|
My Wurlitzer says "Electronic Piano" on the panel! Does this mean it’s no good?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Where can I get spares for my Clavinet/Pianet/Rhodes/Wurlitzer?
|
|
|
|
|
|
How can I tell if what I have really IS an electric piano? (not a stupid question at all!)
|
|
What electric pianos do you actually own?
|
|
Is there a REAL Hall of Electric Pianos?
|
|
|
| My Wurlitzer says "Electronic Piano" on the panel! Does this mean it’s no good? |
|
No. The name "Electronic Piano" was a Wurlitzer trademark used on their ELECTRIC pianos years before purely electronic pianos were available. All pre-digital Wurlitzers are true electric pianos.
|
|
My Hohner Pianet T doesn’t sound anything like the Pianet on (insert name of favourite ‘60s recording here). How can I get THAT sound? |
|
Difficult one, this. The problem is that the 1970s Pianet T uses completely different reeds, "pluckers", electronics and pickups from the 1960s Pianet N and Combo Pianet. You could try using an acoustic guitar preamp and a valve (US: tube) amplifier, plus adding some upper mid to the EQ on the amp.
|
| I’ve just bought/found/inherited an electric piano. It’s made in Italy and it has switches that say "Piano", "Honky-tonk" and "Clavichord". What can you tell me about it? |
|
What you have there is a typical 1970s Italian ELECTRONIC (not electric) piano. These were made in their thousands by a handful of companies and marketed worldwide under their own (Crumar, Elka, Siel) and various assumed names (Vox, Eurotec, Armon, Cordovox). Some were adequate, most were dismal. The Japanese (Roland, Korg, Yamaha) made similar but higher-quality instruments at this time. With a few exceptions, none of these are worth very much. The only sought-after ELECTRONIC pianos today are Yamaha’s CP-20, 25, 30 and 35, and the American-built RMI Electrapiano. Both were widely used by professional musicians at the time and both have unique sounds which are still in demand today.
|
| Where can I get spares for my Clavinet/Pianet/Rhodes/Wurlitzer? |
|
(updated October
2003) Due to their renewed popularity, most of the
more common electric pianos now have spares
readily available, either brand-new, used or NOS
(New Old Stock). Here is a brief (and by no means
complete) list:
|
| Why are old electric pianos going for silly prices at the moment? A couple of years ago you couldn’t GIVE a Hohner Pianet away! |
|
People have realised that old electro-mechanical instruments have a certain something to their sound, look and feel that digital electronics and boring rectangular cases can’t reproduce. In particular, the Trip-Hop, Acid Jazz and Lo-Fi movements in music have re-popularised the Clavinet, Wurlitzer and Rhodes. Since there were no NEW electric pianos between 1985 and 2008, the quantity out there has been absolutely limited, and the market could set its own prices. If you had a Wurlitzer 200A in your bedroom for the past 20 years (when nobody would touch it with a 2m (US: 6-ft.) pole), you could make a small fortune now. But if you sold it in the early 1980s to buy a new Kustom 88 electronic piano (it happened to a friend of mine) and you regret it now, a small fortune’s what you’ll pay to get your Wurly back. What goes around, comes around...
|
| I have a (insert name of instrument here), but I looked for it on your site and I can't see any reference to it. Why not? |
|
There are several possible reasons: 1. What you have might not actually BE an electric piano. It may be an electronic piano (see "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" at the Hall), a digital piano, an organ with piano sounds or even a synthesiser or home keyboard. Recently I've had to tell several people that what they thought was a Hohner Pianet was actually a reed organ. Apart from electronic pianos, the Hall doesn't cover any of these. 2. What you have just MIGHT be a rarity; either one of the ones which I've heard of but never seen, one of the ones which I've seen but know little about, or even something that I never knew existed. E-mail me and tell me about it! You could even get a free copy of my Vintage Keyboards Screensaver (Full Version)! 3. In the case of some manufacturers (e.g. Wurlitzer and Kawai) there are too many individual models for me to catalogue each one. In other cases, I have had difficulty finding photos or information. In all cases, the "carrot" of the free Screensaver applies, if I deem the information or pics useful. Several people have already received their screensavers and are, as you read this, gazing happily at the sight of twelve full-colour hand-drawn plan views of vintage keyboards (Hammond B3, Clavinet D6, Vox Continental, Minimoog, Baldwin Combo Harpsichord etc.) moving gently around their screens. Unless they're Macintosh users.
|
| What electric pianos do you actually own? |
|
None at all. In 1980, at the age of 18 and having taught myself to
play the piano at school, I bought myself a brand-new
Hohner Pianet T, which was my main keyboard until 1988
when it was stolen. Since then I have only owned
digital keyboards. From late 2009 to 2011 I played a
vintage Wurlitzer 200 which belonged jointly to The
Skanx. I guess I owned one-ninth of it...
|