The Clavinet is an electric clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982.

The instrument produces sounds with rubber pads, each matching one of the keys and responding to a keystroke by striking a given point on a tensioned string, and was designed to resemble the Renaissance-era clavichord.

It is strongly associated with the musician Stevie Wonder, who used the instrument extensively, particularly on his 1972 hit "Superstition", and was regularly featured in rock, funk and reggae music throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Modern digital keyboards can emulate the Clavinet sound, but there is also a grass-roots industry of repairers who continue to maintain the instrument.

The Clavinet has pickup selector switches, and a solid state preamplifier that allows a line level output to be fed to an amplifier.

He joined Hohner in 1954, at a time when it was struggling with manufacturing after the company factories had been seized by the Nazis during World War II.

He was particularly interested in producing an electric clavichord, and discovered that striking a hammer tip across a string mounted on an anvil allowed the player to hit the keys more forcefully and gain greater volume.

He was interested in using metal keypads and plastic keys as an alternative to wooden frames and action that had been used on electric pianos such as the Wurlitzer.

The instrument is supported by four wooden legs fitted to the main body by threaded knobs, and secured with a crossbar brace.

[7] The upper surface of the keyboard is finished in white, and a slot holds an acrylic panel music rest, with the Hohner logo.

A rare variant of the C, known as the Echolette Beat Spinett featured reverse-colour keys like a traditional harpsichord, and an integrated ashtray.

[14] The Clavinet D6, introduced in 1971, continued the case style of the C but is covered in black vinyl leathercloth and the upper surface of the instrument is teak veneer, which was cheaper to manufacture.

It has a black vinyl leather cloth covered case with a rectangular profile with rounded corners and a removable metal lid to protect the keys and control surface for transport.

[15] It included support brackets so it could be mounted on the rounded top of a Rhodes Piano, a popular combination of keyboards at the time.

[17] By the time the E7 and Clavinet Duo were being produced, polyphonic synthesizers had become popular, and electromechanical keyboards were beginning to fall out of fashion.

[19] The early Clavinet I and II models were not designed for stage use, and would easily cause audio feedback if plugged into a loud amplifier.

[20] In the 1980s and 1990s replacement parts for clavinets became harder to find, as Hohner had ceased to support them, and the price for second-hand models dropped.

[22] In 1999, Clavinet enthusiast Aaron Kipness established the website clavinet.com, and started manufacturing replacement hammer tips with his stepfather.

The website encouraged other people to begin to manufacture spares, and there is now a cottage industry around keeping the Clavinet in playing condition.

[1] As well as "Superstition", other tracks such as "Higher Ground" are led by the Clavinet played through a Mu-Tron III filter pedal, and the album Talking Book makes prominent use of the instrument.

[27] In 1975, keyboardist Dave MacRae played the clavinet on Bill Oddie's song "The Funky Gibbon" performed by The Goodies.

Oddie recalled that MacRae's playing had a "very Stevie Wonder-type feel to it ... And then I literally started whacking the top of the grand piano.

[27] Herbie Hancock featured the Clavinet prominently on the albums Head Hunters (1973)[31] and Man-Child (1975), and both he and Chick Corea regularly played the instrument.

[26] George Duke regularly used a Clavinet when playing with Frank Zappa and solo, using the Castle Bar modification.

[34] Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones played a Clavinet on "Trampled Under Foot", as did Daryl Dragon on Captain & Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together" (both 1975).

[8] Late seventies hit singles to feature a Clavinet include Steely Dan's "Kid Charlemagne" and Fleetwood Mac's "You Make Loving Fun".

The signal from the Clavinet is fed into a Dunlop Cry Baby wah-wah pedal, then into a Fender Deville amplifier.