This typical Latin-American type of clavichord has the following features:Some of these features seem to be derived from very early (sixteenth- or early seventeenth- century) European clavichords; some, like the zig-zag pattern of the hitch-pins, are only found in clavichords of Latin-American origin. It is remarkable that clavichords with all these features are found as far apart as Mexico and Peru.
- Multiple fretting (i.e. fretting in groups of three and four) beginning at note e
- A C/E short-octave keyboard like those on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European clavichords
- All the keys pivoted at the middle-rail, without any separate balance rail: this means that the pivot points of the naturals and sharps are in a single straight line
- More than one bridge on the soundboard, the bridges being straight and arranged at right-angles to the long sides of the case, and the strings running over them without any bridge pins. Usually metal slips are inserted along the tops of the bridges against which the strings press
- ‘hold-downs’ attached to the soundboard, to hold the strings down against the bridges. These may be attached with glue, or with wire loops at either end, or both
- A ‘secondary soundboard’ running underneath the keys
- Sound-holes in both the main and the ‘secondary’ soundboards, either open or filled with a decorative rose
- Open compartments to the left and right of the keys. Sometimes these are the full height of the case, like the tool-boxes on European clavichords; sometimes they have no front wall, or only a shallow one. Sometimes there are lift-off lids to the compartments, or traces of such
- The strings all hitched to a block at the left-hand end, and in many cases arranged in a characteristic zig-zag pattern.
[return]