3D Printing a Harpsichord Jack (EP 28)

[@leonheart7576]

I like your harpsichord project. Thank you

[@jimbo2629]

You need to print a register or make or buy a standard one. I would happily buy your jacks and plectra because here in England it is excess of £10 per Jack and trimming plectra is a pain. If they are too light add a hole for lead. You could also 3D print the curved bridge as I would not expect that to affect the tone. Steam bending one is a pain. I hope you go ahead. You could also print inserts for the fulcrum of the keys. They already exist but that’s another matter.

[@GianTJ]

Nice job on the project! I'd love to hear a side-by-side of the original jacks vs. the 3D printed ones. Did you ever make another video on what is sounds like with the new voicing?

[@alicewyan]

One always wants more harpsichord related content! How did it go?

[@qwaqwa1960]

A few problems-that's an understatement ;-)

[@qwaqwa1960]

Amazing-it kinda works!

[@martinzarate1096]

Very cool video! Just the other day our professor was complaining about plastic jacks in the conservatory's harpsichord, but said that wooden ones are way more expensive, and even the plastic ones are hard to import, so some of us mentioned that 3D printing them might be a partial solution. Really cool to see that there's a really interesting video with a lot of info about it. Thank you!

[@DoctorRGPlague]

I would think that in most cases wooden jacks would be preferable to plastic jacks. This was just an experiment to see how 3D printed jacks would work on a cheap harpsichord, but I wouldn't do this with a quality harpsichord! Just my opinion. Thanks for the comment!

[@HeavyHarpsichord]

This is really intriguing! I have an instrument that I'm thinking of doing this with and also with the registers for the jacks. Thank you for the idea and inspiration!

[@DoctorRGPlague]

Thank you for watching, and good luck with your design!

[@herrdrayer]

How did it turn out with all new jacks? Your 3D printed plectra made a bit of a bright, heavy sound. By making them a bit narrower and more arrowhead shaped, they'll make a more delicate, intimate sound.

[@DoctorRGPlague]

Unfortunately, I have not added all the new jacks yet. Some problems I ran into was that each existing jack was a slightly different size (they were all homemade and numbered to match each slot). This meant I would have needed to adjust each 3D print to match the slots (they were either too tight, or too loose). The four I made for the video seemed to work, but I noticed that some strings had a higher tension, which caused some new jacks to stick up due to the light weight of the plastic. This was only an experiment to see if I could get something better than I had, but I think I need to return to the drawing board. Thanks for watching!

[@jwtgm9]

Very cool project! I was thinking about doing just this for my Zuckermann harpsichord and googled first to see if it had already been done. Nice work!

[@DoctorRGPlague]

Thank you, and good luck with any future plans!

[@raiscl]

Came for the same reason... my 40yo plastic jacks from zuckermann are starting to break and it's hard to find wood ones with the right dimensions.... I was wondering if you were successful in this enterprise!?

[@gargamel7127]

Were can i find the 3d print files? good video btw

[@unclebobandco]

Have you ever shared your file anyplace? Would be very interested in obtaining it. Most jack files are lacking the great design features in yours, and not suitable for use in most printers. Tried making a file for this but did not come out as a workable print.

[@DoctorRGPlague]

Sorry, it is not shared anywhere at this time. I was working on some improvements to it but haven't had much time to work anymore on it. Thanks for the comment!

[@unclebobandco]

@@DoctorRGPlague If you should share that file, please include me in the sharing. Yours is the best I have seen so far, and could be easily reshaped to work on a harpsichord I cannot find a jack to repair it.

[@De_mitaSiburian-uw7xs]

Puncture wounds

[@Fellow_Traveller1985]

I'm planning on building a small improvised harpsichord and this was helpful concerning jack design.

[@DoctorRGPlague]

Glad to hear that it was helpful. Thanks for watching!

[@fluffkitten4339]

What I would’ve done: keep the wooden jacks, replace the tongues for ones that would be mortised for delrin. Glue on dampers are not the best by far, but they do work. Martin Skowroneck used glue on dampers btw. The other thing would be (since you have a 3D printer…) printing out little “slides,” to glue the damper to. The slide would go up and down on a screw in the jack. Now, back to jacks, wood is muchhhh more popular then plastic. good wood jacks do not warp, and give a much more pleasing feel to the action. The other thing I would like to mention is voicing. Voicing the plectra makes them bend in an arc, which is good for the longevity of the plectra. Another problem is putting in all unvoiced plectra. Unvoiced plectra can cause unevenness in the loudness and feel of the action. I do applaud you for your experiment. Best of luck in your harpsichord doings.

[@DoctorRGPlague]

Thank you for your suggestions!

[@takemyjobpleeez]

The harpsichord you have was designed by Virgil Hughes, and was available as a kit. It was the largest, most challenging instrument kit in his line up, which included folk harps, mountain dulcimers, banjos, etc. I had a Hughes kit harpsichord years ago, Still have some of the jacks, construction manual, and full size drawing.

[@DoctorRGPlague]

Yes. I have the manual to it (it was given to me by the person who built it). It is a Chamber Harpsichord K52W49 by Hughes Company, Denver, Colorado. Thanks for the comment!

[@takemyjobpleeez]

@@DoctorRGPlague V. Hughes was prolific maker, and wrote many instruction books for Mel Bay company. His son, Norman, was running the business in theb early 90's when I got my kit. It was the cheapest harpsi kit available. It sounds good for an instrument with such a short scale, and a plywood soundboard. Hughes was a WW2 veteran. He passed in 2020 at 94.

[@takemyjobpleeez]

Btw, I was curious to see if anyone on KZbin printed jacks, and came across your video first. I have a huge, two manual, harpsichord (Ammer "Bach" model, four sets of strings, 5 pedals), with aging black plastic jacks. I was considering replacing with wooden jacks...but there's 244 of them, and that will be a lot of cutting. I'll give a shot at printing them.

[@DoctorRGPlague]

Thank you for the info!

[@DoctorRGPlague]

I wish you luck with the printing. Wow, that is a LOT of jacks to print. I suggest only printing a few first to make sure you like how they work and try them in different octaves to ensure they work well throughout the whole span of the instrument. Thank you for your interest!

[@qwaqwa1960]

I woulda tried to improve the wood jacks, not scrap them!

[@rutgerreyes7146]

Tanks boys

[@qwaqwa1960]

The plectrum is so close to the axle. Not good...

[@bensimonmusic]

loved this!!!

[@DoctorRGPlague]

Thank you!

[@qwaqwa1960]

Ugh, may as well just print the plectra in place on the tongue..

[@SoggySandwich80]

Why the plague doctor mask and funny voice?

[@DoctorRGPlague]

It was the pandemic! You can see that it took a major toll on me. You can learn more about it by watching my trailer. Thanks for the comment!

[@raiscl]

Nice. But please don't glue stuff inside a harpsichord even in those non historical models. I'm curious so know if the 3d printed plectrum was easy to work as is the delrim ones... because without a good voicing it will be hard to play and have a shitty sound.