Full Description
This is the first book to combine museum-based conservation techniques with practical instructions on the maintenance, repair, adjustment, and tuning of virtually every type of historical musical instrument. As one of the world's leading conservators of musical instruments, Stewart Pollens gives practical advice on the handling, storage, display and use of historic musical instruments in museums and other settings, and provides technical information on such wide-ranging subjects as acoustics, cleaning, climate control, corrosion, disinfestation, conservation ethics, historic stringing practice, measurement and historic metrology, retouching, tuning historic temperaments, varnish and writing reports. There are informative essays on the conservation of each of the major musical instrument groups, the treatment of paper, textiles, wood and metal, as well as historic techniques of wood and metalworking as they apply to musical instrument making and repair. This is a practical guide that includes equations, formulas, tables and step-by-step instructions.
Contents
Introduction; Entries A-Z: Acoustics; Benzotriazole; Bleach; Boxwood; Brass, bronze, and nickel silver alloys; Brass and nickel silver cleaning; Brass instrument conservation; Bronze disease; Calendar; Cents conversion; Chemical analysis; Cleaning: soaps and detergents; Clavichord maintenance; Compo or pastiglia; Conservation reports; Dendrochronology; Dictionary of common and obsolete chemical terms; Disinfestation; Drill bits; Ebony and ebonizing; Electroplating and electro-cleaning; Epoxy removal; Ethics; Flutes; Fortepiano maintenance; French polishing; Frets, tied and fixed; Gilding; Glues, pastes, and other adhesives; Grain painting and marbling; Grit size comparison chart; Guitar stringing; Gut strings; Handling, storage, and transporting musical instruments; Harp maintenance and stringing; Harpsichord maintenance; Helmholtz resonator; Historical metrology; Humidity control; Hurdy gurdy stringing; Illumination level; Inscriptions, faded; Intervals; Iron and steel; Ivory; Japanning; Keyboard instrument conservation; Labels; Lacquer; Lakes; Lead and lead alloys; Leather; Lute stringing; Measurement; Measurement system conversion; Mersenne's Law; Metallurgy; Metalworking; Mold making; Mother-of-pearl and abalone; Nickel silver cleaning; Oddy test; Organ restoration; Overspun strings; Paper, pencil, and ink; Parchment, vellum, and slunk; Patination; Pegs; Piano action regulation (modern grand); Pitch; Proportion; Recording; Relative humidity; Retouching; Rosin; Safety equipment; Scaling; Sealing wax; Sharpening tools; Silver cleaning; Soldering; Solvents and solvent cleaning; Specific gravity; Staining wood; Stain removal; Stradivari's varnish; Stringed keyboard restoration; Tap drill sizes; Tapers; Temperature; Tempering steel; Textile cleaning; Tinning; Tortoiseshell, horn, and whalebone; Tuning and temperament; Vapor-phase inhibitor paper; Varnish; Viola da Gamba strings; Violin adjustment; Violin, baroque fittings and strings; Violin sizes; Violin and viola strings, modern; Vulcanite and ebonite; Wax cleaning emulsion; Wire gauge systems for early keyboard instruments; Wheat paste; Wood; Woodwind instrument conservation; Woodworking.
