Franz Jakob Späth

Franz Jakob Späth (or Spath; (His name is now normally written with an umlaut, but authorities in the past, such as Fétis, Forkel, and Gerber, spelled his name without the umlaut.) Mozart was the first to spell his name with an umlaut.

In 1751, he presented a tangent piano to the Elector of Bonn. Ernst Ludwig Gerber reported that the instrument had 30 tone variations, which increased to 50 in 1770.

The piano builder Johann Andreas Stein apprenticed with Späth from 1749 to 1750. Stein's claviorgan of 1781 shows Späth's influence. In 1774, Späth established a piano building firm with his son-in-law Christoph Friedrich Schmahl (1739–1814), who came from a family of organ builders.

Späth died on 23 July 1786. The firm was inherited by Schmahl's son, Christian Carl, but was dissolved after his death. Christoph Gottlieb Schröter claimed to have invented an instrument with a similar action in 1717, though it was not announced until 1747 in Lorenz Christoph Mizler's Neu eröffnete musikalische Bibliothek. Schmahl continued to manufacture and sign instruments under his and his father-in-law's name until 1793. He referred to the mechanism as Tangirung and the instrument as Pandaleons Forte-pianos, Pianoforteinstrumente in Flügelform, clavecin d'amour, owing to its expressiveness and dynamic range, or simply Clavier.

Späth built the organ in Regensburg's Dreieinigkeitskirche, which was completed in 1758. while preserving Späth's facade. The rebuilding was completed in the summer of 2020. Späth also built the organ in Oswaldkirche in 1753

Späth's instruments were generally well-regarded. Forkel praised his fortepianos in his 1782 . In 1777, Mozart wrote to his father that Späth's fortepianos were his favorite, before he was introduced to Stein's. reported that Beethoven refused to play on an instrument made by Späth. Junker postulated that Beethoven, who played Stein's pianos in Bonn, was not accustomed to playing Späth's pianos.