During repairs and restorations, we attach great importance to protecting the original substance and avoid removing original wood and varnish as far as possible. If a loss of material is unavoidable, we keep it as low as possible and use suitable old wood from our inventory for the replacement. We master both time-honored and state-of-the-art techniques to make damage as invisible as possible. The sound and character of your instrument are thus preserved.
Preserving the originality
Appearance, sound and optimal playability
At the same time, we always keep the playability of your instrument in mind during our work - from the technical alignment of the neck angle to the bridge shape and the condition of the fingerboard. After all, we want your playing to be easy and you to enjoy your restored stringed instrument every day anew.
Small corrections, big effect
A stringed instrument is a sensitive system consisting of bridge, soundpost, tailpiece and strings, neck angle, fingerboard and bass bar. Precise tuning of these components can open up new worlds of sound for your instrument. We will be happy to advise you on whether such fine-tuning is worthwhile in the case of your instrument. Ask us!
Particularly cautious thanks to high-tech
We work according to the restoration principle: minimally invasive and reversible. If we have to replace old patches or repair worm damage, we work in our studio with a 3D scanner and CNC milling machine. Thanks to this modern standard, we can create perfectly fitting inlays even for extremely complex shapes and reduce the loss of original material to a minimum. We also do not have to remove any original wood for edge doubling thanks to these state-of-the-art techniques.
Minimal-invasiv restoration of a Grancino cello
Condition of the soundboard before restoration: thanks to our inlay method using 3D scanning and CNC milling, we were able to restore this soundboard of a cello by G. Grancino in a minimally invasive way.Removal of the old patches revealed a thick layer of glue.Wormholes and cracks were also clearly visible.We removed virtually no original substance, only removed and cleaned the old patches.Using a 3D scanner, we created a very precise scan of the surface.Preparation of the patch: the spruce wood is joined as in the original. The top of the Grancino Cello consists of two larger pieces with flanks set on both sides. First milling operation with a 10 mm ball end mill.Fine milling with a 10 mm ball end mill.After the last milling operation with a 1.2 mm ball nose end mill.Precision finished patch - ready for gluing.Gluing in the patch, of course with reversible bone glue.Finest HandworkDetail photo: the result with the joint and matching annual rings.The result with a new bass bar.
Inlays for worm damage
For the restoration of the worm damage in this Venetian violin, our inlay method was also used.A very important step is the selection of the wood. Here we paid attention to the annual ring width and the flames. After scanning, we made the inlay with our CNC milling machine.Gluing in the individual areas.The result of this minimally invasive repair.
Restoration of a violin made by Petro Antonio dalla Costa
Conditiion before the restoration.Condition before restoration: many patches and open cracks.Many cracks weren't in glued in level.Removing the old patches.There were some repairs under the patches.Condition after removing the old repairs. No orginal wood was removed-Using our cnc milling machine we produced this counter part.The new patch is glued in the top of the violin.The finished patch with a new bassbar.
Restoration of a violin made by Matthias Klotz
State of the belly before the restoration. Worm damage is visible by the black lines.Cleaned worm damage.With a cnc milling machine we made inlays from old spruce wood.The inlays were glued and finished.This is the state before retouching.After retouching.
Restoring the back of the Matthias Klotz violin.
Condition before the restoration.Using UV light the damages are even more visible.UV light using a red filter.Using an infra-red camera the worm damages inside the wood were made visible.State inside before the restoration.Cracks and worm damages.This is an inlay for the edge.A part of the inlays are also visible from the outside.State of the back after retouching.
