Building a Clavinet

After successfully building a fretted electric clavichord, I set out to build an unfretted electric clavichord, more akin to the Clavinet. Overall I would consider this a success, though there were some obstacles along the way. This video details the build process, while I intend to produce a comprehensive demo of the instrument at a later date.

[@willstudioworkshop]

There's been a lot of comments about the background music, thought I'd put timestamps of what is what: 0:00 Parliament - Testify 1:37 Original Composition (quotes from Gershwin's 1st Prelude and Les McCann - North Carolina) 7:59 Bach - Well-Tempered Clavier 8:46 Blue Bossa 9:40 The Meters - Just Kissed My Baby 11:57 Funkadelic - A Joyful Process 12:43 Vulfpeck - It Gets Funkier 14:45 Garden Variety - Ms. Jigsaw 15:15 Bill Withers - Use Me 15:35 Rufus and Chaka Khan - Tell Me Something Good 16:15 Stevie Wonder - Superstition If you guys would like more videos of just homemade clav audio, let me know! I'll gladly put some together.

[@diogenes6809]

For sure! Please provide us more clavinet music.

[@fossfeen]

big smile on my face when i realized u were playing vulf

[@edrees3874]

IT GETS FUNKIER. None more funkier than this. Awesome job.

[@ThePoodleStrudel]

Hello fellow Vulfpeck fan

[@elbeethrie5140]

INfknCREDIBLE!!!- from the build, to the performance of all classique clav sonGs (shoutout to the whole band). aaand you took us to the end of the simpsons for free 10/10 and God bless.

[@willstudioworkshop]

@@elbeethrie5140 thank you! Glad you noticed the Simpsons outro music, you’re the first to mention it

[@nicole_local]

Very nice! Love the use of a reclaimed pump organ keyboard and the keyboard-above-strings design. Also go W&M!

[@michaelfox1432]

That is the cleanest sound of any DIY clavinet I have ever heard. Good job.

[@ThomasGoedecke]

So many levels of ingenuity and problem solving. I have been watching clavichord, harpsichord, organ and piano builders/rebuilders for a long time on KZbin and this is just so out of the box yet perfect. There are so many pianos and pump organs not worth a rebuild either because it canʻt hold tune or tension or its just not that valuable. What an incredible way to reuse parts that are often replaced or dumpstered! My only suggestion would be to replace the screws that youʻre using as tangents (the bits that hit the string) and replace with purchased tangents or tangents you fabricate yourself. In the spirit of DIY you could take a grinder and bring the screwheads to a blunt tip. This would give your instrument more projection when played without electronics and tuning accuracy.

[@willstudioworkshop]

Thanks for your comment. But I think there is some confusion about the tangents - the screws are not the tangents, they never contact the string. The design is more mirroring the clavinet than a traditional clavichord. Here, the screws have rubber tips, which contact the string against an aluminum "fret" which functions as the tangent here. I may need to draw a diagram for it to make sense. (4:22 demonstrates this, though it is somewhat difficult to see)

[@ThomasGoedecke]

@willstudioworkshop that's a neat design. Never really worked with clavinets before. Didn't know that's how they functioned. Thanks for letting me know, you learn something new every day

[@dadonix61]

wasn't even watching the video, the music is such a bop I needed to concentrate on it! Great work!

[@willstudioworkshop]

@@dadonix61 glad you like it! It’s a mix of original composition and some quotes of existing clav parts

[@stuarthossack7906]

Altogether an immensely impressive build and execution, the band too - all as gifted as each other, the young lady has a great voice. Love from the dis-United Kingdom :o)

[@willstudioworkshop]

@@stuarthossack7906 Thank you! The band is my band Garden Variety, would love if you’d give us a listen sometime kzbin.info/www/bejne/bZi9pGCqpsx6b5Isi=oLszW13qCj5wsiPU

[@UnwelcomeGuestVideos]

Will, this is genuinely so impressive. Thanks for taking the time to put this together. The live footage really showcases how great this turned out.

[@willstudioworkshop]

@@UnwelcomeGuestVideos Thanks so much for listening!

[@peterbuxton7216]

That's a great job! I built one using an old Hohner Clavinet harp, then added an organ keyboard like you did, and I wound my own pickups and made my own preamp. You put a lot more design and work into yours than I did and you got the perfect sound. I liked everyone in your band demo at the end too. Very inspirational in every way!

[@willstudioworkshop]

@@peterbuxton7216 Thank you! That sounds like a unique project, Id love to get ahold of some hohner clav parts. I’m now looking into potentially making a full design in CAD for my next build, so it could be repeated potentially.

[@peterbuxton7216]

@@willstudioworkshop I could send dimensions/info if I knew how to contact you.

[@extralifedisco]

Amazing build! What an awesome feeling when you play those first notes on it at 7:59

[@RetroPlus]

Oh wow this is incredible, this is the kind of thing i dream of making and this makes it feel achievable

[@NonEuclideanTacoCannon]

Very cool piece, some really good ideas in there. I'm glad I watched this. I have a vision for an instrument I'd like to build. I saw at someone's house an old Rhodes with a dissected tube preamp sitting on top. Stuck with me, an by the end of the week, I had a concept worked out for an electric piano with an integrated tube amp/preamp and speakers. Sort of a functional art piece, with the tubes exposed under copper or brass cages. I want to go the clavichord route because I like the Clavinet sound slightly more than the Rhodes sound.

[@RootsEcho]

When clicking play on this vid I already had these hooks in 'superstion' running through my mind loudly. Great build, great vid, thanks.

[@nicholasbalette6354]

That 's craftsmanship and musicianship in the making, well done

[@mumblbeebee6546]

Magnificent achievement - and it sure is funky! You have a cool band, too :)

[@willstudioworkshop]

Thanks! We have more at kzbin.info/door/EbU7QiB9VoD6HHLPChZqJw if you'd like to give us a listen

[@Hank-ip8rl]

Hell yeah. Cool build and the Blue Bossa was a nice touch.

[@frixyg2050]

Is there someplace in the video where the completed action can be seen? I'm curious about how the strings are being dampened, and how the screws (that act as hammers) are prevented from resting on the strings, but I can't quite get a view of it. I'm sorry if I just missed it somewhere.

[@willstudioworkshop]

4:22 is sort of the best view. I can give a brief explanation: The screws are not the hammers, they never contact the string, rather there is a soft rubber tip on the end of the screw that contacts the string, pressing it down against the aluminum "fret" (best view is at 6:18) which is what actually makes the sound. Damping is simple, there is felt on the non-sound producing side of the fret which dampens as soon as the key is let up. (visible best at 6:15) The key does not rest on the string because of springs on the back of the keys which pull them back up, visible at 6:59. Let me know if you have any other questions! I'm considering drawing a diagram, since other commenters have also asked about how the action functions, or potentially making another video to show how it works.

[@frixyg2050]

@@willstudioworkshop Ohhh, cool. I think I get it, but a video showing it would certainly be welcome. Either way, thanks!

[@rtmwzd]

Nice work!

[@Wintergatan_2]

Nice work 👊👊 love the sound

[@DavidParker]

This is so crazy! Such a simple design and sounds like it works perfectly! Nice work!

[@ryanriggs9963]

That's sick man great work

[@dewexdewex]

Thanks algo. This was a great recommendation.

[@zyzzyva303]

Yo. Nice job. A man builds a clavi and gets funky with some classics!

[@Emmarepairs]

Awesome job Will, great to see it all did up finally!

[@willstudioworkshop]

Thanks so much!

[@adenihil]

Good job buddy 👍🏼 sounds and looks real good

[@whitechannel2669]

Congratulations!

[@matthewridgeway9250]

Great project. Love it. Thanks from Australia.

[@chrisva4268]

Opening up with Testify - I already know I've got the perfect recommendation for the algorithm - great work on the build!

[@zorglubmagnus455]

Really amazing. Just wow.

[@mikescudder4621]

Bro, great job!! Thats a lot of work right there....

[@landerryan1485]

Here’s an idea: put the key bed on linear slides. You’d be able to transpose the keyboard by shifting it left and right because the strings are equally spaced.

[@willstudioworkshop]

A creative idea! But unfortunately, they are not perfectly evenly spaced, and worse the strike points are not parallel with the keyboard, so it is not feasible.

[@johnwynne-qx6br]

Excellent and sounds superb 👍

[@Symplegades]

Damn...this makes everyone out there building their own guitars look like rank amateurs. Well done.

[@willstudioworkshop]

That’s high praise! Thank you!

[@MultiPetercool]

“Outta Space” by Billy Preston is THE classic clav tune.

[@willstudioworkshop]

It’s on the list for sure

[@nelsonvh3033]

Great Job! Can you explain how the sound produced in the first place…is the screw just hitting the string or is it plucking it somehow?

[@willstudioworkshop]

You can see it at 4:22 , the screw has a rubber tip, which presses the string against the aluminum fret that is a very tiny distance below it, only enough so that when you let off the string does not buzz against it and continue ringing. The string hitting the fret is what actually produces the sound. This design is a modified version of the clavinet, while a traditional clavichord has the fret as directly connected to the key. I hope this explains it well. If you have any other questions, ask away.

[@nelsonvh3033]

@@willstudioworkshophard to see, but i kind of understand

[@peterkohlmetzmoller]

What a nice project, and a wildly creative spirit you have! Well done!

[@MegaCadr]

Y’all go hard! Great video.

[@lyricsronen]

Love the build, it sounds amazing!

[@deancoyle]

EPIC! Well done dude!

[@willstudioworkshop]

Thank you! Also very cool to see what you've done on your DIY EP project!

[@deancoyle]

@@willstudioworkshop thank you - there is lots of progress coming on that, I just need to do what you have done and start again fresh.

[@willstudioworkshop]

@@deancoyle Wishing you the best of luck!

[@bendeguznemes9871]

Wow, this is actually a clavichord with pickups!👍

[@weerapatwetchapan3836]

Bro, your work is very good,It's both beautiful and sounds great!!! It's also a very delicate work, making it even more magnificent

[@willstudioworkshop]

Thanks for listening!

[@JayceAllanGuitar]

That is the coolest thing I've ever seen!

[@JAMIEPHILLIPS-g3j]

Incredble!!! Loving The Meters!

[@lukehensey3424]

Very impressive

[@thewrenchturner1]

That is SUPER cool. Great sounds coming out of this project, keep up the great work!

[@schizotronika]

great work, funky stuff, great singer!

[@phpn99]

I've had harpsichords and clavichords built. Here are a few tips. The soundboard is usually very thin - guitar-top thin - with a sound hole just like a guitar. The bridge (made of whitebeam ash or similar sap wood) must rest on the soundboard (glued) and not touch anything else. The pegboard can be thick and stiff and decoupled from the voicing part of the instrument. You can cross the string layout to save on space : You essentially put the strings in two layers, just like the bass strings of a piano. The wire is usually soft iron, yellow or red brass ; its gauge is important. The tensioning frame is best made of wood, as it assists the soundboard's resonance. Clavinets are essentially clavichords with electric pickups ; the design of the 'tangents' - the hammer blades that strike the strings tangentially - has a bearing on the timbre of the attack. Dampers are not as tricky, but need correct alignment and texture to prevent buzzing. Many baroque stringed keyboards have an optional 'buff' (or 'lute') stop : It's essentially a set of lateral dampers placed approximately at the nodal point of the strings, that when engaged dampen higher harmonics and produce a quite lovely lute sound. Your clav sounds pretty cool with interesting bass, but overall a bit tinny. I'm sure your next attempt will be remarkable.

[@willstudioworkshop]

Appreciate the feedback. As I always intended it to be an electric instrument, I had no intention of building a soundboard that gives a strong acoustic sound. However, I will push back on something you have said (and several other users have also indicated): "Clavinets are essentially clavichords with electric pickups" This is not true. The clavinet does not have a soundboard that produces a strong acoustic sound, and the strings are laid out all parallel. But the most important distinction is that the action is completely different. In the clavinet, the tangent is not connected to the key, it rather sits a tiny distance below the key. What is connected to the key is a rubber tip that pushes the string down onto the tangent forcefully, producing sound. This contrasts with the traditional clavichord as you described, where the tangent pushes forcefully onto the string. My design differs from the clavinet only in that the clavinet "tangent" is a metal block, and the string is sandwiched between the rubber and metal. Here, I made aluminum "frets" and the rubber strikes the string ahead of the fret, essentially identical to hammering-on on a guitar. In any case, the tinny sound I believe likely comes from the fact that I made some design errors and could not use longer strings. Sorry for the long-winded response, but thanks again for the feedback! The "buff/lute stop" is an interesting idea I was unfamiliar with, I may tinker with.

[@richdecibels]

dude that is amazing well done

[@OG_Mereles]

Thats beyond amazing. Great job, you guys rock!

[@kaitlyn__L]

Rhodes and Clav, what a combo!!

[@ZirkusRose]

Soooooooooo cool!! Best thing to do with your life. Congrats!!

[@Goozalo]

ITS GET FUNKIER INDEEED, gREETING FROM A FELLOW KEYBOARDER FROM CHILE

[@willstudioworkshop]

Thanks for listening!

[@ThePoodleStrudel]

Amazing work my dude! Love it!

[@guitfidle]

Dude, I love it! Really great ideas here ❤ love the music too! Some tasty playing there. I also build assorted instruments, I’ve done a rough sketch design of something similar, but haven gotten around to building it yet 😂 I’ve got a few questions and comments for ya- how do you tune it? Seems really difficult with the key bed frame over part of the pegs. If you make another or redesign this, I suggest putting the pegs at 90 degrees to the strings, like a Persian santoor. For the pickups, you really don’t need humbuckers there, if you use a couple sets of single coils, putting neck and middle next to each other is hum cancelling. Also interesting how you basically did like bridge and neck pickup locations- thinking like a guitar player there 😊. One of these days I really need to build something like this, thanks for the inspiration!!

[@willstudioworkshop]

1. It tunes like a piano, with a piano tuning wrench. While it does appear that the key bed blocks access to the tuning pegs, they actually do not, I modified it towards the end of the project so it can be tuned without removing any parts, just opening the cover. Putting the pegboard at a 90-degree angle like you suggest is thus unnecessary and in any case would be extremely impractical for this design. 2. The humbuckers are not used for the hum-cancelling property but rather for the option of more tone colors. I wired a coil split switch so you can also get single coil sounds, depending on what tone you would prefer. Additionally, there is a pickup selector, so you can hear the pickups individually or together, and a phase selector. So if I used two singles, when they are alone there is no hum-cancellation. Anyway, thanks for listening!

[@CatmanJimbo]

Maybe the dumbest question I could possibly ask after seeing this marvel of hard work towards a beautiful goal, but what's the little red thing you were using to hold screws? I end up using little Tupperware sauce cups but those are light af and go flying if you bump them, that thing looks bottom heavy and awesome.

[@willstudioworkshop]

@@CatmanJimbo There are no dumb questions. But I’m not sure what you are referring to, can you give me a timestamp?

[@CatmanJimbo]

@@willstudioworkshop 7:19 it should be on screen!

[@willstudioworkshop]

@@CatmanJimbo Oh lol, it’s actually a little phone stand I was using to hold the phone to film at certain points, and it just happened to be there when I needed somewhere to put springs. It doesn’t have a bottom on it so not ideal for storing things very long

[@zimwasi]

You maniac! Great job.

[@nathantonning]

Excellent build video! So glad the the YTube gods brought this to my feed. Hat's off to you. :D

[@aaronocelot]

very nice

[@MrTuetonchat]

absolutelly awesome !! well done!

[@willdatsun]

great band! nice Clohner Clav :)

[@wesleybarros6810]

Super coooool, would love to build one myself tooo

[@OfficialRainsynth]

Heck yeah, dude! Bring the FUNK!

[@gillfortytwo]

This is so sick

[@xenontesla122]

So cool!

[@Najvrtson]

Great job!

[@MarkMLl_uk]

The accompanying music is highly reminiscent of Wakeman's "Journey to the Centre of the Earth".

[@tumbleweedtumbleweed]

Parliament/Funkadelic and the Meters? I like you already! 🤘🤩🤘

[@MonkeyUnit]

Fantastic! Very impressive. (btw, the algorithm sent me)

[@lundsweden]

Great fonky sound, sounds very stringy to me, like a cross between a clavi, an electric guitar and a Rhodes.

[@jakspin]

Wow. What an achievement! Congratulations! I was wondering if you used two strings per key because it looks like two strings were close to each other. And also did you use bass strings for the whole thing or mix them with guitar strings? Thanks

[@willstudioworkshop]

@@jakspin one string per key, the two being close together is a product of the use of a piano pinboard. The bass strings go up until about the midpoint when I switched to guitar strings, was just a matter of getting gauges right

[@jakspin]

@@willstudioworkshop thanks. Those bass strings do sound special. I like that

[@Fraik]

Well done, I'm glad the algorithm served me this video ! I was kinda waiting for it to get funkier as well. What's the thinking behind this specific arrangement of pickups ? I see various blade humbuckers in single and double sizes.

[@willstudioworkshop]

@@Fraik blade/rail pickups are a necessity, because the strings would not line up with the pole pieces on a normal guitar pickup. Here I used all humbuckers but wired a coil split switch (which I don’t believe I used at all in the video audio, I plan to make a demo comparing at a later date however) The pickups are wired to where there are 5 in a line in parallel acting as one pickup. Thus the 5 close to the bridge make the bridge setting and the 5 in the center make the center setting. The center setting was, however, quite tricky. I used the doubles to get a wider “sweep” of the string to make a larger difference between humbucker and split settings, but I had a lot of problem with bad overtones being created by the pickup position. You can hear this in some of my older videos. Ultimately I managed to find an arrangement that works okay, but not probably as good as could be done if I had planned better for it. YMMV. Anyway, when I build another, I’ll likely be more considerate in the initial design phases of how I will place the pickups.

[@morph-the-cat]

amazing! I thought I heard Kid Charlemagne for a second haha

[@oldflat9526]

good work

[@NelsonInst]

Very cool! For all those watching the video it would be interesting to know how long the entire project took and how much of an investment you made in building this? Regardless it turned out great and I hope you’re proud of your accomplishment!

[@willstudioworkshop]

Hey, thanks! It's difficult to say exactly how much time. What I can say is that I started designing in Fall 2023, and the work started early January, with the final product being done in early August. So you could say maybe 8 months. However, I am also in law school, and I only worked on this during my free time, so I was not working on it every day or even every week for that 8 months. I think if I had worked on it a little every day, I could've finished in maybe 2-3 months. Also worth noting that, with the exception of my dad helping on a few parts, I did almost everything myself. And many of the processes in the video had to be repeated over and over again, FWIW. As for investment, just counting parts (not tools), I stopped keeping track of exactly how much, but I'd estimate around $500. But I was able to acquire many things for free, so it definitely saved on cost.

[@nemoymodular]

What was that pitch bend at 08:17!? how did that happen? and more importantly: make it a feature! Imagine polyphonic aftertouch pitch bend for each individual note!🤯🤯🤯

[@willstudioworkshop]

@@nemoymodular it is a feature! Can be done on any note. I don’t use it too much because it really takes the string out of tune, unfortunately, but all strings can bend like that, simply by pressing the key with extra pressure.

[@nemoymodular]

@@willstudioworkshop My clavinet doesn't do that : ( People are retrofitting (ruining) their Clavinets with those stupid whammy bars, while this is so much more elegant!

[@willstudioworkshop]

@@nemoymodular yes, I have had several comments about adding a whammy bar, but 1. I don’t like the idea of what it would do to the tuning stability and 2. It is completely unnecessary on my design! There’s plenty of pitch bend built into the after touch in this design

[@mishuga]

👏👏👏

[@dentonpergolas9107]

12:44 Vulfpeck - It Gets Funkier 🤓

[@OneHundredEnvelopes]

Great job! A quick question, what chords did you use in the second song please?

[@willstudioworkshop]

@@OneHundredEnvelopes it’s an original composition with some quotes from Les McCann (and the starting phrase is a quote from Gershwin’s first Prelude), glad you like it. Chords are Cm7-Bbsus2-F/C-Cm, then Ab-Gm7-Cm7, then Gm-F-Cm7-Dm-Cm-Bb-F7 for the walk down part, which is over a C pedal. This is not really the ideal way to write it, sorry if it’s confusing, if you’d like I can transcribe it and post that when I have time.

[@jimthesoundman8641]

9:17 Measuring the note, length, and gauge are obvious, but how did you measure the tension?

[@willstudioworkshop]

@@jimthesoundman8641 There’s an online calculator for that, simply input the other values and out comes the tension. I found the ideal for this to be in the low 20s lbs

[@baddriddimworkshop]

ANY REF TO TECHNICAL DATA PLEASE?

[@richarddegener]

Did you ǰst play vulfpack?

[@willstudioworkshop]

@@richarddegener yes sir I did

[@battuh]

Me don't know if you've already answered another comment about this, but: i didn't quite get the circuitry, Is it akin a guitar wiring? Are the PU's linked series or parallel? I get the PU's selector, but what the other switches and push/pull are for?

[@willstudioworkshop]

@@battuh Pickups are parallel. It’s very much like a guitar, the switches are: pickup selector (bridge/center/both), phase (only matters for both pickups selected), and coil split

[@young_dervish]

this is super fucking tight

[@jandro]

insane

[@scotttait2197]

No narration is criminal what about those with poor eyesight or blind?

[@stevecarter8810]

They get to hear the music without interruptions

[@jimthesoundman8641]

16:41 That seems like the lamest gig ever. Did someone talk you into playing for free?

[@willstudioworkshop]

@@jimthesoundman8641 Haha, no, it was paid. One of our members is friends with some people in the city office and they wanted us to perform downtown, but the only place really available was on the sidewalk.

[@ivank4305]

Great Job!

[@tomterrif8503]

Fantastic!