The Daily Swarm

The Swarm

November 07, 2008

Must be the 'shrooms...

Todd Roberts

That’s funny. I used to say the same thing about the Grateful Dead…

If the violin sounds good, it might be the mushrooms.

A Swiss researcher announced Thursday that treating maple wood with a certain mushroom improves its sound quality.

Speaking at a conference in Basel, Switzerland, Francis Schwarze said his maple violin, a replica of a 1698 instrument made by the Italian master Antonio Stradivari, has a sound comparable to the elusive timbre of a Stradivarius, according to a report from Agence France-Press.

Schwarze, of the Zurich-based Federal Materials, Science and Technology Institute, treated the wood with X ylaria longipes, a mushroom that grows on the bark of trees. The mushroom nibbles lightly on the wood, reducing its density and intensifying the sound, he said.

“It has a very good sound and also carries well,” violin maker Michael Rhonheimer said at the Swiss Innovation Forum in Basel.