Veena is a stringed musical instrument used in Carnatic music of southern India. Unlike many Western stringed instruments, the bridge of the Veena is wide with an almost parabolic curved shape. This causes the end of the string to wrap and unwrap over the bridge. Several researchers have studied the string vibrations in the Veena using a continuous system vibration model. In order to understand the effect of this type of bridge on string vibration a lumped parameter approximation is developed. The model is applied to the standard problem of string with fixed fixed support and results from a transient excitation are compared to validate the model.
The string vibrations excite the structure of the Veena by transmitting the forces to the Kudam via the bridge sitting on the sound board. This leads to a vibro-acoustic interaction between the Kudam and the sound board. The uncoupled and coupled vibro-acoustic models are studied using FEA. It is observed that the acoustic coupling between the cavity of the Kudam and the sound board is weak and hence the role of the sound board is more important than the Kudam it appears; more work on the effect of the resonator holes needs to be carried out to confirm this hypothesis.