Electric pianos: Rhodes, Wurlitzer 200A and Hohner Clavinet D6

Three mechanisms, three sounds

All three instruments have a real keyboard action and something metal that vibrates when struck, read by a pickup much as an electric guitar's strings are. What is struck, and how, gives each its voice: the Rhodes rings like a bell, the Wurlitzer barks when pushed, and the Clavinet snaps like a funk guitar.

Rhodes piano: tines, Stage and Suitcase

Pressing a Rhodes key swings a hammer against a thin metal tine joined to a larger tone bar; together they act like a tuning fork. A pickup opposite the tine turns its vibration into a signal. A Rhodes makes a quiet sound even unplugged, like an unplugged electric guitar. Moving the tine relative to the pickup changes the tone — close together gives the bell-like sound — and it sustains longer than a Wurlitzer.

The Suitcase's built-in amplifier has a tremolo that bounces the sound between two speakers, labelled "vibrato" on some models to match Fender amplifiers. A 73-key Rhodes weighs about 130 lb (59 kg). Quality under the CBS-era owners was inconsistent; the business was sold to Roland in 1987, and later companies have made new models — the Mark 7 (from 2007) and the MK8 (announced in 2021), which weighs 75 lb (34 kg). A 1976 advertisement claimed that 82% of the top 100 Billboard albums featuring electric piano used a Rhodes.

Wurlitzer electronic piano: the 200 and 200A

Though marketed as "electronic", a Wurlitzer makes its sound when a felt hammer strikes a steel reed, read by an electrostatic pickup. Its tone is closer to a sawtooth wave than the Rhodes' near-sine: sweet and vibraphone-like when played gently, then a slightly overdriven bark when played hard. It was first designed for classrooms, and its lack of acoustic noise meant it could be played quietly on headphones.

• 140 (1962): the first with a transistor amplifier and an on-board tremolo (fixed rate, adjustable depth), also mislabelled "vibrato".
• 200 (1968): a moulded plastic lid, 56 lb (25 kg) without legs or pedal, a 30 W amplifier and two speakers facing the player; about 88,000 made, the most popular model.
• 200A (1974–1983): an improved shield over the reeds and pickups to reduce the mains hum of the 200; the last model in production.
• 200B (1978): the 200A without amplifier or speakers, powered by a pair of high-voltage batteries to cut hum.

The common repair is a broken reed: with hard playing, reeds eventually snap from metal fatigue. Each reed is tuned by a blob of solder at its tip, filed to the right weight, and its elongated screw holes allow fine tuning. Dirt between a reed and the pickup can cause pops or bursts of distortion; pressing the key repeatedly, or compressed air, usually clears it. The action itself was deliberately over-engineered and often still works well decades on.

Hohner Clavinet: the D6 and its switches

The Clavinet, made by Hohner of Trossingen, West Germany, is an electric clavichord. Under the keys lies a harp of 60 steel strings; each key presses a small rubber pad onto its string against an anvil, like a guitarist's hammer-on, and yarn damps the string when the key is released. The keyboard is touch-sensitive, and pressing harder stretches the string slightly, which gives a form of aftertouch.

A mechanical mute slider sits on the right. The D6 has a black vinyl case with a teak top and a removable lid. Earlier models were designed for home and Baroque music — the Clavinet I of 1964 in teak with a battery amplifier, the red-vinyl Clavinet C of 1968 that could run on a 9 V battery — while the E7 of 1979 improved shielding for loud stages and had brackets to sit on top of a Rhodes, and the Clavinet Duo (1978) combined a Clavinet with a Pianet T. Production ended in 1982.

Clavinets are often played through a wah pedal, an auto-wah, a phaser or a chorus. Their pickups are unshielded, so lights, switches and transformers nearby can cause interference; rubber hammer tips deteriorate with age and stop keys working; and the keys fit no other Hohner instrument. Strings, sealed away from fingers, last longer than a guitar's. Since 1999 replacement parts have been made by enthusiasts' suppliers.

Electric pianos on a session

1. Know what it plugs into. A Rhodes Stage needs an external amplifier or DI; a Suitcase has its own amplifier and stereo tremolo; a Wurlitzer 200A has speakers and an output; a Clavinet has a preamp with a line-level output.
2. Keep the Clavinet away from dimmers. Its unshielded pickups hum near lighting, switches and transformers.
3. Expect a little maintenance. A broken Wurlitzer reed or a dead Clavinet key is a normal repair, not a disaster; ask whether spares came with the instrument.
4. Plan the lift. A 73-key Rhodes weighs about 59 kg; a Wurlitzer 200 about 25 kg without legs.
5. Consider the DX7. Its E Piano 1 preset imitated the Rhodes so well in the 1980s that some players replaced their Rhodes with it; see the Yamaha DX7 page.