The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi Curt,

You did a great job and you are very very close to the original. I collect that sort of things and variation is quite rich.
Pls see a few pictures of the original to compare.

Best


Jürgen

One thing that always intrigued me... The Stroh violins I've seen are all them furnished with that type of diaphragm that seems like the Victor orthophonic or alike. But this belongs to the electrical recording era, when they used standard instruments for recording. So if the Stroh violins were an invention to allow better recording in the acoustic era, what kind of diaphragm or soundbox did they use? There is kind of a mystery here...

This is a very interesting thread. Thank you all.

I somehow don't see how the development of these instruments was necessary for recording. Violins are naturally loud, designed to project and cut. I could see these instruments being used in outdoor stage or marching bands with brass and drums, however.

The use of a talking machine like sound box (or similar technology) on a violin is not unique.

The same technological concept was applied to other stringed instruments, notably guitars and mandolins. In the days before electrical pickups (ceramic or magnetic) and amplifiers were common, it was difficult to incorporate a guitar or mandolin into a stage band with drums and brass instruments. Almost all early such bands had banjos in them. Resonator guitars were an attempt to increase the instruments' volume allowing them to compete with and displace banjos.

The spider and diaphragm from a single cone, Dobro style guitar:
Competition for the resonator guitars and banjos came with the development of large bodied archtop guitars equipped with bridge-cable thick strings set with fairly high action, the instruments, in this configuration, mostly suitable only for heavy attack comping.

Lah Ca wrote: Fri Nov 14, 2025 9:09 am

I somehow don't see how the development of these instruments was necessary for recording. Violins are naturally loud, designed to project and cut. I could see these instruments being used in outdoor stage or marching bands with brass and drums, however.

Maybe the benefit is in having the horn, to project sound directly into a recording horn in an acoustic recording session?

JerryVan wrote: Fri Nov 14, 2025 1:09 pm Maybe the benefit is in having the horn, to project sound directly into a recording horn in an acoustic recording session?

Yes. That is a well informed opinion shared by many knowledgeable people.

I still do not completely understand, though. The violin, a good one anyway, is a very loud instrument with a very focused projection.

But maybe with very early acoustic recording technology the Stroh violin family was beneficial. There were apparently other members of the family, violas, cellos, etc.


https://youtu.be/let3PVQ4D0A?si=WpmtCij_UmP8ZNwP