Hohner Pianet

[cbrown]

I've just won a Pianet T on a well known auction site. It's apparently in good working order.

Does anyone have any experience with these? Any effects, etc. that work particularly well with them? I'm planning on running it into my mid 70's pro reverb, maybe using a volume pedal to get a bit more dynamics out of it and wondering about an EHX Freeze or a TC Infinite. I'd like to try and get some vaguely Rhodes-ish twinkly bell sounds without spending 4-5k. I know it'll not sound the same as a Rhodes, but hope it'll be nice in it's own way.

[Dave]

If I recall correctly these ones are quite mellow sounding. I’ll bet it would sound awesome with a “just pushed” drive tone and/or tremolo. Nice score.

[seenoevil II]

My buddy had one and I myself lusted after them for a while thinking they'd be a more compact Rhodes Wurlitzer sound. They are lightweight, and the so is the key action. It's all gravity IIRC so maybe not at taught as an organ action.

The thing that struck me though was how there was one dynamic level. The mechanism (which is fascinating in its own right) is basically a sponge that's sticky with grease being rapidly pulled off of a tine. Imagine pulling a band aide off of a cymbal. Basically, no matter how hard or soft you do it, it's just as loud. From what I understand, you can futz with the placement of the pad on the tine and the location of the pickup (there's one for each note I think), but these are of limited effect.

I'd say these would be great for "sounds" and textures in a larger context but probably can't as convincingly pull off being the meat and potatoes of an ensemble like a Wurly or Rhodes.

This sounds like Im down on them, but they're so much fun and sound really really cool. Good score.

[Zork]

These are nice! Friend of mine had one. I have a Roland MP-600 at home, it's a total different beast as it's not mechanical but completely electronical with a total of 64 single oscillators! But to answer your question about effects: I usually have it set to more mellow tones as well and I recently found that a slow moving slight pitch vibrato sounds heavenly with electric pianos. Very radiohead-y.

[ludobag1]

don't know this one but it is pretty cool sounding

[OffYourFace]

Congrats! It can be hard to get these to cut thru in a live band mix, depending on the style of course. It's a PITA to tune them but otherwise they're very cool.

I'd experiment with preamp pedals. I always wanted to try one with an Acoustic Guitar style preamp pedal.

[TagoMago]

I absolutely love these!

I've recorded with one many times and always loved the feel and sound of them. The simplicity of them is great too. I know folks aren't always keen on not having a sustain pedal option but I don't mind. Put them through a tremolo pedal into a decent amp and they're great. Might have to start seriously looking for one.