Hohner Pianet N Voicing, low output note dilemma

[FrankP91]

Hello Folks,

So, as the subject says, I'm in the process of voicing my newly acquired Pianet N.
It's coming along pretty good in terms of evenness: I managed to restore the sticky pads (very good conditions) and to adjust the various pickups positions with the proper wooden tool that I found inside the pianet.

The result is good, but there's a low output note in the high register that's driving me nuts

-With the pianet off, by pressing the key, the reed resonates like it's neighbors.
-The sticky pad is good, but I replaced it several time to no improvement.
-The positioning of the sticky pad in the rod doesn't really improve the output.
-The sticky pad is touching the reed in the right way
-The pickup is close (1mm to the reed), but even by moving it closer, the situation doesn't improve.


I would highly appreciate any help on how to troubleshoot this further!

[theseacowexists]

Is the rod bent further downward than it's neighbors? I've found that if it's bent downward so that the resting position is lower than it should be, the reed will not be picked up by the pickup as strong as it should be, even if it sounds fine acoustically (instrument off). The pad needs to just rest on the reed, not push it down.

[FrankP91]

I solved it by raising the reed slightly with a wooden pencil (pianet off), using the tool to place the pickup in a position where it would mute the reed (touching it) and from there just very very (very!!! ) slightly back it off. It's an imperceptible change, but it changes everything.
Now the note sounds as it should.

I notice however how the N is sensible to temperature: I have a controlled temperature room, but even so this problem happens frequently.

I start to see why many pianets are now sold without the front panel gold screws 

[theseacowexists]

Nice work! Yeh, I've resorted to leaving the lid screws off of mine, you never know when a pad might need to be changed.

How do you find that the temperature affects it?

[FrankP91]

The way I see it, it comes down to temperature change sensitivity (even if imperceptible), because one night a specific pickup is 1/2 mm from the reed, the next morning it touches it (and vice versa).

It's really an imperceptible change, but it happens. I can hear it also in the quality of the harmonics. One note might have a fat round sound in the evening and a more buzzing sound in the morning. Nothing wrong in either of them, but sure makes it tricky to voice it evenly.

My N is in a room with controlled temperature, but close to a window.