From a satisfied customer...

Wow!!!

I really am almost breathless concerning the clavichord. I can hardly
think of what to write except every superlative that might come to mind.
It speaks so easily and so well. Differences in touch give not only a
different dynamics, but also a bit different timbre. For counterpoint, the
clarity of voice-leading is unbelievable, and for chords, it rings so
brightly without noise (I've never before been able to play the opening
of the J. C. Bach Sonata II Opus 5 on any clavichord before!).

The tone itself is so beautiful, very piano-like, but unmistakenly a
clavichord at its best. That upper tippy-top octave is perhaps the most
exquisitely beautiful on the whole instrument. I just really can't believe
that this is here, that it is mine, that I can now do all the clavichord
things that I have ever dreamt of doing and more. The only pieces that I
really have in my fingers just now are some medieval organ pieces. That
is what I first played on it. This is truly a very diverse, all-purpose
instrument. 1300 to 2001 and beyond all in its grasp, and with such "there-ness".

Andrew, congratulations, and thank you so much!

Daniel and Haruyo

And again, two years later...

Today is the second anniversary of the arrival of my Lindholm!  I like your
site very much.  I hope it gets you lots of orders.


We have had a very, very wet rainy season this year.  Raining every day for
over two weeks now, and still more to go... maybe one more week?  It is
raining now. The clavichord has been a bit stiff lately.  Some of the levers
stick, and about a dozen tangents slip behind the back string when a forte
touch is applied.  I have kept the AC on, but it is over 80% humidity
according to my simple hygrometer.  Feels more like 100% to me?  I have had
no problems before, but this is the wettest weather we have had in years.


Other than that, I stand firmly behind all I said in that letter that you so
kindly posted on you site.  I am honored.  I oddly still enjoy playing
Medieval and Modern music the most, though I just bought two books of
Moravian music ca. 1800, and it is perfect on the Lindholm.


I have only needed to tune maybe 3 times in the 2 years, though it needs a
tuning just now for sure, since the wet seasonal change.


I strongly feel that the Clavichord is rather unique in this Early Music field.
It is in essence such a simple instrument. A very simple key-lever with a
metal tangent, hitting a metal string, and that is it.  Everything else is
just acoustic material to help the vibration to be more easily heard.
(Unique also in that the sound is really an acoustic accident? Is the
challenge in designing clavichords is really in trying to make an acoustic
accident work?) Lindholm really figured out all the right acoustic answers,
period.  Unlike most other Early Instruments, Lindholm's late innovations do
not cancel out or nullify anything that any earlier clavichords were
trying to achieve.  The Hurdy-Gurdy is the same: a wooden wheel rubbing gut
strings, period.  A rather famous French Hurdy-Gurdy player, Pascal Lefeuvre
told me, there are good Hurdy-Gurdies, and bad Hurdy-Gurdies, period.  The
different period styles are just all the historical attempts to make good
ones.  He uses a very beautiful, very modern Hurdy-Gurdy for all his music.
The Clavichord is I think the same.  This Lindholm is a perfect Clavichord,
period.  It can correctly play any music ever written, period. You DO need a
dozen different flutes, recorders, lutes, viols, harpsichords, forte-pianos,
violins and bows, etc. to cover all the different periods, and styles.  You
need only one good Clavichord.  The cost and size of your big Lindholm is
still less than the cost and space of several smaller clavichords?  Actually
I have put all my other clavichords away.  They are nice, buy I just now do
not need them. And I now have room for my Harpsichord which was unreachable
for a while! 

Richard Troeger writes:

"Andrew Lagerquist of San Francisco has a deep interest in the Swedish
clavichords and is a brilliantly skilled maker. His clavichord after Specken
at the 1997 and '99 Boston Festivals drew a lot of interest, and he's now
building clavichords after the 1806 Lindholm/Soderstrom at Finchcocks, one
of which is for me."

--from the November, 1999 issue of Clavichord International