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So how do skilled violin maker optimize the tone of an instrument during the construction process? They begin by selecting a wood of the highest possible quality for the front and back plates, which they test by tapping with a hammer and judging how well it “rings”. The next important step is to skilfully carve the plates out of the solid wood, taking great care to get the right degree of arching and variations in thickness. The craftsman has to learn how to adjust the plates to produce a fine-sounding instrument. Traditional makers optimize the thickness by testing the “feel” of the plates when they are flexed, and by the sounds produced when the are tapped at different positions with the knuckles. This is the traditional equivalent of nodal analysis, with the violin maker’s brain providing the interpretative computing power.