Clavinet
A clavinet is a keyboard instrument, manufactured by the Hohner company. It is essentially an electronically amplified clavichord, analogous to an electric guitar. Its distinctive bright staccato sound has appeared particularly in funk and rock songs.
Various models were produced over the years, and including the models I, II, L, C, D6, and E7. Most models consists of 60 keys and 60 associated strings, giving it five-octave range from F0 to E5.
Each key uses a small rubber tip to do a "hammer on" to a guitar-type string when it is pressed, as with a conventional clavichord. The end of each string farthest from the pickups passes through a weave of yarn. When the key is released, the yarn makes the string immediately stop vibrating.
Most models have two sets of pickups, which are positioned above and below the strings. The clavinet has pickup selector switches, and a guitar-level output which can be patched to a guitar amp. Early clavinet models featured single-coil pickups; the D6 introduced a six-core pickup design.
Originally the instrument was designed for home use and aimed at playing early European classical and folk music. The Clavinet L, introduced in 1968 was a domestic model and featured a wood-veneered triangular body with wooden legs, reverse-colour keys and a plexiglass music stand. The final E7 model saw the culmination of several engineering improvements to make the instrument more suitable for use in live amplfied rock music, where its use had become commonplace. By 1982 however, the Hohner corporation had ceased production of the Clavinet - to this day the Hohner company makes no mention of the clavinet anywhere. Indeed, in 2000 they sold their remaining spare parts inventory to restoration website Clavinet.com, and have now disavowed having anything to do with the clavinet.
Other Hohner keyboard products, the Cembalet and Pianet, work by different principles (plectra or sticky pads pluck metal reeds), and are not like the Clavinet at all.
The archetypal clavinet sound can be heard on Stevie Wonder's track "Superstition," Led Zeppelin's "Trampled Under Foot", The Commodores' "Machine Gun", Billy Preston's "Outa-Space," Dr. Emmett's Rhoads to Funk" and Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters