheaper instrument.
It is easy to measure using a spectrum analyser. Just a quicky on a SA ap on my phone shows Olaf is right about the softer mids. a spike at 2 kHz is around 10dB softer, and the whole spectrum between 2 and 4 kHz is about 5-10dB softer. I have no violin knowledge, my work is electronics and for most involving measurement gear. Using my ears, a violin sound a bit "nasal/hollowish" and that is for most gone with the godpillar, it now sounds more like a solid body electrical violin.
The only plus of the G@d pillar is the blunting of the shrillness of the E string. A much safer alternative is buying a superior E string. Or to switch to viola, like I did (actually, I play both instruments)
I didn't hear much difference tbh, also it seemed that w/o god pillar test the bow strokes are slower, in that case contact may be better and make for a bit more resonant sound imo. I'm not an expert but that's my observation. I'm just slightly surprised it didn't change it as much as I would have expected.
Yeah , it sounds as the instrument lost some of the it's depth and dynamics. It reminds me of electric guitar/acoustic comparison played acoustically. It would be interesting to see if adding more weight or rigid material as carbon fiber could gain more sustain?
I don't have an amazing ear for Violin sound, however without sounds much richer than with. Somebody said the violin sound like it has a cold and I feel like that is a pretty effective description.
this feels exciting, scary and dirty at the same time..... good thing Olaf is so funny, reassuringly calm and a true professional to guide us through... the sound with godpillar somewhat reminds me of practicing with a mute on - only, the mute seems to take away some of the scratchy noises too, while the godpillar lets us still enjoy them and still sounds nasal. ☺️
I can definitely see it being useful for reducing the warping of the instrument due to changes in humidity and temperature, but it's one of those things where you're making an improvement, but at what cost? It definitely sounds a bit less hollow and resonant with the pillar installed.
In a sense this seems like almost trying to replicate what one would get from a capo on a stringed guitar instrument. In a guitars case the main advantage of using a capo. Is that it lets the guitarist play in different keys. While still using first position open string chorus forms. Which have a more droning and fully resident tone. However important distinction worth noting here. Is that they're used to change the pitch of opening strings. All without adjusting the tuning keys. This means in a sense that the pitch of the fretted notes does not change. Only the pitch of the open unfretted strings. So the pitch as well as the timbre of the strings is affected. Thus imparting the tonality of instruments with shorter scales. In the case of this so-called God key. It seems to only hurt the tonality of the violin without providing any advantage to the instrument. :/
To me (a person without perfect pitch and without any musical training) the one with the rod sounds sharper or higher pitched, and I personally don't like the sound it makes 😅
with the help of the god pilar, the tone climbs up from the cesspit of sin directly to heavenly realms to praise MissZart with a celestial hallelujah 👼
From this end and the speakers on my computer monitor, I can't tell a significant difference. I had a thought that this device may impart more vibrations through the chin directly to the inner ear like the Bone Phone headphones that came out years ago. Also, the untrained ear that tries the gadget may get some type of positive feedback based on the investment of time and money.
That reminds me of a budget banjo I once had. I think it projects well. You would need an oscilloscope to get an impartial critique on that gadget. It’s not worth any of this cost or trouble.
I agree with ZdAniManOtaku, another subscriber, installing the God Pilar for any reason is potentially fraught with extreme danger and should only be done as an experiment by a qualified violin maker/technician such as Olaf. Olaf did emphasize the dangers of performing this experiment; he did it so we don't have to. Besides, there is no serious way to improve upon the sound of a violin other than to learn to play it well. Scratching will always sound like scratching no matter how superior the quality of the instrument.
It does sound like it would cut better in a mix with the god pillar while leaving room for the lower registered instruments. Would be interesting to hear an orchestra with god pillar modded violins vs normal violins in a controlled experiment live situation.
I think I would need to play it myself in order to truly understand any differences (e.g., responsiveness, dynamic range, tone color). I couldn't tell much by listening to a couple scales played on this video. The god pillar certainly didn't seem to do the violin any good, and so regardless of the cost, it doesn't seem like the god pillar is worth the investment.
OK. You've convinced me! I'll never think about trying it myself. :) Actually, there was an electric violin some years ago that had a flat belly & a bar or more correctly, a tube (much like the tubular end pin spike of a cello) above the belly which would have essentially done the same thing, if I remember correctly. A pretty ugly idea though.
With the God Pillar is sounds smoother, if that makes sense, like you can't hear the rawness of the violin, I am pretty that makes no sense but it doesnt have the sound I'm used to hearing on the violin
Ok , so we selected the best tonewood with the best strength/weight ratio. We worked countless hours on graduation of the plates to make them optimal for the resonance. We glued all the parts with minimal amount of the hide glue. And then we put a huge steel rod inside the instrument to kill vibrations and make instrument twice as heavy. It makes sense (irony alert)
So my knowledge of music is 'that sound thingy what makes feel nice' :D To my utterly inexpert ear the pillared one sounds.......stronger? But definitely less subtle, even I can see what you mean about it losing something. But I can see why some people *might* like the sound?
It didn't really make a positive sound difference, however I did notice you were floating above the ground while playing it.
Haha... Yeah that is one of the side effects I forgot to mention
@@AskOlaftheViolinmaker
They should post that on the box...lol
where?
It's called the God Pilar because once you install it, the violin goes 'oh God why hast thou forsaken me?'
Yes
This God Pilar is obviously a "No Good Pillar😱" it became a "Cold🤧 Polar🥶", am I right!?😜 🤣🥴
*Pillar
I think he likes it
Its called the God pillar cause when you install it your violin gets sent to God
God pillar makes the violin sound like it has a cold
Excellent description. Congested was my initial impression.
That was exactly my first thought when I heard it! 👍
Yes like a stuffed congested nose voice
God pillar more like cold pillar.
sound nasalized
Olaf looks like a mad scientist on the thumbnail XD
After doing this, he is one
As a DIY guy, I follow the old saying if it isn't broken, don't try to fix it.
Thanks for your videos Olaf, I'm a DIY woodworker and you showed me that all my chisels were blunt and so I learned how to sharpen them.
A blunt chisel is like singing flat and nobody likes that.
Great to hear!
Exactly... It's just so much better and neater working with sharp tools!
I am not even a violinist but I can feel the pain
~Olaf plays a scale with God Pillar~ Oh, well that sounds pretty all right, maybe God Pillar isn't so bad.
~Olaf plays one note without God Pillar~ Never mind, pack it up, everyone go home, God Pillar is worse than worthless.
hah
The godpillar makes the violin sound like a midi violin.
I literally thought the same! Even through my phone speakers lol
My thoughts exactly.
This exactly
This feels like you turned the violin into a cyborg by installing a metal endoskeleton in it. No surprise it became so scary even to test it afterwards.
That contraption removed all the poetry from what the violin, that lignt airy extremely reacting sensitive sculpture is known to be.
Try with two God pillars or three¡!
"I do believe the God Pillar will affect the sound."
He thinks it'll ruin it.
"I don't think it'll improve the sound."
Polite.
Based on your demo, the violin was noticeably fuller sounding without the gadget than with it. (It might make a good skewer for shrimp on the barbie, though.😜)
I see why they call it a God Pilar. My first thought was, "God, what a waste."
Haha
Clicked at the speed of light as soon as I saw this upload. This God Pillar got a huge FLAT F 😆
Without the god pillar the violin sounds warmer
See i lean the other way without the pillar it sounded kinda icy to me
Thank you for doing this so the rest of us don't have to attempt it (not that I would have, anyway, but I was very curious). I think I heard the same thing you did. It lost something in the translation... It sounded to me like there was less resonance, less soul.
Olaf is the best. His advice is so straight and honest: "Just buy a better instrument"
even before the live, just looking at the cover, I have to say
OUCH!
The pain is immeasurable.
Oh God 😏
Its indescribable
Without the pillar, the violin sounds mellower. Meaning resonance on lower mid tones frequencies. In general, a resonance around this tones are appearing in a lot of acoustic instruments. Making it a signature for acoustic sounding like instruments.
With the pillar, the violin sounds like it had been apply with plate reverberant alike sound. It has loss the mellow tone yet, emphasize more on the frequencies of higher mid tones. Making it sounding less natural and louder. Which means, the sound has more towards in your face sounding tone. The reason for this is all psychoacousticaly; the way how human ears and brain are designed to perceived sound frequencies.
I can say that this method of applying the pillar on violin can worked on certain situation with specific reason.
Also this whole thing is reminding me of a cigar box fiddle I made years ago - I took some design cues from banjos and ended up having a big threaded rod holding the neck to the box body and extending all the way to act as the little end pin part on the bottom where the tailgut (which was a length of steel core clothesline haha) attaches.
That fiddle was SO UNCOMFORTABLY HEAVY. Very unwieldy. It didn’t occur to me that it could’ve affected the tone in a particular way, or that it would murder my neck so bad from the weight haha.
Did you think about an aluminum rod???
How is someone who's not a luthier supposed to make all those adjustments at home? Who has extra tail pieces and tailguts at home?
Exactly
I have to go to the dentist during this time but I WILL WATCH IT WHEN I AM BACK OR ELSE I WILL GO CRAZY
It's been an hour...are you back?
@Playergartoon94 Dabs lmao...they're haydn
Yeah I’m bach
Oh ha wasn’t that bad except of my horrible anxiety
@@seulgis_chapstick9093 I hope it wasn't too bad! 💕
OMG, I STILL HAVE WORK, BUT I PROMISE TO WATCH IT AFTER MY SCHEDULED CLASSES!!!
This video was made 2 years ago today. Happy birthday
Imagine being the client with the old German instrument Olaf had to move 😂
In my experience building experimental violins increased rigidity absolutely does reduce the depth and richness of the G string. D too if it's bad enough. My focus is a central structure that creates a pivot point between V shaped flat panels. So far my most successful model is an experiment I did where I built one with the body shape I designed but replaced the central structure with traditional treble bar and soundpost. Side by side with a student grade strad type it has a brighter, clearer tone and higher volume. However it's panels are so very thin that there's a small distortion of the face at the top of the left F hole and a few concerning checks. The face is pine cut from decking board and the back is plywood from an engine shipping crate. Very backyard - barn fiddle materials but given that it's sound is very impressive.
This rod may increase structural integrity but I imagine it's also dampening vibration with its mere presence.
What I have done so far is a pair of plates which run the length of the body and connect to the top and bottom blocks in a downward facing V pattern. They glue to the apex of the two piece top plate which is a V with less pitch. There's a wedge on the treble side below the bridge foot and that side is thicker. The E string side is very thin and has a sound post which passes through it and connects to the center of the bottom plates at their apex creating a 45* angle. My theory is that the angle will create mechanical advantage and drive the back plate with more force. I haven't built another this way yet.
My current project is a slightly wider version with bar and post but it features thinned plates with skeletal structures embossed around the perimeter and a few cross bars to promote integrity.
The last one is so thin that the edges curled a bit when I assembled it all together. The way I build these the top and bottoms are 4 plates, first glued to each other at a slight angle, then glued to the top and bottom block and each other at 4 pinnacle points with shunt blocks. Then the top, bottom, and side plates are fitted last.
This allows me to file and sand all the edges to a nice bevel which gives them the appeal of an electric guitar body and feels very sleek.
It sounds way better normally. Definitely could tell it isn’t as good with the pillar. Great video!
Well, the idea of this is not new: Basically you want reduce the longitudinal pressure on the top by basically taking the corpus out of the equation. The big problem here is that the small screw at the end does not provide a stable connection. Thus the rod will be able to "rattle" a bit, which creates huge issues, and the corpus is still carrying the force of the strings.
Usually what you’d want to use is a bit of timber with grain going upwards glued very well to the neckblock.
As a woodworker I am confused by the grain oging upwards?
@@polerin probably means that the grains extend in the lenghtwise-vertical direction to give you maximum stiffness.
i am simultaneously terrified and intrigued
I"m a relatively new viewer, but an old Amateur Radio operator so have a working knowledge of frequency. and in my opinion anything you put into a cavity of a violin. viola etc. will impede the resonance of it. hell I sometimes think that the thickness of a sound post. bass bar, and even the thickness of cleats supporting a repaired glued crack can alter the chamber resonance and frequency of sound. To me that's what makes the beauty of the builder come out. what he has done to the "Chamber" to make the beautiful sounds it does. alter the chamber you , change the music in my mind and its a simple one when it comes to music. not a trained musician. but love listening to classical music most of my life (now near 80)what i"m watching and the expertise I see in each view. thanks for sharing. ECF
I feel like there is probably a bigger difference when listening to the violin live than on the video, but it's obvious the God Pillar did not improve the sound. Since it's a cheap violin to start with, there was a lot of room for improvement. I also have to wonder how such a contraption might affect the violin over time. Could it cause damage? Perhaps a minor bump that wouldn't normally hurt the violin might be catastrophic if the God Pillar came loose. I agree it's definitely a gimmick that isn't worth the money.
I suspect you're right about the catastrophic failure part. Having all the tension suddenly shift from the bar to the body would probably make it collapse on itself.
Exactly what I thought! I call it losing the undertones. Fullness of sound is lost. Kinda like a baritone singing in falsetto. Pitches are good but timbre is changed. I think it hurts the sound.
In the brass world, one of the reasons why we introduce more mass to certain parts of the horn is to purposefully change the tone. Typically, adding more mass creates a stronger fundamental sound with less-noticeable harmonic overtones. Conversely, lighter-weight horns typically have stronger overtones and can sound brighter. A particular type of music might call for a certain type of sound, so it's not unusual for a trumpet player, for example, to have several horns in their collection in addition to a wide collection of mouthpieces.
i love how the god pillar almost doesnt make difference but the ad says *_wow its going to cure your instrument you are going to sound like a god after this_*
I agree, the low end is lost with it. Never heard of that before and I am glad my violin/viola don't have one and are not getting touched!
I've been waiting for this. Thank you Olaf
Olaf called it before installation, it reduces vibration throughout the instrument resulting in compressed notes.
It also reduces and disrupts resonance which defeats the natural harmonics of the case causing unnatural overtones.
This kind of reminds me of this weird double stacked bass bar that was installed on a really inexpensive viola in a luthier shop where I used to work. it actually sounded AWESOME. I’m not sure why it worked but there was a huge difference between the same viola models with a conventional bass bar.
Information on this? Perhaps it has a future!
I would check out some acoustic guitar/mandolin luthier forums as those instruments sounds are heavily dependant on their bracings and people nowadays still design different bracings patterns so maybe someone has an idea as to why it sounds that way
I agree. I can't see them putting one of these in the Kochanski Guarnari del Gesu somehow.. 👍
The thing is, even if it did sound sort of OK, surely the extra weight is a big drawback if you are going to be playing for extended periods?
The new version of the ad now has olaf holding the god pillar, further adding to the legitimacy of the product.
They played him like a fiddle!
I am watching this Premiere at work...
Great video!
While this modification seems to be a waste of money, it's always interesting to see how instruments evolve over the years and that it's full of trial and error. What some "traditionalists" don't realize is that there's a world of difference between modern instruments and historically accurate instruments and things will continue to change.
I also gotta add I love those blue frames you're sporting there Olaf!
I'm not a musician but there did seem to be a certain loss of resonance. Would not the additional weight make playing more burdensome if it was for more than a few minutes, let alone an entire concerto?
Thanks for the informative video, Olaf! I could hear the loss of sound quality right away, so when you said you thought the rod was having a negative impact on the sound, I had to agree completely. Keep up the good work!
Agreed, it takes a professional to put these things to the test and he did exactly that.
Well I'm glad nothing exploded, cracked or caught alight. The ad was so sketchy, 'it will increase the value up to 990 000' 🤣
Before listening to the result, this is my guess - I think it will dampen the high frequencies the most, which means if a violin is screechy it could do some good (but better to adjust the soundpost in that case), if it already has a good quality tone it will just become duller.
Edit: After listening - it became duller, but more on the G-string than the E-string which wasn't what I expected.
I was going to say something along the lines of "If you need to do something so drastic to an instrument to make it sound good you might as well just buy a better one" but then I remembered that us guitar players do significantly more ridiculous things to our instruments for significantly less reasons. Like swapping perfectly good pickups for some artists signature models because we think it will make us play like our heros.
You could've invited two set to join you since it was their idea (via zoom maybe)
I think they did do a zoom call with him
@@MariadaPenhaRothschild you're absolutely correct, thanks :)
I could hear the extra resonance for sure. Almost like reverb gone wrong
From what I can see in the instructions it is intended to balance the tension of the strings and reduce the bending force applied to the body of the instrument. I don't think it is necessary. The body of a string instrument is remarkably strong. Ironically, all the compromises and things that go into the design and function of a violin are what make a violin sound the way it does. eg. If there wasn't a need for 'C' bouts to accommodate the bow, would the violin sound as good as it does? I am inclined to think it wouldn't.
It sounds almost tinny on the A and E strings, kind of like the sound a cheap set of strings causes with the God Pilar in it, the deeper voice of the G and D strings has a strange "void" and it definitely doesn't hum as richly, I'd like to see it tested with an audio analyser, this might answer more questions as to what this thing is doing to the sound.
That was a curious experiment!
Would be interesting to see John Devereux's bar featured in a future video, but i'd imagine those violins, and especially with a bar remaining are quire rare.
(To compensate, there a nice series of photos and a description on the Australian Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences website).
I believe I may have one in my collection. It’s got a post crack on the back of the instrument so I’m trying to raise some money to have it repaired. I will say the instrument is loud as all get out though!
yea I agree, the sound feels pretty tense instead of more vibrant without the God Pillar
God... Twoset need to react to this!!!!
I don't play violin. I play solid planks of wood with metal strings screwed into rather complicated mechanical contraptions, and even I heard it - the mid character just went , but at least it's still swirling the right way.
I liked it. I thought it was much more focused. I put an oak dowel through an ES-175 I made and it trimmed out the design's tubbiness nicely. It's a valid principle. A birch dowel on a viola or cello could be the right thing to firm up a cheaper instrument.
It is easy to measure using a spectrum analyser. Just a quicky on a SA ap on my phone shows Olaf is right about the softer mids. a spike at 2 kHz is around 10dB softer, and the whole spectrum between 2 and 4 kHz is about 5-10dB softer. I have no violin knowledge, my work is electronics and for most involving measurement gear. Using my ears, a violin sound a bit "nasal/hollowish" and that is for most gone with the godpillar, it now sounds more like a solid body electrical violin.
Yup , exactly. That whoooom deep sound is lost
The only plus of the G@d pillar is the blunting of the shrillness of the E string. A much safer alternative is buying a superior E string. Or to switch to viola, like I did (actually, I play both instruments)
I didn't hear much difference tbh, also it seemed that w/o god pillar test the bow strokes are slower, in that case contact may be better and make for a bit more resonant sound imo. I'm not an expert but that's my observation. I'm just slightly surprised it didn't change it as much as I would have expected.
Hail the intrepid innovator! This gadget is actually an INVISIBLE SORDINO 😂 Great invention!
I’m SO GLAD this video happened. I wanted to know so bad. Thanks!
Also you should mail it to Brett and Eddy for them to do a reaction video to! I’m sure they’d have a very entertaining response
I think it loses the "wood" resonance or response tones. Middle mostly. Thx love the channel
Yeah , it sounds as the instrument lost some of the it's depth and dynamics. It reminds me of electric guitar/acoustic comparison played acoustically. It would be interesting to see if adding more weight or rigid material as carbon fiber could gain more sustain?
Wait, I was thinking this is the violin version of a sustain pedal
I don't have an amazing ear for Violin sound, however without sounds much richer than with. Somebody said the violin sound like it has a cold and I feel like that is a pretty effective description.
Been hoping for this video for a long time, thanks Olaf!
i think that may help on an pick up and amp set up it may help with feedback noise but not for a classical stand point because u loose sound
I've been waiting for this for a loooooooooooo(x100)ooong time!!!!
this feels exciting, scary and dirty at the same time..... good thing Olaf is so funny, reassuringly calm and a true professional to guide us through...
the sound with godpillar somewhat reminds me of practicing with a mute on - only, the mute seems to take away some of the scratchy noises too, while the godpillar lets us still enjoy them and still sounds nasal. ☺️
I can definitely see it being useful for reducing the warping of the instrument due to changes in humidity and temperature, but it's one of those things where you're making an improvement, but at what cost? It definitely sounds a bit less hollow and resonant with the pillar installed.
The editing gets better and better each video I love it
In a sense this seems like almost trying to replicate what one would get from a capo on a stringed guitar instrument. In a guitars case the main advantage of using a capo. Is that it lets the guitarist play in different keys.
While still using first position open string chorus forms. Which have a more droning and fully resident tone. However important distinction worth noting here. Is that they're used to change the pitch of opening strings.
All without adjusting the tuning keys. This means in a sense that the pitch of the fretted notes does not change. Only the pitch of the open unfretted strings. So the pitch as well as the timbre of the strings is affected.
Thus imparting the tonality of instruments with shorter scales. In the case of this so-called God key. It seems to only hurt the tonality of the violin without providing any advantage to the instrument. :/
To me (a person without perfect pitch and without any musical training) the one with the rod sounds sharper or higher pitched, and I personally don't like the sound it makes 😅
Not being able to recognize if something is sharper is called being tone deaf
Use a virtual card for online purchases.. it's a one time use cc number,,a lot of credit cards have this option
with the help of the god pilar, the tone climbs up from the cesspit of sin directly to heavenly realms to praise MissZart with a celestial hallelujah 👼
Extra resonance for sure! Upsetting. Maybe would help for a proper bad like homemade violin or something!
Now I’ll be scared to practice violin in the car while speeding through traffic. Imagine a car accident with that metal rod against your neck.
From this end and the speakers on my computer monitor, I can't tell a significant difference. I had a thought that this device may impart more vibrations through the chin directly to the inner ear like the Bone Phone headphones that came out years ago. Also, the untrained ear that tries the gadget may get some type of positive feedback based on the investment of time and money.
That reminds me of a budget banjo I once had. I think it projects well. You would need an oscilloscope to get an impartial critique on that gadget. It’s not worth any of this cost or trouble.
I play the guitar and similares are noticed when switching from a heavier guitar to a lighter wood.
Now, finally the Secret Sonic Weapon used against US embassies has been revealed.
Hm, just changing the tailgut length could have a significant effect on the sound all by itself.
With the god pilar I feel like the violin was at the near death
The violin sounds almost like it's got a smoker voice or something lmao
I agree with ZdAniManOtaku, another subscriber, installing the God Pilar for any reason is potentially fraught with extreme danger and should only be done as an experiment by a qualified violin maker/technician such as Olaf. Olaf did emphasize the dangers of performing this experiment; he did it so we don't have to. Besides, there is no serious way to improve upon the sound of a violin other than to learn to play it well. Scratching will always sound like scratching no matter how superior the quality of the instrument.
I want Hubert Dunsley's hairstyle sooo badly!
Oh YEAH!!! I was waiting for this!!! 😆😆😆😆
I'm so excited but also anxious
I think its a more compressed sound. Not better or worser but different
There was an Australian luthier who put bars in violins in the 18th century, but that was so he could also use them as blackjacks
It does sound like it would cut better in a mix with the god pillar while leaving room for the lower registered instruments. Would be interesting to hear an orchestra with god pillar modded violins vs normal violins in a controlled experiment live situation.
I think I would need to play it myself in order to truly understand any differences (e.g., responsiveness, dynamic range, tone color). I couldn't tell much by listening to a couple scales played on this video. The god pillar certainly didn't seem to do the violin any good, and so regardless of the cost, it doesn't seem like the god pillar is worth the investment.
7:20 Judy Dench! :-)
Podrias grabar el sonido y probar un analizador de espectro para ver el cambio en la resonancia
OK. You've convinced me! I'll never think about trying it myself. :)
Actually, there was an electric violin some years ago that had a flat belly & a bar or more correctly, a tube (much like the tubular end pin spike of a cello) above the belly which would have essentially done the same thing, if I remember correctly. A pretty ugly idea though.
With the God Pillar is sounds smoother, if that makes sense, like you can't hear the rawness of the violin, I am pretty that makes no sense but it doesnt have the sound I'm used to hearing on the violin
Ok , so we selected the best tonewood with the best strength/weight ratio. We worked countless hours on graduation of the plates to make them optimal for the resonance.
We glued all the parts with minimal amount of the hide glue. And then we put a huge steel rod inside the instrument to kill vibrations and make instrument twice as heavy.
It makes sense (irony alert)
So my knowledge of music is 'that sound thingy what makes feel nice' :D To my utterly inexpert ear the pillared one sounds.......stronger? But definitely less subtle, even I can see what you mean about it losing something. But I can see why some people *might* like the sound?
Please do also a blind test with one of the 2setviolin playing the instrument and a similar one, the other 2SV saying if it was with the GP or not
It sounded much duller to me, a bit like when you use a mute, like you can play with it on but it looses the resonance on the note