As the new Italian design spread northward, first into Germany and then to Flanders, France, and England, it was modified to the extent that the 16th- and 17th-century northern European instruments had somewhat longer strings (11 1/2 to 12 1/2 inches [29 to 32 centimetres] for c″) and thicker cases (3/16 to 1/4 inch [5 to 6 millimetres] in contrast to the 1/8 inch [3 millimetres] found on Italian instruments). In the 1560s in Flanders, however, this type of instrument was replaced by still another design, which ultimately dominated all northern European harpsichord making. These instruments had long strings (about 14 inches for c″ at normal pitch) and thick cases with substantial internal bracing to withstand the greater tension imposed by the greater string length. Because the longer strings made it unfeasible to double the string length for each octave below middle C, harpsichords of the newer Flemish design have less gracefully curved bentsides and wider tails than either Italian harpsichords or the intermediate instruments built elsewhere north of the Alps.

The name most often associated with Flemish harpsichord building is that of the Ruckers family, which for four generations (from about 1580 to 1680) dominated Flemish harpsichord making and whose instruments were exported to all parts of Europe—one was even shipped as far as Peru. At first sight, Ruckers harpsichords appear crude compared to their Italian counterparts, and their thick softwood cases give the impression of being clumsily cobbled together on the inside. Nonetheless, the tone of unaltered or properly restored examples is extraordinarily good, and it is easy to see why Ruckers instruments were so highly prized that a lively business in making forgeries of them flourished in the 18th century.

In addition to a wide variety of virginals (discussed below under The virginal, spinet, and clavicytherium), the Ruckers family made several different harpsichord models. The most popular was apparently six feet long, having a four-octave keyboard from C to c‴, with a short octave in the bass; one unison and one octave register; and, occasionally, a buff stop on the unison. They were typically painted in imitation of marble on the outside and decorated on the inside with block-printed paper on which a Latin motto was painted. The soundboard was usually decorated with paintings of flowers, leaves, and birds. (This decoration should be contrasted with that of Italian harpsichords, which, except for their finely profiled moldings and lavish outer cases, were generally unadorned.) Flemish harpsichords were set directly on fairly massive stands, examples of which may be seen in the numerous Dutch paintings of musical groups of the period. Similar harpsichords were made in smaller sizes tuned a fifth or an octave above normal pitch (the key c′ sounding either g′ or c″). By the mid-17th century, some single-manual instruments had a range of 4 1/2 octaves from F′ or G′ to c‴.

The Ruckers family appears to have been the first to make two-manual harpsichords. These were of two types: in one (which may have been the earlier type and was not built after about 1650), both keyboards were served by a single set of unison and octave strings and were not meant to be played at the same time. Instead, the keyboards were so arranged that c‴ on the upper keyboard was placed over f‴ on the lower keyboard, which meant that playing a piece on the lower keyboard automatically transposed it to a pitch a fourth below that of the upper keyboard. Whether this arrangement was used to facilitate routine transpositions or whether it was intended to provide in a single instrument the same resources as those available from both an Italian instrument with a 10-inch c″ and one with a 14-inch c″ is still a subject for controversy. The second type of two-manual harpsichord built by the Ruckers family was basically the type one finds today, with keyboards aligned over one another and intended to provide contrasts in loudness. Because the only set of upper-manual jacks was also played directly from the lower manual, it was not possible to play pièces croisées.

France

During the 17th century, instruments of the Ruckers type gradually influenced those being built throughout northern Europe; and by the early 18th century France, England, and Germany all had developed their own national variations on the thick-cased Ruckers design, replacing the thinner-cased and shorter-strung instruments of their earlier native schools. The sound of a typical 18th-century French harpsichord is delicate and sweet compared to the more astringent sound of a Ruckers. Those examples by the Blanchet family and their heir Pascal Taskin (1723–93) are noted for their extraordinarily high level of craftsmanship and the lightness and evenness of their touch. Eighteenth-century French harpsichords were almost always painted and rest on elaborate carved and gilded cabriole (curved-leg) stands. As with Flemish harpsichords, the French soundboards are decorated with painted flowers and birds, and the maker’s mark appears in the form of a cast ornament in the sound hole. In the 1760s, Taskin added a fourth row of jacks with soft plectra of buff leather as a special solo stop and also devised a highly ingenious system of knee levers that permitted the harpsichordist to play crescendos and decrescendos and to change registers without taking his hands from the keyboard. By the time of these inventions, however, the great Baroque composers of harpsichord music, such as François Couperin, J.S. Bach, Jean-Philippe Rameau, and Domenico Scarlatti, were dead, and these devices have no relevance to the historically accurate performance of harpsichord music of the Baroque era or earlier.

Great Britain

In Britain the making of harpsichords in the 18th century was dominated by two London families, the Kirkmans and the Shudis. Both families made instruments for several generations and eventually moved on from harpsichord building to piano building. Their harpsichords are very similar, and the two-manual instruments all have a close-plucking lute stop in addition to the usual two unisons and octave. They are invariably veneered in walnut or mahogany and rest on simple stands, usually with straight or tapered legs. The tone of a Kirkman or Shudi harpsichord is both more robust and more brilliant than that of a French or Flemish instrument, making it a superb instrument for filling in the harmonies in orchestral music as well as for the performance of the solo harpsichord literature.