Soundboards from Val di Fiemme

Harmonic Tables.
Soundboards Val di Fiemme cut year 2006.

Scientific name: Picea Abies

The spruce or spruce is a tree belonging to the Pinaceae family, widely spread in the Alps, as well as in the rest of Europe. The wood of this spruce has excellent sound amplification properties and, for this reason, it is used in the construction of the soundboards of stringed instruments.
The generic reference to spruce must be specified, preferably referring to the "resonance" spruce, so called due to its acoustic characteristics, which are optimal for said instruments. It is a particular type of spruce (often designated, commercially and in violin making, with the term "male spruce"),  whose wood shows growth anomalies of the annual rings (so-called "tapping") and for centuries it has been sought by luthiers and builders to make the soundboard of various stringed musical instruments, including stringed instruments (violins, violas, cellos ...) as well as harpsichords, pianos, classical guitars. The distribution of this "singing tree" is limited to a few European areas.

It is believed that numerous musical instruments, including by illustrious luthiers of the past centuries, were built with resonant timber from the Val di Fiemme and the Paneveggio forest.

Antonio Stradivari got his supplies from the Magnifica Comunità Fiemme for his extraordinary violins.