For sale is a Hohner Pianet N electric piano made in West Germany around the late ‘60s, along with power cord, volume pedal, spare fuses, and a set of spare Clavinet.com sticky pads. This is a classic electromechanical design using plucked steel reeds, the vibrations of which are picked up electrostatically. The action is extremely simple, using a “sticky pad” as both plucker and damper at the end of each key lever. The controls and connections are also simple: a power switch, a tremolo (incorrectly called “vibrato”) switch, a power inlet and convenience outlet, a pedal socket, a ground socket, and three 1/4” output jacks.

It is playing beautifully. The sticky pads were made by Ken Rich (now discontinued), and are still playing well. Note that the only commercially available sticky pads at the moment are solid silicone units from Clavinet.com, which perform badly – they introduce clicking noises during both plucking and damping, and require the key levers to be bent upwards to achieve correct resting height. The included set should be considered emergency spares. But the Ken Rich pads are likely to continue playing well for some time, and could be rebuilt – I have done it several times with original pad collars.

Voicing was adjusted for a relatively bright and punchy tone. The instrument comes with a voicing tool (for bending the pickup tongues) located inside behind the harp, so you can adjust it to your liking if desired. Reeds are in good tune. The inside has been cleaned. All electrolytic capacitors have been replaced, and noise floor is low.

The original volume pedal potentiometer had an open track; it is included in the bag of replaced parts. Since it is a special type with a very narrow range of rotation, I could not source an exact substitute, so I replaced it with the closest equivalent that I could find. Thus, the pedal works, but it cannot reduce loudness very much.

Note that there are two fundamentally different Pianet designs that result in very different character. The early models (including this N) use electrostatic pickups similar to a Wurlitzer, and they tend to sound like even punchier Wurlitzers. I believe that aside from differences caused by condition and adjustment, there is no meaningful difference in tone between electrostatic Pianet models, except that some have tremolo (including this N) while others don’t. Later models (most notably the T) use electromagnetic pickups similar to a Rhodes, and these are much mellower, sounding like a rather weak Rhodes-kalimba hybrid.

Thanks for looking, and feel free to ask questions or make an offer!