Clavinet

The Clavinet is an electromechanical instrument with 60 keys and one string per key; there are two pickups placed close to one end of the string. The keyboard ranges from F1 to E6, with the first 23 strings wound and the remaining ones unwound, so that there is a small discontinuity in timbre. The end of the string which is closest to the keyboard is connected to a tuning pin and is damped by a yarn winding which stops string vibration after key release.

The string termination on the opposite side is connected to a tailpiece. The excitation mechanism is based on a class 2 lever (i.e., a lever with the resistance located between the fulcrum and the effort), where the force is applied through a rubber tip, called the tangent. The rubber tip strikes the string and traps it against a metal stud, or anvil, for the duration of the note, splitting the string into speaking and nonspeaking parts, with the motion of the former transduced by the pickups. Figure 1 shows the action mechanism of the Clavinet.

The Clavinet also includes an amplifier stage, with tone control and pickup switches. The tone control switches act as simple equalization filters. The pickup switches allow the independent selection of pickups or sums of pickup signals in phase or in anti-phase. Figure 2 shows the Clavinet model used for analysis and sound recording.