A keyboard with a whammy bar!

Midnight Toker

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2021
Messages
1,793
Reaction score
3,193
Location
Annapolis Md A drinking town w/ a sailing problem!
Guild Total
2
I love it. Much more expressive than your typical spring loaded pitch wheel. You can get soft vibrato and slow bends much more accurately than a little plastic ultra sensitive wheel.

If it was good enough for George Duke...it's good enough for me. (seen as part of his rig while playing w/ Stanley Clark during the School Daze era) From what I understand, it is a custom add on feature for electric pianos.

 

Midnight Toker

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2021
Messages
1,793
Reaction score
3,193
Location
Annapolis Md A drinking town w/ a sailing problem!
Guild Total
2
And here you have it...the inner workings of a clavinet w/ the whammy mod. It is in fact a stringed instrument! Who knew? Not Me. :unsure:


There are several electric piano/clavinet makers that I found w/ this whammy mod, not just the Hohner d6. ;)
 

Canard

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2020
Messages
1,979
Reaction score
2,672
Guild Total
4


Why is unanswerable in general terms, as in why do you want a whammy bar on a Clavinet - personal tastes, stage theatrics, who knows?

When LeFinPepere much earlier posted a clip of Lachy Doley with his whammy bar equipped Clavinet, I sent the clip on to a guitarist friend who is in a group with an amazing keyboard player (B3s. Wurlitzer E-Pianos, Rhodes, Farfisas, synths, etc, and Clavinets). My guitarist friend asked me not to send the clip the keyboard player, saying, "My days as lead guitarist would be over!"

Why a whammy bar as opposed to a ptich wheel? The Clavinet is not an electronic instrument. It has strings, rather like an autoharp with a keyboard. If you want vibrato it has to be a mechanical device that produces it.

And it is cool and ever so theatrical. ... Now if the keyboard player could only get that Clavinet around his neck and shoulder on a strap .... Lead guitarists tremble in fear.
 

GGJaguar

Reverential Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2011
Messages
21,319
Reaction score
31,407
Location
Skylands
Guild Total
49
I have one. It's a little more compact.

1642107485095.png
 

SFIV1967

Venerated Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2010
Messages
18,442
Reaction score
8,956
Location
Bavaria / Germany
Guild Total
8
The clavinet Bobby Sparks from Snarky Puppy is using is a "Hohner Clavinet D6" but restored by "Ken Rich Sound Services" in Van Nuyes, CA in 2015.
Ken wrote about it back in 2015: "Our new Whammy Clavinet D6 build for our friend and client Bobby Sparks, dubbed The Batmobile (as in the old-school good-looking Batmobile). Satin black, red Clavinet C-style tolex, and chrome hardware, with a chrome whammy bar out the top."

1642110852438.png

Ralf
 
Top