1973 Hohner Clavinet D6 Restoration

[Tim Hodges]

This months task is a D6 I've recently acquired for a good price.

Prior to 1984 someone stripped all the tolex and painted the case black. Plan is to restore it back to it's original status with proper tolex and original re-plated hardware.

First question though do I leave it's interior black or sand it back down to the wood. I can't decide! Thoughts?

https://flic.kr/p/CwAxt2

Here's the rest of it:

https://flickr.com/photos/85013700@N00/sets/72157689967693724

[Ben Bove]

It might be near impossible to sand it back down to wood, especially in the corners / leg compartment.  I would think either lightly sand it down and redo a nice black finish inside, or look at chemical strippers to get into the crevices.  Only problem is, you don't know what's underneath and why someone went through the trouble to paint the insides black?  Glue residue, scratches, water damage... not sure if it was just cosmetic only?

[Tim Hodges]

Realisation hit me shortly afterwards that I could never get it back to bare wood So the interior is going to remain black, i'm going to sand down the outer section to do some repair work and then re-cover it.

If i've got some spare time over the holidays i'm also going to make a new case anyway. May do a run of lids for those missing them but we'll wait and see!

Thanks for the reply Ben!

[Tim Hodges]

Does anyone have a template for re-tolexing a Clavinet D6 / C?

There doesn't appear to be anything online and unfortunately this Clavinet doesn't have it's covering so I can't use that as a template.

What I'm trying to work out is if it's just one sheet of vinyl or whether it's cut in to separate sections.

• On one of the older Vintage Vibe C restorations on Flickr they used 3 separate sheets for the case, 2 for the sides then one for the main portion of the case (as you would a Fender Rhodes)
• However on original Clavinet images it looks like it's one piece with a cut at each rear corner with very tight seams and the same with the front.

Can anyone clear this up for me?

Thanks

[Peter Hayes]

Tim,
I have a scan of the D6 logo (in pdf format) that you can have a vinyl sticker made from. Drop me a line offline and I'll get it out later today.

peter@elecedge.com

[Alan Lenhoff]

However on original Clavinet images it looks like it's one piece with a cut at each rear corner with very tight seams and the same with the front.

On my D6, it's the one-piece method, which seems like it would be difficult to do well without a fair amount of practice.  I can understand why VV would use the three-piece method, and I would be tempted to do so, too.

Alan

[Tim Hodges]

Tim,
I have a scan of the D6 logo (in pdf format) that you can have a vinyl sticker made from. Drop me a line offline and I'll get it out later today.

peter@elecedge.com

Brilliant thanks Peter, that would be great (I'll send you a PM now.) I remember seeing the other thread where someone had considered trying to make a mask to spray the logo back on, seems tricky but I might try a few test runs with your logo to see if that'll work. 

On my D6, it's the one-piece method, which seems like it would be difficult to do well without a fair amount of practice.  I can understand why VV would use the three-piece method, and I would be tempted to do so, too.

Alan

Thanks Alan, good to confirm. I've got a few yards of the Marshall levant vinyl around which matches the original quite nicely so I'll see if I can try it in one piece first, if not then I can always fall back to cutting it in to three.

[Peter Hayes]

I have always used 3 pieces for the lower section. Bear in mind that the Marshall levant will be thicker than the original covering on the D6.

[Ben Bove]

I recently used 1 piece for a factory C retolexing, and I can tell you it's a beast.  I had to very carefully cut a perfectly straight line on the back corners from top to bottom, to get the tolex pieces to marry right next to each other.  It looks great but there was no turning back if I slipped up.

[Alan Lenhoff]

>>I had to very carefully cut a perfectly straight line on the back corners from top to bottom>>

If you succeeded in doing that, you may have done a better job than the factory:  On my original D6, one corner is cut straight. The other is slightly curved.

I'm thinking this wasn't easily done by Hohner assemblers, either.

Alan

[Tim Hodges]

Sounds like a bit of a challenge, should be fun over the Christmas period.

At the moment I'm restoring the case and having to dowel the areas where they drilled through and attached large steel clasp hinges. I'm tempted to fix the wood in front of the breakaway hinges, over time the front edge of the bottom case has become compacted so I may have to add a dutchman patch in oak to give it a bit more strength for the future.

I'll keep you updated.