Native Instruments Scarbee A-200 User Manual - 2 Restoration
Scarbee A-200 - User Manual – 7
2 Restoration
In order to guarantee that the sampled instrument was as close to, or better than, the original
(a 1972 model), an exhaustive process of refurbishment was undertaken prior to the recording
process. During the whole programming phase we used a proprietary system of sampling in
order to ensure that the sound, action and feel of the original instrument was mirrored and
maintained. We went through this kind of trouble because a key element in recreating the
experience of playing the real instrument is accurately capturing the response dynamics. As
a result of this effort, the action and feel of the Scarbee A-200 exactly duplicates that of a
well “hot rodded” instrument.
Vintage repair wizard Preben Lyngmark from Musikpartner did a fantastic job removing noise
from the piano and doing the initial restoration. Preben was extremely helpful when I called
for emergency help! Truly a great guy and friend. First thing Preben did was repairing one
of the broken knobs. Then we took the power transformer out of the instrument to get rid of
the magnetic hum. We added extra metal screening folio (in Europe we don’t use ground-
ing on keyboards that often). I also had to move the piano far away from any studio power
cables when recording, otherwise you could hear the hum even with the transformer taken
out. Preamp transistors were replaced by modern low noise type, which really helped with
the noise problems. Dampers were adjusted—note that the top five keys have no dampers!
We replicated this on the A-200.
The tuning took weeks of work. We ordered many, many reeds from different places to get
to the right sound. The reeds had to be original and from the original metal from the 60s or
70s, otherwise it simply wouldn’t sound right. Adding lead to lower the pitch, I had to redo a
couple of the reeds (in fact we ended up replacing almost every reed of the instrument with
original reeds... gotta make it perfect, you know!). To increase the pitch, lead was removed
from the reed tip with a file. It was important to shape a kind of pyramid shape to get the
right sound. Not an easy task! Finally the reeds were installed. The screws had to be tight,
otherwise the sustain would be short and the reed sound dull. It was painstaking. The reed
had to be placed exactly in middle of the fork to get distortion right when hitting hard (a
magnifier glass was needed for that).