I’m having trouble getting a Zuckermann virginal to work correctly in
the bass. The problem is that the strings bend too much, which means the
pluck takes for ever to happen. The lowest strings are red brass. I’m
wondering if a change to yellow brass would be an improvement
(touch-wise). What determines exactly how far a string will rise before
agreeing to speak? Also, what difference would one size less make?
Currently, it seems to work more like a rubber band than like wire.
Thanks.
Think of the moment of release as the moment when the force of the displaced string exceeds the bending resistance of the plectrum. The plectrum bows downward enough to allow the string to slide off and release.
To make the string escape you may need to increase the tension of the string. (Is the string at pitch?) A smaller gauge will decrease the tension, making the string hang on the jack even further.
Or you may need to thin the plectrum or shorten the plectrum. Not much chance of moving the jack on a virginal, but you may want to consider repinning on the bass side bridge to move the string further from the jack…check first to see if the string is similarly spaced as the other strings.
If I remember correctly, in the early version of the current style Zuckermann jack, there is also the tendency of the flexible tongue-connector-spring strip to collapse, corrected in the current version. This might cause the tongue to collapse rather than fully lifting the string.
You can check all these things by removing the jack stop rail and pressing the key, then lifting the jack by hand while watching to see what makes it pluck.
Dear Dennis
Virginals like the Zuckermann Italian can pose a special problem because of their distant plucking point from the left hand bridge.
Ed is correct that if you wish to increase tension to encourage an earlier pluck, you need to use a thicker diameter string or change to a denser material. Changing red brass to the less dense yellow of the same diameter would be a backward step. And you may not wish to increase tension lest this have structural implications.
You will never get the degree of repetition in the virginal bass as in the treble. The bass strings are just too floppy. And a considerable amount of quill projection is required to ensure the bass strings are caught and plucked again when the note is repeated.
Check how far the quill is below the string at rest: 1.5mm is more than enough. Check you have sufficient keydip for some freefall of the key after the pluck, because insufficient will give you the feeling of having to press too strongly, if it will pluck at all.
Ed also notes a characteristic of the Zuckermann plastic jacks with snap-in tongue and integral spring. It was only the later version of the lightweight tapered brown jacks that had the improvement of the tongue spring deflect web. The Italian virginal used the solid body brown jacks which never had that update. Both the solid body jacks and the white jacks used in the earlier Marks of virginals can be improved by carefully drilling and inserting a bridge pin horizontally in the jack, halfway up behind the spring. This will prevent the spring bending excessively with the strong pluck the virginal demands in the bass, and yet still provide sufficient space for the spring to do its intended job and allow the quill to return below the string.
Regards
Carey
Thanks, Ed & Carey for your comments and suggestions.
Let me give a few more details. The keydip is about 6 mm. Not much, of
course, but I have a 2 x 8 Florentine harpsichord that works perfectly
well with that. The balance point being halfway between the keyend and
the jack, this means 6 mm for the jack travel. Currently, with the
plectrum too close to the string (less than 1 mm) and too short (not
protruding at all beneath the string), the pluck happens only when the
key is completely depressed, because the string rises about 5 mm before
being released. If I shorten the jack and/or lengthen the quill to get a
more reliable and comfortable touch, the note simply doesn’t play. This
problem affects mainly the five lowest notes, in red brass. Which is why
I was hoping a change to yellow would help. By the way, I was given the
original Z manual for this virginal, and the strings in the bass were
all yellow brass. The Z jacks on this instrument have been replaced by
wooden jacks that seem to work quite well. But then, perhaps that was
not a good idea…
So what could I try? A different make of red brass? Will they all
stretch as much? Should and could I increase the keydip, at least in the
bass? And how? What about the plectra? Would the material and/or the
shape have any effect, bearing in mind that the quill is very (too)
short, which means it hardly bends? For a given volume, will the string
react the same way with a thin plectrum as opposed to a wide one?
!Any suggestions welcome.
Thanks.
This is where, I’m sad to say, the Instrument Workshop plectra, available in about 7 thicknesses from thick to very thin, can be very useful. They’re easy to switch as you test to see if a stiffer or more flexible plectrum works better.
Sad, because I think folks may know, the Instrument Workshop is once again closed for business.
There is some hope someone capable of operating at least part of it will purchase it.
Dear Dennis
Thanks for the extra information. Being virtually the same density, a different make of red brass is not going to make any appreciable difference, and 6mm keydip should be quite sufficient. I think you’ve given the clue by saying your bass quills are short and hardly bend. Therefore, I guess they would be lifting the string and releasing too late with a great explosion, rather than the string being more gently plucked with sideways displacement.
Yes, you could try thinner quills, or voice your existing quills down, but there is a certain minimum length of quill required for decent operation no matter how thin the plectrum. You may need to look at repinning your left bridge in the extreme bass to increase the jack to string distance, and ensure it is consistent note to note.
Regards
Carey
Dear Carey,
Thanks for the further advice. The pinning is rather consistent. But how
close can the close pairs be in the bass? Currently, they are 3.6 mm
apart, measuring from the outside of both strings, which means about 2.5
mm between them. And this is what is about consistent all over the
instrument - the distance between the strings. Which means that the
strings get slightly closer to the jacks in the bass with the thicker
strings.
Thanks.
Le 23/12/2022 21:39, Carey Beebe via The Jackrail écrit :
Dear Dennis
It can be difficult playing doctor from a distance, but we are eliminating the most common causes of your virginal problem. We need to determine what might be causing your delayed pluck in the bass.
Firstly, you changed the original plastic jacks to wooden. What is the approximate angle of the quill above horizontal?
Let’s return to the stringing. Is your instrument strung to the GG/BB short octave? How does the below schedule compare to yours? Are you tuning to A440, or A415? Everything else being equal, A440 involves a 12% increase in tension, which would mean an earlier pluck because of reduced string displacement compared to a lower pitch.
| 1,3,5 | GG,AA,BB | .025 | Red Brass |
| 2,4 | C,D | .022 | “ |
| 6 | E | .020 | “ |
| 7–9 | F–G | .018 | Yellow Brass |
| 10,11 | G#,A | .016 | “ |
Regards
Carey
To the wealth of good advice about late-plucking virginal bass string(s) I add some suggestions which might allow the problem to be approached experimentally, before modifying the instrument itself.
STRING STRESS, TENSION, AND DISPLACEMENT
Whereas most historical Italian virginals (spinetti) have a C2/E2 short bass octave, which is well served by bass strings between 1200 and 1300 mm long, the Zuckermann examples I am aware of extend the compass downward to G1/B1 without lengthening the bass strings proportionately. If tuned with a short octave this, even using dense red brass, puts the G1 and A1 strings at the lower margin of acceptable inharmonicity; and, because at low stress, they need to be relatively thick in order not to be displaced excessively by the plectrum.
The English virginals of the second half of the seventeenth century with keyboards descending to B1, G1, or F1 have longer bass strings, and typically pluck closer to the nut than their Italian counterparts, thereby lessening the displacement problem. And those Italian virginals whose keyboards now descend to B1, such as ‘Queen Elizabeth’s virginals’ (attributed to Baffo) in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, have been modified.
Increasing slightly the mass of the lowest couple of strings (by using thicker wire or perhaps by substituting silver for brass) to increase their tension, would reduce displacement and is unlikely to cause other problems; but before actually replacing a string, it should be possible, by raising the pitch of the existing one to the higher tension the intended thicker one would have at the proper pitch, to show the effect on displacement of increasing tension.
Alternatively, depending on the intended use (acknowledging that the instrument is an amalgam of historical design elements), one could partly or completely abandon the short-octave tuning of the bass.
PLECTRUM LENGTH
To lengthen the plectrum, which is too short and inflexible:
Investigate moving the string further from the jack. It appears that the close-spaced pairs of strings in question are closer than they need to be. For a forward-facing jack, it should be possible to experiment with the benefits of longer plectra by displacing the strings temporarily, before moving the nut pin permanently: lodge a small piece of hard material (metal, Delrin, or dense wood) between the string and the pin. Although the sound will be impaired, this should help decide on a suitable displacement before the instrument is permanently modified.
Alternatively, if the pins are soft enough and the wood resistant enough it might, depending on the height of the step in the nut, be possible to advance the string plucked by a forward-facing jack, away from the jack, by carefully bending the nut pin forward slightly.
See whether it is possible to cant the upper part of the jack tongue a little further away from the string, without its protruding beyond the thickness of the jack body or interfering with the string behind it. If it is, adjust the position of the tongue at rest by gluing a tiny pad of paper or skived leather between the foot of the tongue and the bearing surface of the jack. This change will have the effect of tilting the plectrum upwards by the same angle of rotation which, within limits, is unlikely to be problematical; it will help the plectrum to engage with the string and the jack to return. If, however, the gain in plectrum length is beneficial but the plectrum then slopes too steeply, the plectrum mortise could be adjusted accordingly.
Before doing anything permanently, temporary displacement of the string (by 1 or 2, above) and increase in tension could be tried separately and together, perhaps, if the jack allows, in combination with moving the tongue back a little.
Hi all, and particularly Lewis!
On the ubiquitious (here in France anyway) Heugel/Bedard kit virginals with a short octave this problem comes up regularly. As the string band shifts across the scale due to -choose between:
sloppy construction, thinned down tables, flexible cases, etc and the general problem of the entire string band being pulled back due to the vector pressure of the string angle over the bridge, half the plectra get shorter over time. Bridge repinning as a solution can involve repinning the hitchpins also as the side bearing angles may become insufficient. The problem is exacerbated by the rotation of the bridge as the few transversal soundboard bars are way back over in the treble.
Another solution to getting a longer plectrum here is to move the entire jack back by widening the register slot directly in the soundboard and filling the front in with matching wood. As the register slots are aligned with each other, this brings the ones on the back further back, staggering them. It is true that this intervention will only work on a directly in the soundboard slot system, perhaps not the case here, I haven’t checked all the posts back to see the arrangement here. Truer also, chér Lewis, that this is a permanent fix and not museum standard.
Hope it helps!
Next post coming up…a Pleyel for sale.
Thomas Murach
04870 St Michel l’Observatoire
(33) 04 92 76 60 81
| alvisezuani Lewis Jones
December 26 |
- | - |
To the wealth of good advice about late-plucking virginal bass string(s) I add some suggestions which might allow the problem to be approached experimentally, before modifying the instrument itself.
STRING STRESS, TENSION, AND DISPLACEMENT
Whereas most historical Italian virginals (spinetti) have a C2/E2 short bass octave, which is well served by bass strings between 1200 and 1300 mm long, the Zuckermann examples I am aware of extend the compass downward to G1/B1 without lengthening the bass strings proportionately. If tuned with a short octave this, even using dense red brass, puts the G1 and A1 strings at the lower margin of acceptable inharmonicity; and, because at low stress, they need to be relatively thick in order not to be displaced excessively by the plectrum.
The English virginals of the second half of the seventeenth century with keyboards descending to B1, G1, or F1 have longer bass strings, and typically pluck closer to the nut than their Italian counterparts, thereby lessening the displacement problem. And those Italian virginals whose keyboards now descend to B1, such as ‘Queen Elizabeth’s virginals’ (attributed to Baffo) in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, have been modified.
Increasing slightly the mass of the lowest couple of strings (by using thicker wire or perhaps by substituting silver for brass) to increase their tension, would reduce displacement and is unlikely to cause other problems; but before actually replacing a string, it should be possible, by raising the pitch of the existing one to the higher tension the intended thicker one would have at the proper pitch, to show the effect on displacement of increasing tension.
Alternatively, depending on the intended use (acknowledging that the instrument is an amalgam of historical design elements), one could partly or completely abandon the short-octave tuning of the bass.
PLECTRUM LENGTH
To lengthen the plectrum, which is too short and inflexible:
Investigate moving the string further from the jack. It appears that the close-spaced pairs of strings in question are closer than they need to be. For a forward-facing jack, it should be possible to experiment with the benefits of longer plectra by displacing the strings temporarily, before moving the nut pin permanently: lodge a small piece of hard material (metal, Delrin, or dense wood) between the string and the pin. Although the sound will be impaired, this should help decide on a suitable displacement before the instrument is permanently modified.
Alternatively, if the pins are soft enough and the wood resistant enough it might, depending on the height of the step in the nut, be possible to advance the string plucked by a forward-facing jack, away from the jack, by carefully bending the nut pin forward slightly.
See whether it is possible to cant the upper part of the jack tongue a little further away from the string, without its protruding beyond the thickness of the jack body or interfering with the string behind it. If it is, adjust the position of the tongue at rest by gluing a tiny pad of paper or skived leather between the foot of the tongue and the bearing surface of the jack. This change will have the effect of tilting the plectrum upwards by the same angle of rotation which, within limits, is unlikely to be problematical; it will help the plectrum to engage with the string and the jack to return. If, however, the gain in plectrum length is beneficial but the plectrum then slopes too steeply, the plectrum mortise could be adjusted accordingly.
Before doing anything permanently, temporary displacement of the string (by 1 or 2, above) and increase in tension could be tried separately and together, perhaps, if the jack allows, in combination with moving the tongue back a little.