Chemical treatment of wood for musical instruments - Comments

In the paper under discussion, the authors conducted a survey on several qualities of resonant wood, particularly conifer, in view of their suitability for violin top plates and piano soundboards. They reported their experiments with several agents, especially with formaldehyde to improve certain physical properties. It will be shown that the discussion about acoustical magnitudes of resonant wood, although detailed, should be complete and that some results do not correspond to previous knowledge. (C) 1996 Acoustical Society of America.