<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Re: [CAUT] Fw: Zuckerman harpsichord kit</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> On 9/3/06 9:45 PM, "Barbara Richmond" <piano57@insightbb.com> wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE> Hello harpsichord experts! While I was working on a piano at a church, the music director asked me if I knew anything about harpsichords.   "Well...after five years at IWU, I was fairly decent at servicing the ones they had."   He lead me into his office and explained that someone had donated a 78" Zuckerman harpsichord, not totally finished (of course). Hmm, there was piece of elastic spanning over the 4' jacks to help them return.  The 8' jacks are in a box somewhere.   :-)   I do not claim to be an expert when it comes to harpsichords, though in the past I've been able to get them to play fairly well--that means all the notes work & sound pretty even and the touch is mostly even. I took a quick look at the keys and they are mighty tight.  And then I pulled out this jack.  Maybe screw adjustments aren't authentic, but I find them handy and there aren't any on these jacks.     I have some harpsichord literature around here somewhere which I am fully capable of reading--but my question is this:  Is it possible to get these jacks to perform well?  Is there any other information or advice I need to work on this instrument?   Thanks so much,   Barbara Richmond </BLOCKQUOTE> Hi Barbara,     Yes, they can be made to work just fine. I don’t like the design, myself, but it is very common out there and workable. I’ll give one piece of technical advice about jack length: you can lengthen by using strips of self-adhesive paper. Stick to one side, pull around the bottom, stick to the other side, speaking about the narrow part of the I-beam cross section. If this isn’t clear, let me know and I can find a photo and post it. Otherwise, it is next to impossible to get something to stick to the bottom of these jacks to lengthen them (others without screws usually have a more solid bottom).     David Way (who later went by D. Jacques Way), the guy who purchased Zuckermann from  Wally Zuckermann (and is now deceased) liked to say that you should keep screws out of harpsichords so they didn’t get “screwed up.” Claimed you got it right and then it stayed that way. Obviously he didn’t live where humidity changes “a wee bit” from season to season. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico PS If you’d like, post me privately and I will send you my harpsichord class handouts. </BODY> </HTML>