<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Re: [CAUT] h'chord regulation question</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> Hi Dave,     I agree with your assessment of normal plucking ord= er (4’, back 8’, front 8’/upper keyboard). A helpful hint = for those who really get deep into harpsichords: generally the jack operated= by the upper keyboard comes last, and this makes the upper keyboard touch f= eel lousy, as there is such a distance before the plectrum meets the string,= and pluck happens late in the keystroke (a feel analogous to lack of aftert= ouch in a piano, as the pluck happens close to where the key bottoms out). T= o alleviate this problem, it helps to introduce a small amount of lost motio= n between the dogleg of the lower key and the bottom of the upper key. This = must be a subtle and even amount of lost motion (obtained by filing a wee bi= t off the top of the dogleg). The result is that part of the stagger when th= e bottom key is played consists of that lost motion. From the point of view = of the upper key, pluck happens sooner (plectrum can be closer to the string= at rest).     This may be completely unintelligible to many. If s= o, you should probably ignore it, as you probably don’t know enough an= d have enough experience to make successful use of it. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico On 2/3/05 10:02 PM, "Dave Doremus" <algiers_piano@bellsouth.ne= t> wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE>Just to point out that it would be = well worth the money to have Don do the voicing and regulating on your instr= ument if he is available, he is the best I have ever heard, and I've heard s= ome good ones. (Also a damn fine harpsichordist, does Fats Waller and Foggy = Mountain Breakdown as well as more traditional fare.) Different choirs ca= nnot pluck simultaneously or it will be practically unplayable when coup= led and 4' on. Some folks have advocated 4', front 8' then back 8', IMHO thi= s is rare, either back 8' , 4', front 8', or 4', back 8', front 8' (the two = lower manual sets of jacks should pluck first). The trick to doing this righ= t is to get the jacks that pluck first at an even distance below the strings= , in a builders shop we used to do this without dampers, setting the plectra= right on the bottom side of the string and then taking one turn (more or le= ss if necessary, but the same on all notes) of the end pins to give clearanc= e. Note also that voicing affects stagger, if you change the voicing you nee= d to recheck the stagger. Hope this is helpful, if delayed, due to Mardi Gra= s season my email reading is slower than normal. ----Dave ----------------------------- Dave Doremus, RPT New Orleans ------------------------------ </BLOCKQUOTE> </BODY> </HTML>