Antique violins: Effect of the player on the moisture content

In this research the inside and outside relative humidity and temperature of the violin Guarneri “del Gesù” (1743) known as the “Cannone”, were monitored during nine concerts. The environmental variations during concerts were analysed showing how the internal relative humidity tends to an average value between the conservation conditions and the external conditions. The violin internal temperature is highly influenced by the contact between the player and the violin resulting in a typical saw-tooth graph during a concert because of the discontinuous contact with the player’s body. The violin internal relative humidity presents a typical drop when the player stops playing. The mass variations consequent to the concerts were also recorded and analysed. This analysis has shown how the difference between the conservation average relative humidity and the violin external average relative humidity during a concert are good predictors of the mass variation. Relative humidity and Equilibrium Moisture Content have shown the same ability to predict the mass loss showing how the temperature (for the variation measured in this research) is not an important factor. The analysis suggests that the presence of the violinist does not play a relevant role on the violin mass transfer during a concert.