A musical instrument is a witness of the many human visual and aural sensibilities, beliefs and dreams. It is not just a technical object, but one with its own aesthetic properties, an object that makes a variety of characteristic sounds without necessarily the existence of a connection between its visual and sound aesthetic. Preserving an instrument means therefore preserving our culture, our history, our dreams. The conference, open to all museum professionals, was intended to present and critically discuss the latestresearch about diagnostic techniques applied to musical instruments as well as advanced conservation practices, use of materials, collections management, through the presentation of case studies. Its main objective was to be a forum for the exchange of information, seeking to promote the transfer of knowledge regarding the daily activities of preservation and to facilitate the exchange of scientific information and opportunities for collaboration among researchers from different backgrounds. The proceedings contain a selection of the papers presented in 2010 and 2011. Table of contentsForewordEmanuele Marconi, editor 1. TransformationsRobert L. Barclay – Restoration Consultant, Canada 2. DocumentationRobert L. Barclay – Restoration Consultant, Canada 3. On the field – universal measurementPatricia Lopez Bastos – ANIMUSIC – Associação Nacionalde Instrumentos Musicais 4. Investigating and Preventing the Deteriorationof Historic Brass Instruments in EUCHMIPanagiotis Poulopoulos – Deutsches Museum, Munich,Arnold Myers – The University of Edinburgh 5. Surface cleaning of musical instruments –towards a more conscious approachClaudio Canevari – Civica Scuola di Liuteria di Milano 6. Dendrochronology: Tool of Truth or DeceptionStewart Pollens – Violin Advisor LLC, New York 7. Piano’s forgery revealed by dendrochronologyDavid Houbrechts, Pascale Vandervellen – MusicalIntruments Museum, Bruxelles8. Structural, chemical and mechanical imaging appliedto the conservation of musical instrumentsJean-Philippe Echard, Sandie Le Conte, Stéphane Vaiedelich– Musée de la Musique, Paris9. Digital X-Radiography of Musical InstrumentsAna Sofia Silva – Conservator of Musical Instruments,Portugal10. Synchrotron radiation microtomography: a tool fornon-invasive analysis of historical musical instrumentsFranco Zanini – Sincrotrone Trieste11. Synchrotron radiation microtomography of bowedstringed instruments: the 1753 violinby G.B. GuadagniniNicola Sodini – Sincrotrone Trieste12. Stereomicroscope and SEM microanalysis study ofmusical instruments from Correr museum in VeniceStefania Bruni, Giuseppe Maino et alii, Enea Bologna13. X-ray and neutron imaging as complementarynon-destructive methods for investigations of historicalbrasswind instrumentsDavid Mannes, Adrian. von Steiger, Eberhard Lehmann,Rainer Egger – Neutron Imaging and Activation Group,Spallation neutron source SINQ, Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI),Villigen14. Looking over the Instrument Maker’s shoulders.Methods of material analysis of production technologyfor brasswind instrumentsAdrian von Steiger – Bern University of the Arts15. The emulation of non-linearity of musical instrumentsby means of Volterra seriesLamberto Tronchin – Università di Bologna Authors’ Biographies