Microphonic clavinets

[mvanmanen]

I have had a chance to play quite a few different clavinets and noticed some to be quite microphonic side-by-side to my own. What causes this? Is it a hard or easy fix?

[Jenzz]

Hi .-)

In most cases. this is caused by broken pickup housings, so the magnets and coils come loose and therefore respond to case vibration.

Look out for cracks on the pickups mounting wings... It can be fixed in most cases by glueing...

Jens

[bourniplus]

I have had a chance to play quite a few different clavinets and noticed some to be quite microphonic side-by-side to my own. What causes this? Is it a hard or easy fix?

Why fix this? Seriously, and this is just my opinion, a certain amount of microphonics is desirable. (If you use a lot of overdrive that's another story.) Just my 2 cents.

[mvanmanen]

Why fix this?

I agree if it makes the keyboard interesting to play sometimes its nice to not fix. For example, I have one clavinet that has a fair amount of noise on note release because the pads "need" to be replaced. But when you play it through a wah pedal, these extra noises really interact nicely with the pedal producing all kinds of "quack." So I have left it that way rather than fix.

But when the keyboard is so microphonic that notes sound almost "boxy" with a "thunk" (I am finding it hard to describe)...I find the character undesirable.