PDA

View Full Version : Clavichord tangents. What profile? plus A Clavichord time capsule



Russell Sansom
11-22-2012, 8:04 PM
I'm bringing out a couple clavichords for the holidays. I've never been happy with the way the tangents meet the strings. With vigorous playing, sometimes a string will even slip off the tangent, Or "play" as the string rolls a little. I put a slight convex radius on them and I can't remember why.

I built these in the 70's and they've been put away, as have my memories of research back then. I think with the internet, my chances are somewhat better than pre-internet, when the most relevant reference documents were the Whole Earth Catalog and measured drawings from the Smithsonian.
These are lovable instruments and since I'm a far better musician now, I'm looking forward to playing them.

If you have clavichord experience, I'd like to ask this and a perhaps a few other questions.

Cheers,
Russ

P.S...
I'd like to share something that I thought was clever. We shall see. I "created" two pretty fretted clavichords. One I completed and played for a bit. The other, I left in --- let's say --- "kit" form...complete but completely unassembled. My idea was some day far in the future, I would play the built one, I'd reflect on what I might have done differently after the test of time, and THEN I'd build the second one. It seemed like a cool idea and I still think so. I can never do it again, so this is my shot. The time has come.

george wilson
11-28-2012, 3:41 PM
When I made clavichords,I used cut nails for the tangents,and filed their flat heads a little concave so the strings would not slip off. Another thing I did,knowing the vibrations would quickly leak away from the least massive end of the string,was to put a round lead piano key weight in the key,just under where the tangent was located. Then I drilled a tight hole,and drove the tangent into the key and into the lead weight. My clavichords were said by players to sound like much larger models.

Om the bride end,I eliminated down bearing on the bridge and built the soundboard lightly. I put 2 pins in the bridge for each string,canted towards each other. The pins held the string down against the bridge without downbearing pressure,so I could get away with a lightly made soundboard. This took maximum advantage of the relatively feeble vibrations of the strings,helping the volume too.

Russell Sansom
11-29-2012, 2:21 AM
Thanks for taking the time to help me out, George. I recall once before you mentioned embedding the tangents in metal and it made a lot of sense to me. My fretted keyboards are unweighted, always a source of pride for me to keep mass to a bare minimum, therefore the inertia. On the other hand, I still own one of a series of four unfretted clavichords where the keys are, indeed, counter-weighted. I have to think it will work very well down in the base and I can swap out the original weight for one of your tangent anchors. At any rate, while I have less time to burn now, I'm much smarter than I was several decades ago. I'm looking forward to exploring all this afresh as a completely different person.

I have looked at tangents some years ago in a nifty instrument museum in Paris and couldn't quite tell if they were dead flat or had a small radius. I know when I reached across the velvet rope and pushed a key on a perfect looking specimen the sound was stunningly big and it was clear my standards for sound weren't high enough. Then the curator screamed at me for thirty second in French and that exploration came to an ignominious halt. I wish I knew of a touchstone instrument I could play around here so I could figure out where to set my sights.
Thanks,
Russ

george wilson
12-01-2012, 5:15 PM
Correction for my post above: It should say "On the bridge end". Usually I proof my posts better than that!! My first clavichord experience was in 1963,when I helped a friend assemble a Zuckermann kit. It had tangents made of VERY thin metal,about .020" thick!! The sound was miniscule!! Cut nails are much more massive and embedding them in a round slug of lead piano key weight vastly improved the volume. I don't know if anyone else has done this. I just reasoned it out. It does work quite effectively.