[CAUT] Richard Kingston harpsichord parts

[Fred Sturm]

A couple differences. Hubbard has the bottom square section off to one  
side rather than centered. I think Dowds are centered, as are many  
other jacks, but to the best of my knowledge nobody is making jacks  
like that currently. If anyone is, and they are available, I'd sure  
like to know.
	The other difference is in the way the tongue is attached. Hubbard  
tongues have an axle that slides into a slot in the jack body. Dowd  
tongues (I believe - memory is sometimes inaccurate) are pinned with a  
metal pin. The Kingston tongues have axles that are are snapped into  
holes in the jack body, and have those "bird's-eye" like ledges to  
hold them centered and reduce friction.
	I have a couple leads still to pursue on Richard Kingston (he is  
reclusive, and so I won't share them here publicly), but meanwhile I  
developed a pretty simple and quick way of attaching new metal springs  
to tongues as an alternative to replacing the tongue. Using an Exacto  
saw, I sawed a kerf down the middle of the back of the tongue. I  
drilled a tiny hole (I used a #78 drill bit) about 15 mm up the kerf.  
Took a short length of .008 wire and made a very short right angle  
bend in one end. Inserted that bend in the hole and aligned the rest  
of the wire in the kerf. Using a 15 watt soldering iron, I melted some  
of the plastic of the tongue next to the kerf to hold the wire  
securely in place. Cut to length and made a curve in the end to ride  
in the slot of the jack body. I'm thinking this is increasingly going  
to be a necessary procedure, with replacement parts becoming  
unavailable. I took photos should anyone want them.
	I'll note that this is not my invention: I've seen similar  
attachments of metal springs to plastic jacks and tongues in various  
designs, often with the spring attached to the jack body and bearing  
on the tongue. But I thought I'd describe it "for the record" in case  
it may be useful to someone else.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu



On Sep 5, 2008, at 10:27 PM, David Doremus wrote:

> Fred Sturm wrote:
>>
>> Here's a Kingston jack.
> Is that really that different from Hubbards or Dowds? If you have  
> only one damper slot you simply reverse the tongue, right? Or is it  
> molded so thats not possible? I have a bag of old parts and I will  
> measure what I have in the morning, the concept is exactly the same,  
> they might well fit. How many do you need? No reason you cant reuse  
> the endpin and adjusting screw if you have to replace the whole  
> thing. The real pain is the old Herz jacks with the spring molded  
> into the jack rather than the tongue, or the Burton one piece tongue/ 
> plectra.
>
> The last contact numbers I had were 704-434-0104, kingstoncembalo at cs.com 
> , back at least 3 years to the last time Skip Sempé played here and  
> we needed to beg and borrow a Kingston and a Dowd for the concert.  
> Not a lot of harpsichord activity here, unfortunately.
>
> --Dave
>
> New Orleans