Neutron imaging as tool for investigations on historical musical instruments

In this paper, we describe, why and how neutron imaging methods are applied to contribute to the knowledge about historical music instruments, either brass based or using wood as structural material. Beside the recovery of constructive details of old brass wind instruments with the aim to build equivalent replica, the influence of moisture on inner corrosion has been investigated. On the other side, wood properties are strongly influenced by the moisture uptake from the varying environment and the coverage and protection by varnish and lacquer were studied systematically using neutron transmission measurements.