The idea lying beneath this project was to realize a composite lattice bracing soundboard for a traditional bowlback mandolin. The bowl back, despite being made made of thin ribs, is a very tough and rigid structure due to the pronounced curvature and, technically speaking, can be considered a so-called “shell”. Shells have very high vibration frequencies and do not couple with the soundboard, an advantageous effect, allowing the sound to radiate efficiently, without being dissipated on the player’s body.
This configuration is hence the best one to test experimental soundboard configurations, such as carbon fiber lattice bracing.