The Harpsichord
A one-manual, three-chorus, five-octave Zuckermann, built from a kit in 1972–73.
In the summer of 2022, I became the second owner of a Zuckermann five-octave kit harpsichord, hand-built in 1972–73 by family friend and harpsichord mechanic Doug Nelson. The harpsichord has three choruses: two sets of strings in the 8′ register and one set in the 4′ register. Each register can be operated independently from the instrument’s single manual. There is also a lute stop that mutes the sound by applying a series of felt dampers to the primary 8′ chorus. I will record some of the various projects, improvements and learnings from the instrument here as my relationship with it progresses.
Adding jack bottom screws
Summer 2022
One of my first projects with the instrument was the addition of jack bottom screws to the primary 8-foot chorus. The main reason to make this change was to even out the action of the keys, creating a more consistent key depth between neutral and the point where the string is plucked. Without jack bottom screws, the jacks rest at the height of their inherent length, which is not necessarily exact and is dependent on other tolerances within the instrument. Modifying the height requires you to permanently trim the bottom of the jack, which is irreversible and only solves an issue where a shorter jack is desired. After the addition of jack bottom screws, they can be used to trim the height of the jack, allowing me to level the jack height across the register.
The main 8′ chorus now has jack bottom screws across the entire register, and the action of the keys is much more consistent as a result. As a player, this allows me to be more even with my touch, since the travel of the key stroke depth does not change from key to key. Think about typing on a mushy, poor-quality computer keyboard versus a nicely tuned mechanical keyboard. The result is very similar in experience.