Welcome to ARNO PATIN Studios LLC, Located at:   918 Pomona Rd Ann Arbor, MI 48103 USA


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Grand Piano
Restoring and
Rebuilding

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   String Scaling Program
   Bone Keytop Coverings

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       Today, in the field of musical instruments, one can find all kinds of restorations, which are not necessarily executed with a high level of quality or with much attention paid to the history of the instruments. Furthermore, when annotations are available for the original measurements, plans and calculations of the instrument, they are rarely given the technical attention they deserve.
From a musical point of view, one might believe that a century-old restored piano has recovered all of its sound specifications, simply because the tone color is still present. However, a progressive and non-reversible weariness of material, called "creep," has resulted from the constant and long-term pressure on the various wooden elements of the soundboard. Acoustically, the effect of creep in stringed keyboard instruments, especially pianos and pianofortes, is the loss of dynamics: the instrument no longer "answers" the player.
Therefore, precise measurements of string loads, crown and creep are necessary before we calculate and redesign the original shape of a soundboard.

This practice also leads us to restitution of the beautiful dynamics of ancient as well as modern pianos, thus preserving their genuine tone color by strictly respecting the stringings, loads, measurements and localizations of the instrument: a truly scientific and technical challenge with a musical and artistic purpose.

E-mail Arno at:
arnopianos@aol.com

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