Unusual Instruments #2: The Hohner Pianet T

Back when I was just getting serious as a piano player, one of the things I desperately wanted was a real deal electric piano. I wanted to hear that rich, sweet, metallic ring emanating from my amplifier as I played those incredible chord voicings I loved so much from Steely Dan tunes like "Peg," "Josie," "Time Out Of Mind," and many others. Being that I was (and still am) such a stickler for doing things the authentic, old fashioned analog way, an electronic Casio piano was not going to do it for me. But what to do? I didn't have the coin for a Fender Rhodes or Wurlitzer yet!

Thankfully, there was a solution. In the late 1970's, Hohner must have also seen a need for a low cost electric piano and introduced the portable, guitar case sized, black Tolex covered Pianet T. There were other Hohner Pianet models before this one, but this final T model was the true budget friendly version. Coming out at the end of the electric piano's height of popularity and the beginning of the electronic synthesizer era, I'm not sure how many of these were produced, but I managed to pick one up on eBay for around $250. With some work, these can be a pretty decent Rhodes sound alike. Thankfully, unlike the Wurlitzer I later owned, fixing these up is incredibly easy.

The main repair issue is in the "sticky pad" mechanism Hohner used to vibrate the reeds and, well, keep the cost down. The system is truly ingenious in some ways though, using sticky silicone pads that sit on the reeds. When a key is pressed, the pad pulls off the reed and vibrates it due to its inherent stickiness. When the key is let go, the pad falls back onto the reed stopping the vibration. This of course precludes the use of sustain pedals, but the simplicity of design is incredible. The problem- those sticky pads are all around 35 years old now, and if the reeds have rusted, the pads work even less. The result is notes or blocks of notes that don't sound at all or sound very quiet compared with others.

Thankfully, just as I was researching these things before buying one, I came across the website clavinet.com. This site has all the resources and info you could possibly need for all of Hohner's keyboards, in particular the much more famous Clavinet (feartured prominently on Stevie Wonders "Superstition"). Even more important was the fact that they had also begun selling replacement sticky pad sets! I ordered a set as soon as I bought my Pianet and waited for them to arrive.

A view of a Pianet T with the top taken off exposing the reeds, sticky pads, and pickup

The first thing I noticed about the Pianet is how HEAVY it is for its size! It is like a very small, thin guitar case in size, but probably weighs 60 lbs. Opening up the key lid reveals a 60 key keyboard. That's right, 60 keys. This unusual keyboard runs from F to F rather than the standard C to C found on 61 key keyboards. The feel of the keyboard is unusual as well. It is very "mushy" feeling compared to a piano keyboard, but is not as smooth feeling as an organ keyboard either. It is odd, but it works! The whole thing is extremely well built, with an outer case of plywood which I am sure accounts for some of that weight! The only other thing on the keyboard besides the keys is a 1/4" jack. Pianets really are as simple as you can possibly get!

As I mentioned before, the sticky pads generally have to be changed and the reeds checked and cleaned of any rust for optimal performance. This is incredibly simple as well. Unscrewing the screws holding the top on reveals a set of reeds over which the pads rest. I promptly took off all the pads and very gently cleaned off any rusty reeds. Don't go overboard here- you can sand or brush the reeds out of tune and will have to painstakingly re-tune them! After the reeds were clean, I simply slid the new pads onto their rocker arms and was good to go! I also checked for tone and volume balance between each key before reassembling the top. Each pad arm can be bent closer to or away from the reed to compensate for either too much or not enough volume on a note due to the pad not sitting just right against the reed.

Put back together, the Pianet was a whole new beast. They have an incredible amount of bass and a unique Rhodes like tone in the middle and upper registers. I played my Pianet for a few months with my basement rock band and it worked pretty well with a little Ampeg bass amp for amplification. The only problem was that when used within a guitar based band context, the Pianet T can sound muddy and indistinct. I imagine this is also an issue with Rhodes pianos, but not to this extent. In a less crowded sonic context, these keyboards can really shine, but in a classic rock setting, you really end up wanting something else- like a Wurlitzer.

That's exactly what happened, too. As soon as I could gather up the money, I got myself a Wurlitzer 200 series electric piano, the keyboard heard on famous tunes like Pink Floyd's "Money," "Time," and "Have a Cigar," and Supertramp's "Dreamer," among many others. The Wurlitzer really has a tone that cuts through a mix, but if you are on a budget and want to get into the world of real flesh and blood electric pianos, get yourself a Hohner Pianet T. They really can't be beat for the cost.