Keydip on historical keyboards

General
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Hi folks, and Merry Christmas! Where can I find data on the range of keydip on 18th century keyboards? Thanks.

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3 posts were split to a new topic: Pleyel for sale

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But we are off topic on this thread. I’ll move the Pleyel post to a new thread.

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Gosh I think the original keydip might be something very hard to ascertain from surviving instruments, as the felt on the jackrail might not be original, often the jacks aren’t original or have been tampered with, and indeed the entire action may have been much altered.

In modern practice, there seem to be two schools of thought: either rather shallow (8mm for the lower manual of a double, just enough to allow three registers to pluck with staggering), or quite deep. The two schools appeal to players with different approaches to technique.

I am very much in the shallow school - on single-strung instruments, I prefer as shallow as possible, just enough to allow the tongue to return to its original position, and the damper to function. Shallow is especially important for instruments such as virginals or spinets where string vibration can interfere with the movement of the jacks in the bass.

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Thanks for that. On clavichords I would think 5mm would be quite common in 17th and 18th c.

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Le 01/01/2023 16:21, Douglas Amrine via The Jackrail écrit :

In modern practice, there seem to be two schools of thought: either
rather shallow (8mm for the lower manual of a double, just enough to
allow three registers to pluck with staggering), or quite deep. The
two schools appeal to players with different approaches to technique.

I am very much in the shallow school - on single-strung instruments, I
prefer as shallow as possible, just enough to allow the tongue to
return to its original position, and the damper to function. Shallow
is especially important for instruments such as virginals or spinets
where string vibration can interfere with the movement of the jacks in
the bass.

I’m also of the shallow school, but I don’t understand how this affects
the possible interference between the string vibrations and the movement
of the jacks.

And of course, the keydip is obviously related to the balance point of a
given keyboard, which can vary considerably from one type of instrument
to another, meaning that for a given jack travel (whatever is necessary
to safely pluck the one, two, three (or more) strings leaving a little
free travel at the top and the bottom), different keyboards will require
more or less keydip.