Common Button Width On The Ec

[linrose]

Question for a rainy Sunday:

 

The buttons on my Jackie EC are appox. 5mm in width. To look at them they appear impossibly small, fortunately they don't seem so small when you're playing but how wide are the buttons on a Wheatstone 48? or Albion 37? I wouldn't mind having just a tad more landing space...if that's possible

 

Linrose

Edited April 12, 2015 by linrose

[Geoff Wooff]

This is a topic that has been discussed quite often on C.net. so a search around should produce plenty of views on the subject.

 

However, as I have five minutes to spare whilst I drink my morning coffee here is my two cents worth:

 

The diameter of buttons used by Wheatstone was 3/16", those on equivalent Lachenals are, if anything slightly smaller, leastways they feel as if they are.

 

The reason for the apparently small 'landing space' is to do with the whole button field and the gaps between the buttons. Being about how far one's fingers can reach from top to bottom of the keyboard and how the space between can be used for two purposes; to avoid contact with an adjacent button when the angle of touch is not perpendicular and for the space to be such that two buttons can be pressed with one finger or a second note can be added by rolling the active finger forward or backwards to engage the next button.

 

The overal range of the Jackie is quite small but if you can imagine making extended chords on a 48 or 56 key instrument and needing to press notes at virtually each end of the button field with one hand , this is where acute angles of fingers could become troublesome with larger diameter buttons.

 

Although the keyboard layout has remained the same since the very early development of the EC it does appear that 'they' got it right and no further developments were deemed necessary when musicians started to play the thing in a more complex way.

 

If you have come from other keyboard instruments it might feel that the buttons are small and can be uncomfortable to play for extended periods, these sensations will abate with long familiarity and when a fine instrument is aquired. Most other keyboard instruments allow free movement of the hands and thus a much larger spacing and size of keys is possible.

 

 

PS; I have never tried a Jackie but I do have an Elise and my experience of that is " good value for money, yes, but it is only meant as a sampler".... and cannot be compared to the sensation of playing a fine instrument.

 

Good luck with your music,

Geoff.

Edited April 13, 2015 by Geoff Wooff

[Rod]

Hands and fingers do not come in standard shapes and sizes. Some of us have long fingers. Some of us have short, stubby fingers. Some of us have stout fleshy finger-tips. Some of us have slim bony finger-tips. Probably not possible to please us all but we have to adapt as best we can.