Clavinet restoration woes

[marczellm]

I got a call this spring to play some very interesting original music that in my mind called for a Clavinet. I called a friend who I knew has one. He loaned me his but told me it needed to be restringed. He gave me the replacement strings and damper yarn. I said no problem, I have another friend who is crazy enthusiastic about such restoration projects. I'll call him over and have it done in a few nights. He came over, we restringed the thing, it wasn't at all easy and we messed up quite a few things along the way.

 

We couldn't finish before the performance so I just used my Nord.

 

I realized that the yarn the owner gave me was thinner than the original, and no amount of it could provide perfect dampening for the strings. I told him about this and he gave me another roll of yarn, this one much thicker.

 

Fast forward to this week when I finally got Covid, not serious but preventing me from working at the office. I thought I'd finally finish this. I was wrong. This yarn is too thick. It slightly displaces the strings it goes between, so some hammers strike two strings or no strings at all.

 

Now I have this disassembled Clavinet standing in my basement for 7 months. I don't want to screw it back together or even finish tuning it because you have to detune it to re-yarn. It's not my own so it feels wrong to make a decision on behalf of the owner to order the correct type of yarn or just the Clavigel from Vintage Vibe and put that in instead of the yarn. He would probably be troubled by the idea of me spending my money on his instrument even though I personally wouldn't mind the cost.

 

I'll talk to him, this is just me venting, you can ignore me, or you can tell me what you would do in my case. Or tell your own instrument restoration horror stories

[Doerfler]

order the correct parts from Vintage Vibe. Restore the Clavinet. Play it for a while, then give it back.      

[mate stubb]

I restrung and reyarned my old Clavinet 2 40+ years ago using yarn I grabbed from my Mom's sewing kit. I never gave any thought to the thickness of the yarn though. Ended up working fine - maybe I just lucked out.

 

Doing that with the old tapered tuning pegs could be perilous. I've twisted the heads off more than one. The newer machine style tuners were much safer.

[JB Sherry]

I had success using the plastic straw method of re-stringing on my Clavinet E7.  Unwind the string from the post then thread a straw over the string and between the strands of yarn till it’s poking out the other end of the loom. Pull the string out the of the straw and sttach and pull the new string through. Remove the straw from the yarn before threading the new string through the post. Repeat for each string. I’m throwing that out for anyone else who needs to restring.

 

I agree with Doerfler that going the VV replacement is easiest for the OP at this point. It looks a lot more straight forward, though pricier.

[Jim Alfredson]

Clavigel is definitely the easier option. I did that on mine and I don't regret it.

[Bill H.]

23 hours ago, matted stump said:

I restrung and reyarned my old Clavinet 2 40+ years ago using yarn I grabbed from my Mom's sewing kit.

I did the same with my Clavinet C around 40 years ago. The job of re-yarning was given to my wife at the time, who was a bit of a seamstress and matched the yarn at her fabric store. But this was 40 years ago, and you'd need the original yarn to pull it off - which after reading your story marczellm you may not have anymore. 

 

Unless you need to be authentic, Calvigel looks like a better solution. I'd never heard of it at the time - if it was around at all. This was all way before the internet. 

[Piktor]

3 hours ago, Jim Alfredson said:

Clavigel is definitely the easier option. I did that on mine and I don't regret it.

Jim, can I ask if the gel has a tendency to get “munged up” with dust, hair, etc? I was thinking that it might have a stickiness similar to therapy balls. A D6 restoration is going to be one of my winter projects. 

[marczellm]

Can you install the Clavigel without removing the strings? The instructional video installs it without the strings on. And I would definitely not want to remove the new strings with the amount of sisyphean work it took to replace them.

[Jim Alfredson]

2 hours ago, Piktor said:

Jim, can I ask if the gel has a tendency to get “munged up” with dust, hair, etc? I was thinking that it might have a stickiness similar to therapy balls. A D6 restoration is going to be one of my winter projects. 

Haven’t noticed that happening yet. 
 

2 hours ago, marczellm said:

Can you install the Clavigel without removing the strings? The instructional video installs it without the strings on. And I would definitely not want to remove the new strings with the amount of sisyphean work it took to replace them.

No. You have to remove the strings. 

[ProfD]

Vintage electromechanical gear is great especially when it works. 

 

The maintenence and reliability of vintage gear reinforces the necessity of having a modern facsimile (synth, ROMpler, DP) on standby.

 

Good luck fixing that clavinet and getting it back to playable condition.😎

[marczellm]

2 hours ago, Jim Alfredson said:

No. You have to remove the strings. 

You might have just hit the final nail in the coffin in this Clavinet. Either I figure out a workaround without removing the strings or this Clavinet is not getting fixed anytime soon. Problem is I would have to order the $100 Clavigel plus shipping to Hungary before even being able to try it, and that's a bit much for an experiment.

[marczellm]

Maybe slide the gel in atop a thin paper, then pull the paper out from under it.

[Skinny]

Clavigel sounds like a name of a medication. 
 

“Ask your keyboard tech if Clavigel is right for you”

[Jim Alfredson]

Well… you could loosen the tension on the strings just enough to slide the other end off the comb. Once loose, install the clavigel and reattach each string to the comb. Tighten and voila. 

[Piktor]

7 hours ago, Jim Alfredson said:

Haven’t noticed that happening yet. 
 

Thanks Jim. 

[mynameisdanno]

4 hours ago, Jim Alfredson said:

Well… you could loosen the tension on the strings just enough to slide the other end off the comb. Once loose, install the clavigel and reattach each string to the comb. Tighten and voila. 

I did this maneuver recently, after installing the gel and restringing, but missing the fact that there’s a correct orientation for the Clavigel (there’s a slight taper to the cross section). I applied a piece of gaff tape across the strings near the comb before pulling the ends off the comb, to keep them reasonably well organized and easy to get back onto the comb. 

[Doerfler]

4 hours ago, marczellm said:

You might have just hit the final nail in the coffin in this Clavinet. Either I figure out a workaround without removing the strings or this Clavinet is not getting fixed anytime soon. Problem is I would have to order the $100 Clavigel plus shipping to Hungary before even being able to try it, and that's a bit much for an experiment.

I bet that Clavinet is worth quite a bit of money even "as is" in Eastern Europe. 

[stoken6]

On 11/6/2022 at 11:27 PM, Skinny said:

Clavigel sounds like a name of a medication. 
 

“Ask your keyboard tech if Clavigel is right for you”

(Side-effects may include funk, greaze and bad-ass)

 

Cheers, Mike.

[SamuelBLupowitz]

3 hours ago, stoken6 said:

(Side-effects may include funk, greaze and bad-ass)

 

Cheers, Mike.

Some users of Clavigel reported wicked feedback under the influence of gnarly solos, especially on higher notes. Do not use Clavigel while operating heavy machinery, unless that heavy machinery is a Hammond organ.

[marczellm]

20 hours ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

Some users of Clavigel reported wicked feedback under the influence of gnarly solos, especially on higher notes.

I can't tell if you are joking here. Are you?

[SamuelBLupowitz]

On 11/9/2022 at 8:30 AM, marczellm said:

I can't tell if you are joking here. Are you?

Sorry, super not helpful to you, huh? I am joking, just riffing on the observation that Clavigel sounds like a medication. I get the gnarly feedback just fine with the ancient yarn on my D6. First time that happened to me on a gig, I finally understood how the power goes to guitarists' heads!

[Rhodes54]

I hope someone’s still reading this thread. I have a Duo with only four missing strings and the rest sound fine. (i.e. I won’t be replacing the yarn with Clavigel) 

I read the trick above about using a straw to “thread” through the yarn but I’m not getting it. How do you know which yarn strands to go under/over? Is there a specific pattern? There are no broken ends for me to follow.  Is there a video or illustration that shows the process?  Thanks! 

[mate stubb]

I don't recall needing to worry about a specific weave pattern - i wouldn't sweat it. If you go some over and some under, the string should damp just fine.

[Rhodes54]

I broke two old strings figuring out how to do this. Now I’m one string short (the top “e”).
 

Can I use a .009 guitar string instead of Vintage Vibe‘s $13 [2.50+11.50 shipping]  and having to wait a week for it? 

[Doerfler]

I have actually been playing my E7 for the last 2 hours or so, working with different effects pedals trying to achieve a specific tone.

 

I never hit the top "E" once, YMMV.  That being said, go ahead and try the guitar string. 

 

Vintage Vibe will take your order anytime should you need to do so.

 

It's Friday night, they won't even see the order until Monday. 

[Piktor]

33 minutes ago, Rhodes54 said:

I broke two old strings figuring out how to do this. Now I’m one string short (the top “e”).
 

Can I use a .009 guitar string instead of Vintage Vibe‘s $13 [2.50+11.50 shipping]  and having to wait a week for it? 

I once used a guitar string on some note. I don’t remember which one and could not hear a difference. That’s not a recommendation, but in a pinch….

[mate stubb]

Absolutely. My old Clavinet C had many a road repair by a guitar string. 

[Rhodes54]

Here’s a photo of the cocktail straw party trick.  FWIW, I replaced ALL the Pianet sticky pads in roughly the same amount of time it took me to change install ONE clavinet string. Hopefully the next 5 will go quicker. 
 

 

[Jim Alfredson]

Pretty sure I read somewhere that the strings are mostly just banjo strings. Perhaps that would work better than a guitar string? I don't know. I don't play guitar.

[Bill H.]

I used to replace the broken strings on my Clavinet C with banjo strings. I can't remember who told me to do that... way before the internet, so it was just advice floating around the Seattle area during the 1970s-1980s.