Restoration and Maintenance

A large part of our work is in restoring and maintaining instruments from original to modern reproductions, not limited to just the harpsichord but just about any early keyboard instrument, be it a spinet, muselaar, clavichord, virginal, pleyel etc.. In restoring historical instruments we will obtain as much information as we can, from drawings and measurements, even from museums or institutions. Museums will often restore historic instruments with the help of a builder by using modern techniques to analyze the harpsichord's construction. Xrays are useful in identifying internal dimentions etc., and fiber optics can be employed to look through the rose into the innermost part of the instrument so that it need not be taken apart. Different instruments require different approaches.

Many of the aspects of maintaining an early keyboard instrument can be done by the owner, but at some stage the instrument will need to go to a professional workshop to address the more difficult and involved issues which invariably happen to all instruments over time. Our workshop is full equipped to deal with any issue that may arise, from the complex to the seemingly impossible. 

The most recent restorations carried out in our workshop have been of two french double manual instruments built in Boston in the mid 1970's. You can see some images of recent restorations on this page.