MycoRant

Now this is way cool. A recent comparison of the sound of a Stradivarius violin, and a violin made with “fungus treated” wood, resulted in a clear victory for the fungus!

According to Mold-treated violin beats Strad in blind test:

Sci­ent­ist Fran­cis Schwar­ze of EMPA, the Swiss Fed­er­al Lab­o­r­a­to­ries for Ma­te­ri­als Test­ing and Re­search, de­vel­oped the new vi­o­lin by treat­ing it with spe­cially se­lected fun­gus, which he says im­proves the sound qual­ity by mak­ing the wood light­er and more un­iform. For the new vi­o­lins, Schwar­ze uses Nor­we­gian spruce wood treated with the fun­gus Physi­por­i­nus vit­rius and syc­a­more treated with Xy­laria lon­gipes. The re­sult means that “in the fu­ture even tal­ent­ed young mu­si­cians will be able to af­ford a vi­o­lin with the same ton­al qual­ity as an im­pos­sibly ex­pen­sive Strad­i­var­i­us,” said Horst Heger of the Os­na­brück City Con­serv­a­tory. Schwarze said the new in­stru­ments would probably run about $25,000.

More:

Seeking the secrets of the Stradivarius

A Modern Strad?

Xylaria longipes at Mushroom Expert

Xylaria longipes at Picsearch

I can’t find anything on Physiporinus vitrius.

Tags: Physiporinus, Stradivarius, violins, Xylaria