Hohner Clavinet D6
This is a true classic, albeit perhaps
not in the jazz world! At the German harmonica and accordion company Hohner
in the sixties, there was a man obsessed with the thought of creating electrified
versions of assorted classical keyboard instruments such as the harpsichord,
klavichord and spinet. One result of this was the Clavinet, and after a
few less successful models, the most famous one emerged: Hohner Clavinet
D6. This instrument (and its successor, the E7) was made popular in the
early 70's by Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock and others, and its spiky, distinctive
sound became a stapleware in funk disco and fusion.
The Clavinet is an electroacoustic instrument - it's not really a synthesizer at all. The very wide wooden box contain thin strings strung diagonally, with one string per key (60 in all). When you press a key, the corresponding string is struck by a hard rubber hammer that stays in contact with the string for as long as you keep the key pressed. That is, the hammer serves as both striker and "fret" - somewhat like "tapping" on a fretless bass or similar. The sound of the strings is electrified by means of one (or are there two?) single-coil pickup, which is very wide and very prone to pick up hum and noise from external sources. Six switches allow you to adjust tone color and polarity, for a wide variety of sounds. A small damper slider can make the notes shorter and more percussive.
Much of the greatness of the Clavinet is due to its marvelous action when playing it - the rubber hammers and the strings provide an unsurpassed bouncy velocity feel, which really begs for funky riffs. However, it's also excellent for rotund stride accompaniment, as in East St Louis or Trickeration. Furthermore, the instrument has very nice looking black legs that can be removed for tramsport.