Abstract: A chemical preservative treatment for strings of a musical instrument. The chemical preservative treatment is a fluorochemical acrylate polymer coating carried in a hydrofluoroether solvent, which results in a film covering the strings that has low surface energy values and a thickness of less than 1 micron. The chemical preservative is non-toxic (low in toxicity), non-ozone depleting, non-flammable and contains no volatile organic compounds. The film is insoluble in solvents such as heptane, toluene, and water, and is strippable with fluorinated solvents. The film is resistant to oils and dirt, and provides virtually no interference with the natural sound generating properties of the musical instrument string.

Abstract: In order to adjust the tone of a machine made stringed instrument, so the notes of the machine made stringed instrument are balanced, the sounding box of an initial test instrument is constructed. Then the surface of the sounding box is tested to determine regions of excessive resonance. Next, to control excessive resonance, resonating regions of the sounding box are covered with one or more layers of a wood based sheet material until the overall tone of the test instrument is satisfactory. Then machine made duplicates of the sounding box of the instrument are made. The location of the wood based sheet material having been determined, the new instruments are provided with the same material at the same locations, so the resulting instruments all have the same tone.