A couple more clavichord images

[Russell Sansom]

Here are a couple keyboard details.

This was the last clavichord where I glued on the pivot restraints on top. Zuckerman was doing it this way in the 70's and everybody else was using felt-lined holes ( as in a piano ), which, while quiet, makes for a sluggish action in a light key. The "proper" method is simply to cut a VERY thin mortise/slot in the top of the key with just a drill hole on the bottom of the key.

[Marv Werner]

Looks complicated and a lot of tedious work. That would look great just hanging on a wall as a conversation piece, if nothing else. I say that because you indicated that you were going to toss it.

[george wilson]

I made my clavichords unusually loud(though still a very quiet instrument,as instruments go. What I did was add mass to the tangents. I used cut nails for tangents,smoothing and polishing them. I made them a little concave across their tops ( at the 90º from the string direction),and a little rounded in the other direction,so they'd be like a guitar fret single point of contact. Then,I drilled a hole through the key right under where the tangent was,and bedded the tangent into a round lead piano key weight. This provided enough mass to keep the sound from bleeding away from the string too fast. On the bridge end,I eliminated downbearing on the bridge on the soundboard. I drove in 2 pins where each string crossed the bridge,angling them inwards,and making the string take a dogleg between them enough to hold the string down on the bridge and keep it from buzzing. The rail where the strings were anchored was the same height as the bridge.

I had on of my clavichords in the visitor area of the instrument shop where it could be tried. Players remarked that this small clavichord was as loud as much larger ones they had tried.

I don't claim to be a clavichord expert,but these simple modifications worked quite well. Back in 1964,I helped a friend put together a Zuckermann clavichord kit. The tangents were very thin,and the sound terribly lacking. That was my first clavichord experience,but I believe I engineered a few tonal improvements into ones I built later on in Williamsburg.