Daniel Flew
EARLY KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS WELCOMES YOU
ABOUT EARLY KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS
Since 2022
I offer a number of services for harpsichord, spinet and clavichord and I am available to work across the UK, in particular Bristol and the South West.
I am proud of the quality of my work and offer a bespoke service to new and returning customers.
Currently taking commissions for new instruments. I am also happy to buy unwanted instruments or sell them on commission.
NEWS
HARPSICHORD REFURBISHED
August 2023
I recently completed a refurb of an Alan Gotto harpsichord (1982) for Pembroke College Oxford. Judging from the dust on the soundboard it hadn't been played in quite a while!
Mechanically it was fine but the tension of the strings forced the registers to bind together. Reducing the tension, I was able to remove the registers and plane them slightly thinner before reinserting them and tuning the instrument to A415 as opposed to the original A440 pitch. The customer also wanted a transposing keyboard which I retrofitted by trimming the key frame and keyblock to allow the keyboard to shift enough to the right. A movable keyblock, made in walnut to match the original, was fitted in the gap to locate the keyboard.
PIANO DAMPERS
January 2024
Have been rather busy moving into my first house so haven’t posted an update in a while!
Managed to make some progress on the Beck square piano from 1790. There are numerous dampers missing so I need to plot how much they increase in size from the bass to treble. I take the largest and smallest originals I have and using the spacing of the old glue marks on the damper rail I can accurately lay out the dimensions of all the dampers. A lot of reverse engineering but it’s very fun to work out.
MY SERVICES
MAINTENANCE
General servicing undertaken including re-stringing and regulation. Voicing can be done in delrin, leather or quill.
REPAIR
All work undertaken from small cracks to full overhauls. Severly damaged or neglected instruments can be brought back to playing order with careful and sympathetic restoration.
TUNING
A variety of historic temperaments are available including Kirnberger, Werkmeister and Valotti.
