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Stop your tap tuning. All you need is fungus......

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090914111418.htm

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It's not the miles ahead, it's the stone in your shoe


In Markham,Virginia

If I had to guess... this is what I would think is going on... that he found some fungus that primarily attacks whatever naturally degrades in Spruce due to long term aging (Hemi-cellulose, saps, and sugars) Then make sure you keep it away from Nitrogen fertilizer (ammonia, manure, and "Green" stuff like fresh leaves) and just let it do its thing.

This shouldn't be too hard, as those fungi are pretty common in places like... Spruce forests.... and usually initially go after the easiest stuff to "Rot" away.. the sugars, sap, gums, etc... Generally, this leaves the tougher Cellulose structure behind... This cellulose structure is quite tough and won't really to rot unless you really pour the Nitrogen fertilizer (Ammonia, Manure, whatever) to it... because it is almost pure carbon... kinda like how charcoal basically doesn't rot...

If you don't rot it away for too long, you end up with a structure that holds together rather ... Kinda like dumping Pine needles into your compost pile... All the watermelon hulls, boiled potatos, and tomatoes rot away pretty fast.. but turn the pile and you will find 30-year old pine needles covered in nice black soil... They may be a little softer and blacker... but they are still pine needles.

Al Carruth posted some info that for Violins, generally the lightest and stiffest wood is preferred for instruments.... and that Light and Stiff also correlates to "Longest since cut" as in Old...

I have several flavors of Salvaged Spruce from up in Canadia. All of it is very light and stiff for its density... I really like the guitars it makes so far.. AND... Its Cheap cheap cheap because people don't want "Rotten spruce"

1 stack of tops came from a log that was buried down in an old logging road.... This road was abandoned some 50 years ago... and the log was apparently used to shore up the road when it was originally plowed..

I have another stack of tops from a Deadfall that has sat over an old creek slowly rotting away. Apparently, part of the tree was "Punky" and generally unusable, but the Good tops I have are also very light and very stiff like the logging road tops.

Like I said... It makes good guitars... Why wouldn't it make good Violins?

John

Some more pondering on this....

He may have done the same thing to get very light and stiff wood for his tops....

It may explain some of the strange concoctions and things found in Strad wood....

Livestock urine (Pure, high nitrogen Urea fertilizer)
Salts, Borax and other things along this line (Fungicide)

so you soak it in Urine... then pitch it up in a cool damp place (Root cellar) for ~3-6 months...
Then scrape off all the mildew, treat it with Salts and Borax to kill off all the rest of the fungus... then leave it up in the Hot attic or up in the Roof for a while to dry it back out and you are left with very light yet stiff spruce.

Unfortunately, this is not the sort of thing you could *ever* reveal to a Customer... and even Apprentices may well think it is gross... or just plain nuts... and it probably would get squashed by the local Church as "Unclean"!

Sounds like I may have an easy experiment to test out....
I would substitute some standard high nitrogen fertilizer like a 15-0-0 rather than use Horse pee....

Stradivarius here I come!

Thanks

John

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You guys realize that every few years someone again solves the secret?

When maybe the possibility of a fungus or mold or urine i could see where it might have been because of bad wood storage or something like that. probably stored his wood in a barn or a shed that his animals also shared. I doubt someone of limited means back then would have an humidity controlled wood storage area. I don't believe there was any thoughts on his behalf of intentionally doing this. I don't think he had a secret recipe. I think the result were purely accidental.