Olaf installs the God Pillar in a violin 

It didn't really make a positive sound difference, however I did notice you were floating above the ground while playing it.

It's called the God Pilar because once you install it, the violin goes 'oh God why hast thou forsaken me?'

God pillar makes the violin sound like it has a cold

Olaf looks like a mad scientist on the thumbnail XD

The godpillar makes the violin sound like a midi violin.

I am not even a violinist but I can feel the pain

~Olaf plays a scale with God Pillar~ Oh, well that sounds pretty all right, maybe God Pillar isn't so bad. ~Olaf plays one note without God Pillar~ Never mind, pack it up, everyone go home, God Pillar is worse than worthless.

As a DIY guy, I follow the old saying if it isn't broken, don't try to fix it. Thanks for your videos Olaf, I'm a DIY woodworker and you showed me that all my chisels were blunt and so I learned how to sharpen them. A blunt chisel is like singing flat and nobody likes that.

This feels like you turned the violin into a cyborg by installing a metal endoskeleton in it. No surprise it became so scary even to test it afterwards.

I see why they call it a God Pilar. My first thought was, "God, what a waste."

"I do believe the God Pillar will affect the sound." He thinks it'll ruin it. "I don't think it'll improve the sound." Polite.

Based on your demo, the violin was noticeably fuller sounding without the gadget than with it. (It might make a good skewer for shrimp on the barbie, though.😜)

Without the god pillar the violin sounds warmer

Clicked at the speed of light as soon as I saw this upload. This God Pillar got a huge FLAT F 😆

even before the live, just looking at the cover, I have to say OUCH!

Thank you for doing this so the rest of us don't have to attempt it (not that I would have, anyway, but I was very curious). I think I heard the same thing you did. It lost something in the translation... It sounded to me like there was less resonance, less soul.

I have to go to the dentist during this time but I WILL WATCH IT WHEN I AM BACK OR ELSE I WILL GO CRAZY

How is someone who's not a luthier supposed to make all those adjustments at home? Who has extra tail pieces and tailguts at home?

The pain is immeasurable.

Without the pillar, the violin sounds mellower. Meaning resonance on lower mid tones frequencies. In general, a resonance around this tones are appearing in a lot of acoustic instruments. Making it a signature for acoustic sounding like instruments. With the pillar, the violin sounds like it had been apply with plate reverberant alike sound. It has loss the mellow tone yet, emphasize more on the frequencies of higher mid tones. Making it sounding less natural and louder. Which means, the sound has more towards in your face sounding tone. The reason for this is all psychoacousticaly; the way how human ears and brain are designed to perceived sound frequencies. I can say that this method of applying the pillar on violin can worked on certain situation with specific reason.

Imagine being the client with the old German instrument Olaf had to move 😂

Also this whole thing is reminding me of a cigar box fiddle I made years ago - I took some design cues from banjos and ended up having a big threaded rod holding the neck to the box body and extending all the way to act as the little end pin part on the bottom where the tailgut (which was a length of steel core clothesline haha) attaches. That fiddle was SO UNCOMFORTABLY HEAVY. Very unwieldy. It didn’t occur to me that it could’ve affected the tone in a particular way, or that it would murder my neck so bad from the weight haha.

OMG, I STILL HAVE WORK, BUT I PROMISE TO WATCH IT AFTER MY SCHEDULED CLASSES!!!

Olaf is the best. His advice is so straight and honest: "Just buy a better instrument"

I feel like there is probably a bigger difference when listening to the violin live than on the video, but it's obvious the God Pillar did not improve the sound. Since it's a cheap violin to start with, there was a lot of room for improvement. I also have to wonder how such a contraption might affect the violin over time. Could it cause damage? Perhaps a minor bump that wouldn't normally hurt the violin might be catastrophic if the God Pillar came loose. I agree it's definitely a gimmick that isn't worth the money.

i am simultaneously terrified and intrigued

It sounds way better normally. Definitely could tell it isn’t as good with the pillar. Great video!

I could hear the extra resonance for sure. Almost like reverb gone wrong

Well, the idea of this is not new: Basically you want reduce the longitudinal pressure on the top by basically taking the corpus out of the equation. The big problem here is that the small screw at the end does not provide a stable connection. Thus the rod will be able to "rattle" a bit, which creates huge issues, and the corpus is still carrying the force of the strings. Usually what you’d want to use is a bit of timber with grain going upwards glued very well to the neckblock.

I've been waiting for this. Thank you Olaf

Exactly what I thought! I call it losing the undertones. Fullness of sound is lost. Kinda like a baritone singing in falsetto. Pitches are good but timbre is changed. I think it hurts the sound.

You could've invited two set to join you since it was their idea (via zoom maybe)

The editing gets better and better each video I love it

i love how the god pillar almost doesnt make difference but the ad says *_wow its going to cure your instrument you are going to sound like a god after this_*

In the brass world, one of the reasons why we introduce more mass to certain parts of the horn is to purposefully change the tone. Typically, adding more mass creates a stronger fundamental sound with less-noticeable harmonic overtones. Conversely, lighter-weight horns typically have stronger overtones and can sound brighter. A particular type of music might call for a certain type of sound, so it's not unusual for a trumpet player, for example, to have several horns in their collection in addition to a wide collection of mouthpieces.

Actually, I thought the God Pilar did add a tiny touch of sweetness to the sound and I know a very accomplished violinist who has an excellent ear and he thought so too. But, was the difference significant enough to go to the trouble of installing a God Pillar? Probably not; the improvement seems to be too negligible and the added weight to the violin is a definite deal breaker. We would like to have heard some virtuoso playing to better assess the difference in sound. The sound of your scale playing was true and even but to my ear it wasn't a sufficient test. A few dynamics would have been appreciated for a more thorough comparison. In fairness to the re-inventor this issue hasn't been truly settled as far as we are concerned.

Been hoping for this video for a long time, thanks Olaf!

Well I'm glad nothing exploded, cracked or caught alight. The ad was so sketchy, 'it will increase the value up to 990 000' 🤣

Thanks for the informative video, Olaf! I could hear the loss of sound quality right away, so when you said you thought the rod was having a negative impact on the sound, I had to agree completely. Keep up the good work!

I’m SO GLAD this video happened. I wanted to know so bad. Thanks!

I"m a relatively new viewer, but an old Amateur Radio operator so have a working knowledge of frequency. and in my opinion anything you put into a cavity of a violin. viola etc. will impede the resonance of it. hell I sometimes think that the thickness of a sound post. bass bar, and even the thickness of cleats supporting a repaired glued crack can alter the chamber resonance and frequency of sound. To me that's what makes the beauty of the builder come out. what he has done to the "Chamber" to make the beautiful sounds it does. alter the chamber you , change the music in my mind and its a simple one when it comes to music. not a trained musician. but love listening to classical music most of my life (now near 80)what i"m watching and the expertise I see in each view. thanks for sharing. ECF

I also gotta add I love those blue frames you're sporting there Olaf!

Great video! While this modification seems to be a waste of money, it's always interesting to see how instruments evolve over the years and that it's full of trial and error. What some "traditionalists" don't realize is that there's a world of difference between modern instruments and historically accurate instruments and things will continue to change.

For some reason, the god pillar made it sound so...midi.

To me (a person without perfect pitch and without any musical training) the one with the rod sounds sharper or higher pitched, and I personally don't like the sound it makes 😅

I want Hubert Dunsley's hairstyle sooo badly!

Olaf called it before installation, it reduces vibration throughout the instrument resulting in compressed notes. It also reduces and disrupts resonance which defeats the natural harmonics of the case causing unnatural overtones.

This kind of reminds me of this weird double stacked bass bar that was installed on a really inexpensive viola in a luthier shop where I used to work. it actually sounded AWESOME. I’m not sure why it worked but there was a huge difference between the same viola models with a conventional bass bar.

Yeah , it sounds as the instrument lost some of the it's depth and dynamics. It reminds me of electric guitar/acoustic comparison played acoustically. It would be interesting to see if adding more weight or rigid material as carbon fiber could gain more sustain?

yea I agree, the sound feels pretty tense instead of more vibrant without the God Pillar

I've been waiting for this for a loooooooooooo(x100)ooong time!!!!

I'm so excited but also anxious

I am watching this Premiere at work...

In a sense this seems like almost trying to replicate what one would get from a capo on a stringed guitar instrument. In a guitars case the main advantage of using a capo. Is that it lets the guitarist play in different keys. While still using first position open string chorus forms. Which have a more droning and fully resident tone. However important distinction worth noting here. Is that they're used to change the pitch of opening strings. All without adjusting the tuning keys. This means in a sense that the pitch of the fretted notes does not change. Only the pitch of the open unfretted strings. So the pitch as well as the timbre of the strings is affected. Thus imparting the tonality of instruments with shorter scales. In the case of this so-called God key. It seems to only hurt the tonality of the violin without providing any advantage to the instrument. :/

I’ve been waiting for this!!

That was a curious experiment! Would be interesting to see John Devereux's bar featured in a future video, but i'd imagine those violins, and especially with a bar remaining are quire rare. (To compensate, there a nice series of photos and a description on the Australian Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences website).

I can definitely see it being useful for reducing the warping of the instrument due to changes in humidity and temperature, but it's one of those things where you're making an improvement, but at what cost? It definitely sounds a bit less hollow and resonant with the pillar installed.

The thing is, even if it did sound sort of OK, surely the extra weight is a big drawback if you are going to be playing for extended periods?

Olaf, the real God 🤩😍 Thank you!! I've been looking forward to this, I was so excited. Now I'm disappointed, I hoped for a huge change. 🤪 Anyway, Olaf is a man who keeps his promises! ❤

I agree, the low end is lost with it. Never heard of that before and I am glad my violin/viola don't have one and are not getting touched!

I liked it. I thought it was much more focused. I put an oak dowel through an ES-175 I made and it trimmed out the design's tubbiness nicely. It's a valid principle. A birch dowel on a viola or cello could be the right thing to firm up a cheaper instrument.

Oh YEAH!!! I was waiting for this!!! 😆😆😆😆

Subscribed. I'm not a musician but consider you did a good job in this vid and deserve to grow.

With the god pilar I feel like the violin was at the near death

This video was made 2 years ago today. Happy birthday

Before listening to the result, this is my guess - I think it will dampen the high frequencies the most, which means if a violin is screechy it could do some good (but better to adjust the soundpost in that case), if it already has a good quality tone it will just become duller. Edit: After listening - it became duller, but more on the G-string than the E-string which wasn't what I expected.

I agree. I can't see them putting one of these in the Kochanski Guarnari del Gesu somehow.. 👍

this feels exciting, scary and dirty at the same time..... good thing Olaf is so funny, reassuringly calm and a true professional to guide us through... the sound with godpillar somewhat reminds me of practicing with a mute on - only, the mute seems to take away some of the scratchy noises too, while the godpillar lets us still enjoy them and still sounds nasal. ☺️

I didn't hear much difference tbh, also it seemed that w/o god pillar test the bow strokes are slower, in that case contact may be better and make for a bit more resonant sound imo. I'm not an expert but that's my observation. I'm just slightly surprised it didn't change it as much as I would have expected.

This Man is an Artist-craftsman, I am compelled to subscribe 👩‍🎨👨‍🎨🖼🎻🎨

OK. You've convinced me! I'll never think about trying it myself. :) Actually, there was an electric violin some years ago that had a flat belly & a bar or more correctly, a tube (much like the tubular end pin spike of a cello) above the belly which would have essentially done the same thing, if I remember correctly. A pretty ugly idea though.

The new version of the ad now has olaf holding the god pillar, further adding to the legitimacy of the product.

It sounds almost tinny on the A and E strings, kind of like the sound a cheap set of strings causes with the God Pilar in it, the deeper voice of the G and D strings has a strange "void" and it definitely doesn't hum as richly, I'd like to see it tested with an audio analyser, this might answer more questions as to what this thing is doing to the sound.

God... Twoset need to react to this!!!!

Olaf, could you please do a video we’re you make a violin using one of those DIY kits? Love your videos!

Don't lie, you've waited weeks for this video too

Extra resonance for sure! Upsetting. Maybe would help for a proper bad like homemade violin or something!

Now I’ll be scared to practice violin in the car while speeding through traffic. Imagine a car accident with that metal rod against your neck.

I was going to say something along the lines of "If you need to do something so drastic to an instrument to make it sound good you might as well just buy a better one" but then I remembered that us guitar players do significantly more ridiculous things to our instruments for significantly less reasons. Like swapping perfectly good pickups for some artists signature models because we think it will make us play like our heros.

I think it loses the "wood" resonance or response tones. Middle mostly. Thx love the channel

from the video, the "God pillar" has more metallic sound, which I think is the whole purpose so that the sound can travel faster and longer distances but not in soft mode.

The moment we have been waiting for.

This is the mysterious violin in tromba marina Vivaldi wrote a few pieces for :D

Oh yes, I've been waiting for THIS.

Good job Thanks

In my experience building experimental violins increased rigidity absolutely does reduce the depth and richness of the G string. D too if it's bad enough. My focus is a central structure that creates a pivot point between V shaped flat panels. So far my most successful model is an experiment I did where I built one with the body shape I designed but replaced the central structure with traditional treble bar and soundpost. Side by side with a student grade strad type it has a brighter, clearer tone and higher volume. However it's panels are so very thin that there's a small distortion of the face at the top of the left F hole and a few concerning checks. The face is pine cut from decking board and the back is plywood from an engine shipping crate. Very backyard - barn fiddle materials but given that it's sound is very impressive. This rod may increase structural integrity but I imagine it's also dampening vibration with its mere presence. What I have done so far is a pair of plates which run the length of the body and connect to the top and bottom blocks in a downward facing V pattern. They glue to the apex of the two piece top plate which is a V with less pitch. There's a wedge on the treble side below the bridge foot and that side is thicker. The E string side is very thin and has a sound post which passes through it and connects to the center of the bottom plates at their apex creating a 45* angle. My theory is that the angle will create mechanical advantage and drive the back plate with more force. I haven't built another this way yet. My current project is a slightly wider version with bar and post but it features thinned plates with skeletal structures embossed around the perimeter and a few cross bars to promote integrity. The last one is so thin that the edges curled a bit when I assembled it all together. The way I build these the top and bottoms are 4 plates, first glued to each other at a slight angle, then glued to the top and bottom block and each other at 4 pinnacle points with shunt blocks. Then the top, bottom, and side plates are fitted last. This allows me to file and sand all the edges to a nice bevel which gives them the appeal of an electric guitar body and feels very sleek.

I think I would need to play it myself in order to truly understand any differences (e.g., responsiveness, dynamic range, tone color). I couldn't tell much by listening to a couple scales played on this video. The god pillar certainly didn't seem to do the violin any good, and so regardless of the cost, it doesn't seem like the god pillar is worth the investment.

By far my favourite video.

From what I can see in the instructions it is intended to balance the tension of the strings and reduce the bending force applied to the body of the instrument. I don't think it is necessary. The body of a string instrument is remarkably strong. Ironically, all the compromises and things that go into the design and function of a violin are what make a violin sound the way it does. eg. If there wasn't a need for 'C' bouts to accommodate the bow, would the violin sound as good as it does? I am inclined to think it wouldn't.

Thanks for doing your part instilling the fear of god pillar into the youth of today. Truly, we need more god pillar fearing men like you in the world 😜

Interesting - really hard to know without hearing dynamics. The violin is already dampened as a resonator by the sound post, I would certainly say that it would potentially take years to really hear if it makes a positive difference or not, the whole box would have to realign, and "learn" to resonate differently. My issue is that Metal / expands very different to temperature changes 😲

That reminds me of a budget banjo I once had. I think it projects well. You would need an oscilloscope to get an impartial critique on that gadget. It’s not worth any of this cost or trouble.

I don't have an amazing ear for Violin sound, however without sounds much richer than with. Somebody said the violin sound like it has a cold and I feel like that is a pretty effective description.

It is easy to measure using a spectrum analyser. Just a quicky on a SA ap on my phone shows Olaf is right about the softer mids. a spike at 2 kHz is around 10dB softer, and the whole spectrum between 2 and 4 kHz is about 5-10dB softer. I have no violin knowledge, my work is electronics and for most involving measurement gear. Using my ears, a violin sound a bit "nasal/hollowish" and that is for most gone with the godpillar, it now sounds more like a solid body electrical violin.

Have you seen the Transacoustic guitars? They honestly make guitars sound more expensive by an order of magnitude. I'd love to see an adaptation for violin tested and demonstrated.

Hm, just changing the tailgut length could have a significant effect on the sound all by itself.

Use a virtual card for online purchases.. it's a one time use cc number,,a lot of credit cards have this option

for those who were curious and tried this thing irl, F for respect

The only plus of the G@d pillar is the blunting of the shrillness of the E string. A much safer alternative is buying a superior E string. Or to switch to viola, like I did (actually, I play both instruments)

Godpillar seems like it causes a natural staccato without that umph