'Electric'--the Neo-Bechstein electric piano, c. 1932.

[Viva-Tonal]

Iñigo Cubillo, one of the regulars on 78-L, uploaded this rare demo recording from Germany of an early electric piano.

The song is called 'Electric', and was written by Waldemar Padwa, who plays it here on the Neo-Bechstein.

Here's the label info, etc.:

NEO-BECHSTEIN PLATTE, C. Bechstein Pianoforte-Fabrik A. G., Berlin
Bestell-Nr. 1003
Made in Germany

Matrix 18745 (T 5015) (sic) Signed by an engineer as "Fu.- 4."
Electric
Erster Original-Neo-Bechstein-Flügel komponiert und gespielt von Waldemar Padwa.

Enjoy!

[Lenoirstreetguy]

I saw this stream on 78L and was going to respond there but didn't get around to it. So speaking as a piano technician, this is quite interesting: I've always wondered what the Neo Bechstein sounded like and here it is. The Neo Bechstein was the precursor of the modern electric...as opposed to electronic ...piano. It was a child of that first burst of electronic music in the late 'twenties and early 30's : the era of the Theremin (and there are Victor Records of it ) and the Ondes Martineau . The most modern version of this technology is...or was...the Yamaha electric piano of the 70's. It was produced in an upright and a grand and the sound they produce is very similar to the Neo Bechstein. The American version of all of this was the Storey and Clark introduced around 1940 which was called the Storeytone, I believe. It was advertised as having connections to RCA Victor technology and unless I'm hallucinating, I think there was a version with an RCA record changer in the matching bench which was like a small console.
The Fender Rhodes electric piano......which has been re-introduced...is the most common variant, but it's innards are a bit different. The Neo B. and the Yamaha and such all have a more or less standard acoustic piano action. The strings have pickups like an electric guitar and away you go. The Rhodes has a more simple action and no strings: the hammer hits a thin tine which vibrates in the field of a little solenoid pickup. Woe betide the wretched tuner who when tuning a Rhodes broke a tine before the piano was reintroduced in 2007. They are hard to run down on short notice. I know whereof I speak on that issue. I was tuning the old clunker at the CBC Broadcasting Centre here in Toronto and broke a tine . I'll have to say the force was with me that time and I did find a replacement.

[Viva-Tonal]

I tuned a Fender Rhodes back around 1995 or 1996. I can attest, that was a JOB! I didn't break any tines in the process, but that was a nightmare the likes of which I hope I never have to do again.

[Lenoirstreetguy]

It's not the tuning that's hard...it's the adjustment of the resonator bar and the tine so that the tone quality is uniform. Didn't that drive you loopy? Trying to get the wretched tine aligned with the solenoid? And that's what the owners usually complain about rather than the tuning per se.
I will even take tuning the Mason & Risch Century II spinet(the worst piano made by the hand of god or man) over a Rhodes when the owner says " It sounds funny on some notes.."

Jim

[Viva-Tonal]

Oh, all of it did. Very temperamental.

[WDC]

This is absolutely incredible! Thank you for posting this. I have expected this one to be from the early 30's, wow! I just found this link, the text in German but there are some great pictures and closeups of the Piano and its inventor:

http://www.radiomuseum.org/forum/neo_be ... radio.html

[Lenoirstreetguy]

Those are great pics and I think Walther Nernst was known on this side of the Atlantic for his earlier work on the so-called glow lamp...the ' Nernst Glower which used a ceramic rod heated to incandescence,,,and NOT in a vacuum . Until the tungsten filament lamp became practical the Nernst lamp was very popular for situations that needed a high brilliancy. I think I remember reading that it was in fact too bright...and hot...for home use. Nernst was quite a scientist indeed and I think he won a Nobel Prize at some point. I never put two and two together until I saw that picture of him with the Neo Bechstein and I thought " That's he!"

Jim