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Structural and acoustic properties of African padouk (Pterocarpus soyauxii) wood for xylophones

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Abstract

The possibility of supplementing the subjective traditional assessment of wood quality for percussion instruments with reliable acoustic measurements was studied. Sawn boards of African padouk (Pterocarpus soyauxii Taub.) were selected in a timber yard and classified into five grades by using the dynamic combined specific modulus of elasticity. Then they were sawn into raw xylophone bars, which were afterwards traditionally graded by listening to the sound damping at flexural bending excitation and additionally by acoustic measurements. A high quality grade matching of xylophone bars and sawn boards was confirmed. Highly graded material was mostly quarter sawn with straight or moderately interlocked grain. The sound quality of raw xylophone bars was not influenced by the wood density. It negatively correlated with sound damping (tan δ) and positively with the specific modulus of elasticity and with absolute and relative acoustic conversion efficiency. The audial grading of xylophone bars could be improved or substituted by relative acoustic conversion efficiency.

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Acknowledgments

The research was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency, programme P4-0015, and international cooperation by the European Social Fund and the state budget of the Czech Republic, projects CZ 1.07/2.4.00/17.0025 and CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0269. We thank Luka Krže for his great help in the laboratory and Martin Cregeen for language editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, C. VIII/34, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    A. Straže, B. Mitkovski, K. Čufar & Ž. Gorišek

  2. Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Zemědělská 3, 61300, Brno, Czech Republic

    J. Tippner

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  1. A. Straže
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  2. B. Mitkovski
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  3. J. Tippner
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  4. K. Čufar
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  5. Ž. Gorišek
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Correspondence to A. Straže.

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Straže, A., Mitkovski, B., Tippner, J. et al. Structural and acoustic properties of African padouk (Pterocarpus soyauxii) wood for xylophones. Eur. J. Wood Prod. 73, 235–243 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00107-015-0878-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00107-015-0878-0

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