Below are various publications from Joseph Regh across a variety of luthier topics available for view / download.
| Title | Looking at Hair Tension as a Design Parameter for Violin Bows |
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| Format | PDF (7 Pages - 3.9 MB) |
| Introduction | About two years ago at the VSA Acoustics Workshop at Oberlin College, I asked several players to play a selection of bows because I wanted to understand how important hair tension was to them. Three of them played a selection of violin bows, and I had them adjust the bows to their comfort. With that done, I measured and tabulated the hair tension. The amazing thing I observed was that all three players seemed to like a specific, narrow range of hair tension, even though the bows could deliver hair tension over a wide range. There seems to be a preference for a certain hair-tension range. I’ve worked out a technique to allow measurement of hair tension using the same kind of rig that bowmakers use for measuring the stiffness and flexibility of a stick. |
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| Title | Spruce Surface Modifications for Improving the Tone of Musical Instruments |
| Format | PDF (12 Pages - 4.7 MB) |
| Introduction | Stringed musical instruments, including percussive stringed instruments like a piano, pretty much all use spruce for their soundboards. Why spruce? Because spruce has some very interesting, unique characteristics that relate to its stiffness. We are all aware of the differences between the sound of an old instrument and a new instrument. We have hundreds of thousands of examples attesting to the fact that it is real. An old instrument, in terms of responsiveness, tonal quality, tone color, and projection, is different than a new instrument. We try to make instruments as old sounding as we can by working on the wood. |
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| Title | Panel Discussion: Innovation in Bowmaking |
| Format | PDF (8 Pages - <1 MB) |
| Introduction | A discussion panel from November 2008, to further discuss the intracies and thought processes that goes into bow making in the modern age - everything from wood selection to advantages of specific techniques and thinking. |
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| Title | Panel Presentation: The Strad3D Project |
| Format | PDF (45 Pages - 19.3 MB) |
| Introduction | Discussion Panel from 2007 that explores that Strat3d projects, which utilized all aspects of analysis on famous instruments to assess various properties of acoustics and craftsmanship. With the use of existing high quality photography and then progressing this study in to performing CT scans on these instruments to provide advanced insight into this study. |
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| Title | Violin Society of America (VSA) Competitions - An Analysis |
| Format | PDF (32 Pages - 1.8 MB) |
| Introduction | Transcript of a discussion panel that explores the process of of analysis for the competitions for the VSA. In the competition process an enormous amount of data is collected as part of the reviews of the instruments. This discussion panel provided insight into how this data is used both for the compeitions themselves, but then also as a historical point of reference for future use in a variety of analyses and studies. |
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| Title | Computer Supported Judging of Bows and Instruments |
| Format | PDF (15 Pages - 8.72 MB) |
| Introduction | This paper explores the introduction and standardization of computer supported testing and data consolidation in judging bow and instrument competitions. It explores the key objectives and principles behind these advances and the supporting statistical analysis. |
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| Title | Trip To Study the Messiah |
| Format | PDF (37 Pages - 31.0 MB) |
| Introduction | This paper covers the panel that convened and traveled to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford to study the Stradivarius' Messiah. The paper includes various photos taken from the study that occurred in 2001 with a panel of experts from an array of fields. |
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| Title | Dynamic Bow Measurements |
| Format | PDF (12 Pages - 72.6 KB) |
| Introduction | Historically, the measurements of bows have been every aspect of static attribute. This discussion goes into detail of the measurement of bows using dynamic measurements, under various levels of vibrations / frequency, motion, pressure points and other physical actions on the bows. |
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