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[release]Spiders might soon give you goosebumps in a good way. Strands of spider silk have been used to make violin strings that have a unique and thrilling sound, thanks perhaps to the way the strands deform when twisted.[URL="http://www.naramed-u.ac.jp/english/eng/graduate_bio.html"]Shigeyoshi Osaki[/URL] at Nara Medical University in Japan has studied the properties of spider silk for 35 years. In the past decade he has focused on trying to turn the silk into violin strings, even taking lessons on what was required of a string in terms of strength and elasticity.
Osaki learned how to coax Nephila maculata spiders to spin out long strands of dragline, the strongest form of silk. He bundled filaments together and twisted them, then twisted three of these bundles together to make each string. The thickest of these, the G string, holds 15,000 filaments.
The strings turned out to be tightly packed and strong. The key seems to be that the individual filaments changed shape when twisted: an electron microscope revealed that their circular cross sections turned into polygons, which nestle together more tightly than cylindrical strings.
This came as a surprise. "To my knowledge, no one has observed such a change of cross section. I doubted my experimental results," says Osaki. The spider silk must be deformed by the twisting process.
"The material is a bit squishy, like twisting plasticine," says physicist and violinist[URL="http://vivo.cornell.edu/display/individual24397"]Katherine Selby[/URL] at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
[B]
Brilliant timbre[/B]
Osaki tested the new strings by comparing their performance with three established materials: steel, nylon and gut. He says that the spider silk has a unique and "brilliant" timbre, or quality of tone. You can judge for yourself in this snippet of Tchaikovsky, played by Jun-ichi Matsuda on a Stradivarius violin using all four types of string (see video above).
The timbre seems to result from a difference in how harmonics – frequency multiples of the main note – reverberate in the spider silk strings compared with other materials. Spider string has strong high harmonics, while steel and nylon tend to be stronger in low harmonics. Osaki does not yet know what mechanical properties lead to this acoustic performance.
Selby is impressed. "What people crave about natural gut strings is a certain complexity," she says. "Spider strings also have this brilliant sound – even more than gut."
"It is impressive when you remember these are prototype strings, just out of a material science lab, being compared with commercial strings perfected for years," she adds.
Selby points out that the high strength of spider silk may give it another advantage: "You could have a thinner string for playing the same pitch, which would be a bit more bendy and responsive – it would hit a note quicker." The material could be especially suitable for thin E strings, which are very fragile when made from gut.
"Is it something all violinists will like? That's an open question. It will have some surface texture, like a rope. Some people may find that off-putting as they slide a hand up and down the neck. I think these will be gourmet strings," Selby adds.
The price will be too steep for most fiddlers in any case, but Osaki is now trying to find a way to produce the strings in larger numbers.[/release]
[URL="http://bcove.me/n9ttxi42"]Video[/URL]
[URL="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21540-spider-silk-spun-into-violin-strings.html"]Source[/URL]
The sound is a little more harsh.
I can imagine this breaking really easily.
lol
-snipped because guitar nerds-
Sounds better then the normal strings, in my opinion.
[QUOTE=Typhoonx10;35009860]I can imagine this breaking really easily.[/QUOTE]Spider silk is quite strong natural material. So I don't think it would be easy to break. We have these small, about 2cm spiders and their strings are damn strong already, if they were a bit stronger they could cut finger. They're already hard to tear and an entire web is very strong. So a properly spun spider string should be quite durable.
[QUOTE=Typhoonx10;35009860]I can imagine this breaking really easily.[/QUOTE]
Actually, a strand of spider silk the width of a pencil could stop an airline jet in mid-flight. When you walk through a web, it's the place they're attached to a surface that breaks.
[QUOTE=Schmaaa;35010020]Actually, a strand of spider silk the width of a pencil could stop an airline jet in mid-flight. When you walk through a web, it's the place they're attached to a surface that breaks.[/QUOTE]
Oh well, you learn something new everyday!
I hate to say it, but I honestly couldn't hear much of a difference :v:
My violinist brother: "They sound better than nylon string in resonance, but they are not as warm as silver, gold, and aluminum strings. They have a more piercing sound than metal strings. I would really want to try them out, I bet you could abuse the hell out of those strings and you couldn't do a thing to break them!"
[QUOTE=Schmaaa;35010020]Actually, a strand of spider silk the width of a pencil could stop an airline jet in mid-flight.[/QUOTE]
sounds like boolsheet to me
[url]http://ednieuw.home.xs4all.nl/Spiders/Info/SilkBoeing.html[/url]
[quote]To stop a 180,000 kg Boeing-747 flying 1080 km/h (300 m/s) in 300 meters one needs 1,440,000 million Araneus diadematus spiders or 3000 million Nephila spiders to make a [B]one kilometre long thread with a diameter of 21.4 cm.[/B] If the plane comes to a stand still and all the passengers are thrown in the cockpit because of deceleration of 150 m/s2 (15 g) the temperature of the thread is 170 Celsius warmer if all the energy was converted into heat.[/quote]
you can stop the plane at landing speed, but only if the thread is 30km long
[quote]It is possible to stop the plane with a pencil thick thread. When the plane is flying at landing speed (80 m/s) and the thread is 30 km long.[/quote]
It sounds so beautiful. Too bad I can't play the violin. Nylon strings sound great too though.
[QUOTE=Joazzz;35009910]Guitar strings next!
-Man, these babies are from '65[/QUOTE]
yeah i'm guessing you don't play guitar.
It sounded like the strings didn't have that kind of "buzzy" tone the steel and nylon had. IMHO, the difference would only really be noticeable to those who play violin and have done so for years. The difference is there but only really minute in detail.
[QUOTE=Ryenoru;35011324]It sounded like the strings didn't have that kind of "buzzy" tone the steel and nylon had. IMHO, the difference would only really be noticeable to those who play violin and have done so for years. The difference is there but only really minute in detail.[/QUOTE]
It's always kind of been a rule of thumb, the softer the metal the warmer the tone. Of course it also matters the quality of the violin itself, but when you have a hard material vibrating against soft wood (the bridge), it can make a slight buzzing in the resonation chamber. It could also be the recording of course :v: I would love to hear it in person.
I bet these strings would be awesome for something like erhu, though.
The steel strings sound a bit fuller than the spider web strings, but that's not a bad or good thing.
[QUOTE=thisispain;35011070]yeah i'm guessing you don't play guitar.[/QUOTE]
I think it would be something neat to try out, maybe make some to test alongside mainstream strings like DR, D'addario, Ernie Ball (lol) etc
[QUOTE=thisispain;35011070]yeah i'm guessing you don't play guitar.[/QUOTE]
And who stuck a whammy bar up your butt?
[QUOTE=AugustBurnsRed;35011930]I think it would be something neat to try out, maybe make some to test alongside mainstream strings like DR, D'addario, Ernie Ball (lol) etc[/QUOTE]
spider silk isn't conductive.
[QUOTE=Schmaaa;35010020]Actually, a strand of spider silk the width of a pencil could stop an airline jet in mid-flight. When you walk through a web, it's the place they're attached to a surface that breaks.[/QUOTE]
what if the attached surface didn't break while walking through
ohdear
Cat intestines are best for a bass
[QUOTE=thisispain;35012321]spider silk isn't conductive.[/QUOTE]
Strings don't have to do with conductivity on guitar, it's about ferromagnetism.
You could use spider silk strings in an acoustic guitar or on an electric guitar that uses piezoelectric pickups though.
[QUOTE=Joazzz;35011959]And who stuck a whammy bar up your butt?[/QUOTE]
Probably himself
seeing as you achieve nearly the same effect from just moving the string up and down with your finger, so he had no other use for a whammy bar.
no no no no no no no no no NO
i will not touch anything those TERRORISTIC creatures have touched.
Heavy metal violinists will be all over this.
I wonder what a spider-stringed guitar would sound like?
wait what misread
As someone who's been in Orchestra for quite a few years, I'm... Going to prefer the aluminum strings I have. It sounds a bit crisper sure, but it lacks the resonance of a metallic string.
Waiting for PETA response.
[QUOTE=Typhoonx10;35009860]I can imagine this breaking really easily.
lol[/QUOTE]
Except spider silk is as durable as steel
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