Rhodes Piano

got new tips and felts / restoration kit and dvd on the way. not sure which route I wanna go with the 3 hammers. I can get new ones for $5 each but the EP heads say to go with vintage parts off ebay.

is there a difference? I mean the felts are new on either one.. no? hell.. at 5 bucks a pop maybe you grab those and then try and track down used old ones in the mean time for a decent price.

As some one who has brought and restored 3 mkIs and 1 mkII I will say this.
If you are talking about buying a whole keybed then go the eBay route if not just get the new stock parts.

All 3 of the mkIs had different hammers, different felt and different tips, so if you buy just a few they probably won't match anyway.
Difference with the new stock will at least be that you won't find yourself needing new tips cause they were old and cracked or falling off.

The biggest thing you want to do is get all the hammers functioning with good tips then get your tines in tune.
Once you do that you can then start to plan your overall agenda long term.

Some **** just broke a key on our Rhodes at work, then held it up mid performance like "here's your key!".

m56p87 wrote:Some **** just broke a key on our Rhodes at work, then held it up mid performance like "here's your key!".

Where do you work? I'm in SeaTac. If you're at a store, I'll check it out!

m56p87 wrote:Some **** just broke a key on our Rhodes at work, then held it up mid performance like "here's your key!".

thats **** up. where are you working at now man?

@psr, thats a nice score, congrats!

psr wrote:Is there already a Rhodes Piano thread?

Well I finally took the plunge after years of trying to find the perfect Rhodes sound and being afraid to buy vintage (not being able to afford it either) due to the restoration and maintenance etc etc. I found one near me on Ebay for $400 ($450? idk)

It's a classic Fender Rhodes mkI 73 keys (early 1971 model) really good model year. apparently a pretty sought after model / year.

So I've been getting tips from guys on the EP forum and it looks like (may not be apparent from the pics above) its well worth restoring and not in that bad of shape. I've since cleaned it up and removed and reset all the keys so they all play now with exception of the 3 with broken hammers. have even played it a bit with tracks I've made on the MPC. Still got a ways to go to get it in top shape

1. replace hammer tips & felts
2. replace 3 broken hammers
3. clean tines
4. adjust action
5. buy and install an internal preamp
...

From the picture, $400 seems pretty fair price, considering current demand for Rhodes piano. I believe it is good year (still "Fender Rhodes", not just "Rhodes")
I also bought Rhodes piano a few years ago. Mine is Mark 5, which is pretty rare model to find (but I would not have bought it if it had a premium price being mark 5, as I was looking for Mark I suitcase model), and hammer design is quite different from other model.
Anyway, mine was better condition than yours, but it took a few months to restore, it is pretty decent condition now.

I studied a lot about Rhodes. I read the Rhodes service manual (photocopied PDF available on Internet) many times, checked EP Forums of course, and watched most of Vintage Vibe YouTube videos.

You don't need internal preamp. Just get a guitar amp. Personally, I don't recommend using those two pods on Rhodes, because they weaken the passive signal. I connect directly harp to guitar amp (or preamp, if you will.) so I can get cleaner signal. I modded the harp, so that I can connect TS cable directly to harp (I replaced RCA jack with TR jack.)

Replacing hammer tips & felts are must, but the broken hammers might be just detached from the body. They may be able to be fixed.

Good luck, and don't forget to take your time to repair it.

they are beautiful, great score dude.

I have heard people getting the pre out of a broken suitcase model and fitting it, they also get ran thru rotating leslie's in OG jazz and music, which prob helped with "that" sound.

cant wait to hear it once shes fixed up!

peeping tom wrote:they are beautiful, great score dude.

I have heard people getting the pre out of a broken suitcase model and fitting it, they also get ran thru rotating leslie's in OG jazz and music, which prob helped with "that" sound.

cant wait to hear it once shes fixed up!

Thanks Peeping Tom. I thought the internal amp was a great idea but it seems that the points that have been raised bout it, both here and in a couple of person to person conversations I've had, I'm probably not going to go that route.

damien907 wrote:

m56p87 wrote:Some **** just broke a key on our Rhodes at work, then held it up mid performance like "here's your key!".

thats **** up. where are you working at now man?

@psr, thats a nice score, congrats!

wow!
thanks man.

JVC wrote:From the picture, $400 seems pretty fair price, considering current demand for Rhodes piano. I believe it is good year (still "Fender Rhodes", not just "Rhodes")
I also bought Rhodes piano a few years ago. Mine is Mark 5, which is pretty rare model to find (but I would not have bought it if it had a premium price being mark 5, as I was looking for Mark I suitcase model), and hammer design is quite different from other model.
Anyway, mine was better condition than yours, but it took a few months to restore, it is pretty decent condition now.

I studied a lot about Rhodes. I read the Rhodes service manual (photocopied PDF available on Internet) many times, checked EP Forums of course, and watched most of Vintage Vibe YouTube videos.

You don't need internal preamp. Just get a guitar amp. Personally, I don't recommend using those two pods on Rhodes, because they weaken the passive signal. I connect directly harp to guitar amp (or preamp, if you will.) so I can get cleaner signal. I modded the harp, so that I can connect TS cable directly to harp (I replaced RCA jack with TR jack.)

Replacing hammer tips & felts are must, but the broken hammers might be just detached from the body. They may be able to be fixed.

Good luck, and don't forget to take your time to repair it.

Yeah JVC. i've looked at these for years and finally came across a good deal and not only that but space was an issue before.

Yeah I've read all of what you've mentioned and even been chatting it up with some Rhodes aficionados from Vintage Vibe and The makers of the Fender Rhodes Story.

ohhh good one on the harp to amp via TS cable mod. Very good. my whole idea of installing an internal amp was to get a better signal altogether. that is a great idea that you mention.

What amp are you using?

The broken hammers are actually broken. i thought it would just be a reconnecting at the base but its broken off completely no way to reconnect. I just last weekend replaced the broken hammers. I have the tips and felts on hand now so hoping to get started on that this weekend.

they are beautiful, great score dude.

I have heard people getting the pre out of a broken suitcase model and fitting it, they also get ran thru rotating leslie's in OG jazz and music, which prob helped with "that" sound.

cant wait to hear it once shes fixed up!

Well, broken Rhodes suitcase most likely to have broken preamp, and the preamp only works with suitcase unit, so I don't think it is common thing to do among Rhodes restorers.

I use Dunlop Stereo Tremolo (I've just googled it, wow, it is discontinued), but many purist attest that Rhodes suitcase trem (strangely it was called "vibrato" on Rhodes piano) is hard to emulate, because Suitcase's tremolo utilized incandescent bulbs and light sensors for creating stereo tremolo effect. I'm not purist, so I'm fine with Dunlop Stereo Tremolo (it is not cheap trem anyway) and I use it with Fender Princeton Chorus guitar amp (made in US version, very common guitar amp in used market, I even heard that Guitar Center wouldn't even take them), which has nice stereo chorus effect built-in, which sound really nice with Rhodes piano.
I've also heard that Rhodes sounds fantastic with Leslie speaker.

But, more important thing to do is tune each keys, clean inside, etc. etc. you have a long way to go, before worry about trem.
Actually I have to replace one of pickup in my Rhodes, it went dead...

psr wrote:

JVC wrote:...
You don't need internal preamp. Just get a guitar amp. Personally, I don't recommend using those two pods on Rhodes, because they weaken the passive signal. I connect directly harp to guitar amp (or preamp, if you will.) so I can get cleaner signal. I modded the harp, so that I can connect TS cable directly to harp (I replaced RCA jack with TR jack.)

Replacing hammer tips & felts are must, but the broken hammers might be just detached from the body. They may be able to be fixed.

Good luck, and don't forget to take your time to repair it.

Yeah JVC. i've looked at these for years and finally came across a good deal and not only that but space was an issue before.

Yeah I've read all of what you've mentioned and even been chatting it up with some Rhodes aficionados from Vintage Vibe and The makers of the Fender Rhodes Story.

ohhh good one on the harp to amp via TS cable mod. Very good. my whole idea of installing an internal amp was to get a better signal altogether. that is a great idea that you mention.

What amp are you using?

The broken hammers are actually broken. i thought it would just be a reconnecting at the base but its broken off completely no way to reconnect. I just last weekend replaced the broken hammers. I have the tips and felts on hand now so hoping to get started on that this weekend.

Ohh, I have DVD copy of Fender Rhodes Story. That documentary is criminally overlooked.

TS cable mod is great, not that hard (you'll need basic soldering skills). The sound difference is night and day, to me it is a no-brainer.

One disadvantage is that you cannot use top cover. For me I don't use harp cover at all (Mark 5's top cover is a bit pain to close, and I like the sound of hammers hitting tines in front of you, which you cannot get no matter how rhodes piano emulation is inproved), so it is OK. I even made custom tray (I call it Sushi-geta tray, because it looks a plate/tray for serving sushi) for my Rhodes, so that I can put sheet of music and metronome on Rhodes, without closing the top.

I posted about TS jack mod on the EP Forum (with pics) long ago, so search over there if you are interested.

The hammer on your Rhodes is early version, it is made of wood and plastic. Vintage Vibe sales the exact replica of it (wait, I think it was blue plastic, instead of yellow). I think that's the ones you bought.

JVC... Yeah I'm featuring excerpts from the Rhodes Story on my site
http://bboytechreport.com/interviews/down-the-rhodes/ courtesy of the guys who made the movie and the soon to come book and blue ray DVD (extended version of the movie). Great dudes.

I will look for your mod on the forum too. Yeah my hammers are wood / plastic (yellow) The replacements that I bought from V V are the same.

JVC wrote:But, more important thing to do is tune each keys, clean inside, etc. etc. you have a long way to go, before worry about trem.

yeup... well underway with the cleaning and given the fact that some restore cat told me $1000 for total restore I figured it would be a labor of love and a bit of a journey / educational exercise in restoration.

But i'm working it out. Still interested in pot of gold (the moment I can play it with a nice amp to hear "that" sound)

psr wrote:JVC... Yeah I'm featuring excerpts from the Rhodes Story on my site
http://bboytechreport.com/interviews/down-the-rhodes/ courtesy of the guys who made the movie and the soon to come book and blue ray DVD (extended version of the movie). Great dudes.

I will look for your mod on the forum too. Yeah my hammers are wood / plastic (yellow) The replacements that I bought from V V are the same.

JVC wrote:But, more important thing to do is tune each keys, clean inside, etc. etc. you have a long way to go, before worry about trem.

yeup... well underway with the cleaning and given the fact that some restore cat told me $1000 for total restore I figured it would be a labor of love and a bit of a journey / educational exercise in restoration.

I didn't know that they are releasing Blue Ray version of the documentary. It is an amazing documentary, and also very helpful to know how professionally serviced Rhodes piano sound in person, because Rhodes sound is almost always processed heavily on records.

A thousand bucks for restoration is understandable, considering moving the unit, time to require just to replace parts, and adjusting tuning and voicing, etc. It will take a lot of time, even just to replace them. But, I think it is worth it, and it is doable, it is not like restoring piano, Rhodes piano is much simpler.

This:

... But i'm working it out. Still interested in pot of gold (the moment I can play it with a nice amp to hear "that" sound)

I know what you mean. I haven't got "that" sound yet (maybe with Fender Princeton Chorus, I never will) but it sounds great, even with my voicing and tune adjustment (I used guitar tuner for each keys, which is not supposed to be the best way to tune Rhodes keys, but I'm not a piano tuner...). Upper range keys are very difficult to adjust, by the way.

Off topic, Pete Rock always has Rhodes piano in his home studio, I wonder how often he's used it for his records? I've never seen his interview where he talk about his Rhodes.
J. Dilla had Rhodes stage piano in his home studio too.

JVC wrote:Off topic, Pete Rock always has Rhodes piano in his home studio, I wonder how often he's used it for his records? I've never seen his interview where he talk about his Rhodes.
J. Dilla had Rhodes stage piano in his home studio too.

yeah I always see Pete's Rhodes in his videos piled in with wax shelved all around it. I've thought the same. I know QTip uses one too. I've seen pics of Dillas. Cant wait to get it all restored. I want to make an instrumental hiphop album using the MPC 60 II, slim phatty & my Rhodes. Maybe with a bit of guest musicians added. thats my goal.

Just a note for any Rhodes fans out there. I just went live with an interview with Gerald McCauley of “DOWN THE RHODES: THE FENDER RHODES STORY” ... the book and dvd just came out recently. If you love the rhodes you will probably dig this series the book and dvd.

http://bboytechreport.com/2013/11/01/interview-with-gerald-mccauley-of-down-the-rhodes-the-fender-rhodes-story/