Help with pianet

[xavier]

Hi

I have recently found a Hohner Pianet T at my grandparent's house.

I pluged it into one of my guitar amps, but there wasn't comming any sound of it.
When the cable is in the input, and the touch the lip of the input, you can hear 'noise', like when you unplug a cable while the amp is still on.

The pianet is a passive instrument, so there are only a few reasons for this malfunction.

can anyone help me with this problem?

[sean]

I have a Pianet T as well, but I can't say that I have plugged it in lately...

Either the pluckers are not plucking, or you have a break in the circuitry.  With the top of the pianet open, you can determine if the pluckers are working or not.  If they have lost their stickiness, they won't make the reeds vibrate.

Hold down a few keys with one hand (to release the tine from the damping action of the sticky pluckers, and pick at the tines with your fingernail with your other hand.  If you get sound, then you can celebrate.  You need to replace or clean your pluckers.  (The pluckers are the red rubber parts stuck on the ends of the key lever.)

The pluckers make the reed vibrate by surface-tension/stickiness.  If the reeds are really dirty and rusty, then the pluckers just get covered with dust, and have no sticking power.  

*** The pluckers are easy to destroy!!!  Be gentle, they are only as robust as scrambled eggs.  If you rip or tear the plucker, it is dead. ***

Try cleaning the top surface of a few reeds with a Q-tip.  You have to get under the plucker to clean the part that the plucker would touch.

You can now try to carefully clean ONE or TWO pluckers for a test.  You have two choices:  try to clean the plucker without removing it from the key, or gently and slowly trying to remove the plucker from the metal arm by gently sliding it straight off the arm without twisting it or pushing hard on one side.  If you rip the plucker in this process, it is ruined.  GO SLOW.

Here is a trick that worked for me:  I cleaned the rust, crud, and dust off my pluckers with scotch tape.  I simply held a bunch of keys down, slid a length of scotch tape under the pluckers (sticky side of tape facing up), and released the keys.  The tape will stick to the plucking surface of the pluckers, and will grab any loose junk that is there.  Gently remove the tape (make sure you don't pull hard enough to rip a plucker).   I got enough junk off the pluckers that they worked again.  (This method does not require removing the pluckers!)

If the pluckers are remarkably dirty, you might be able to renew them a little bit with a gentle bath of dish soap.  (I use dawn, but you can use palmolive, whatever.)  Gently remove a plucker, and gently dip it into a bowl of soapy water, and gently scrub the plucker surface with your soapy fingertip.  Did I mention that you need to be gentle?

If the plucker surface is smooth and clean, it will probably work.  If the plucker is hardened, or pitted and rough, it probably won't work.  

If you want to get new pluckers, I think that a few folks have molded replacement pluckers, but I can't find them on the web right today.  (I thought www.clavinet.com had them.  Maybe www.speakeasyvintagemusic.com or www.vintagevibe.com - anybody else know?)

---------- That's it for pluckers, let's look at the electrical stuff ----------

You might have to set the gain on your amp alarmingly high.  Make sure that you gently try a few settings of pre-amp gain at 5, then 7, then 9... to make sure that the low-low-output from the Pianet isn't just quieter than you expected.

Get yourself a cheap volt-ohm meter.  Four bucks at Harbor Freight, maybe more at Radio Shack.

Take a good look at all the electrical connections and hope you find a simple break in the wiring that you can repair.  Check conductivity with the meter.

If you don't post a note that you got it fixed, I will eventually pull out my pianet, and take a look inside to compare wiring and recommend some simple tests.

Good luck,

sean

Pianet T manual in German:  http://www.gti.net/junebug/clavinet/pianet_t_manual.pdf

[thinzappa]

I have the very same issue as this one and would very much like some tips on how to do some proper tests!