[Shaku] RE: shakuhachi V1 #1000

Hi Kiku,

There is some laser technology that is well developed for measuring tiny
variations and flaws in pipes.
See, for example:
http://www.laser-ndt.com/profilometry.html

This technology, which is used to look for difficult to find flaws in high
precision metal surfaces, would give you very exacting measurements of all
aspects of the bore, much more refined than you would get from looking at
x-rays.

If you believe, as Monty Levenson does, that very small variations
(fractions of a millimeter) in the bore profile, can make a difference to
the frequency resonances of an instrument, standard X-rays will probably not
suffice. You're not really going to find out that much that way, in my
opinion.

You might consider talking to Monty about this project. He might be willing
to make some measurements for you, assuming that he could afford the time
this would take, which is a big assumption...I believe that he may already
have laser caliper bore profiling gear in his shop, or something else that
is adequate to the task you're envisioning.

It seems to me that it would be worthwhile to make very fine measurements of
a number of jinashi bores using such methods, and then use an audio
spectrometer to make very accurate frequency maps of each note, in this way
you might be able to come up with some "rules" for jinashi makers, but...as
you're probably aware, the mathematics of bores that are not simple
mathematical shapes is daunting.

And there is more to it...the players resonant systems, i.e. throat, mouth
cavity, etc. are involved as well.

You should also look at this physics site on shakuhachi acoustics, maybe you
are already aware of it:
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/shakuhachiresults.html

Anyway, good luck to you,
all best,
Joel Taylor

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Received on Sun Jan 1 08:29 PST 2006