My new Rhodes!

[oliisfullysick]

Just picked up a new rhodes, looks a little hagged, been well gigged, but sounds and plays great.
Its had a few interesting mods, the new wiring to apparently quieten it down, and no end tines/tone bars or hammers.
I'm going to replace the felts, and clean it all up.
If anyone has any old keycaps/ends that I could buy a few, that would be great. want them to match the yellowed original keys.
Any tips for the deep scratches in the lid?
Any way of dating it? I cant seem to find a date on it, but its got wooden hammers and harp support so im assuming early 70s??

[tylert]

If it was early 70's wouldn't it have the "Fender Rhodes" on it?

[sean]

My vote is sometime in 1974.  Probably first half of 1974.

It still has wooden harp supports, tone bars have number only (not stamped with note names), it has half-wood hammers, and the knobs are early-seventies type with the black center.  This early harp frame has round mounting holes - none of them are slotted.  These are all features that lean toward earlier in the decade.

But the logos say "Rhodes" not "Fender Rhodes", keys are not the full-skirt keys (they vanished in 1973).  These are all features that would place it mid-decade.

The keys look like they have a flat pedestal (without the sloping front edge on the pedestal).  The 1973-and-earlier full-skirted keys had a pedestal that was truncated.

This piano looks like it is missing the hinges.  Early hinges were tiny, later hinges were the bigger ones.  You could look for screw holes and an imprinted outline of the hinges on the tolex.  

The sloping sides of the case are one long-straight slope, so the case is 1974 (or so) and later.  The case was cut in two on a huge bandsaw.  (Pretty standard method:  build a closed box glued up tight and square, then cut it in two to create a top and a bottom, then install hinges and latches.)

The early cases were sawed differently, so that the sides were not straight all the way - as the sides sloped down toward the keys, it would level out at the last minute.   Doh!  Did I say "minute"??  I should have said "few inches."  You can see what I mean if you look very closely at the photos here:  http://www.fenderrhodes.com/models/mark1a.php.  Look right next to the cheekblocks.

The pedal is a later-style pedal.  Not a 1973 pedal.  But the pedal rod looks like a nice old Rogers rod.  Probably says Rogers on the wing nut if it isn't a reproduction.

All that points to 1974.

Sean

[Miguel Tuna]

I'm not a specialist, but this looks like post-75 to me, 76 maybe. And by the pics, it looks like the hammer are plastic, and the keys are wood.

[Tim Hodges]

I'm not a specialist, but this looks like post-75 to me, 76 maybe. And by the pics, it looks like the hammer are plastic, and the keys are wood.

I'm inclined to agree with Sean with 1974, 1975 is the year Rhodes shifted to aluminium support brackets and in the 4th picture beneath the green hammertip you can see the wooden section of the hybrid wooden / plastic hammer. It was only in mid to late 75 that they introduced the all plastic hammer.

T

[Cormac Long]

I've a Fender-Rhodes Mark 1 SP-88 void of all the usual serial numbering and date stamps.

Based again on the styles etc, it was assumed to be a '74 model. However on advice from tarkus boy, I disassembled it further and found "Jun 9 1975" stamped on the side of the wooden action rail. That could easily be a late '75 overall finish date. This means Rhodes was still using the Fender-Rhodes branding on the front rail and just Rhodes at the rear. So the point to note is that wooden harp supports and sometimes even old branding was still used in 1975. That whole period 74-75 seems to have occasional anomalies in this regard.

Of course another possibility is that the front rail or harp are not originals here and we're being thrown off track.

If the OP has the mind for it, I'd suggest doing what I did and lift the piano out of the case, removing the harp supports and/or cheek blocks to look for another date. The chances are that its dated there or on the sides of the action rail. Check the service manual for instructions on what to do.. essentially you need to remove screws from underneath the case and then lift the assembly out of the case.

This is the original post from tarkus boy where he showed an example of an assembly stamped underneath the harp support block..
http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=6123.msg30353#msg30353

This is the date I eventually found on mine...
http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=6123.msg30483#msg30483

[oliisfullysick]

yeah from what I read I was thinking around 74, the hammers are wood and plastic, and with the wooden rail supports.
The pedal is from my 1980s mk2, didnt actualy come with this, although with the interesting wiring mods, you get a nice hum when its hooked up!!

[tarkus boy]

like judge Dresd' said, there is a hidden stamp number on the woodden frame.
maybe you should check out the serial number on the Rhodes sticker.
just take a look at the "Rhodes Stage piano production survey" topic,
try to find the closest serial number and the related harp stamp number(s).

75 harps use to have that special varnish tint like yours.
hoping this will help.

[Rob A]

judge Dresd'

[oliisfullysick]

Finally getting around to restoring this.. ordered new hammers, felts, grommets and hardware from vintage vibe and some sparkle tolex.

heres the case after removal of the old tolex


some shielding was added by the last owner, stuck on well so its staying.....


some pics of the old hammers and felts




case all sanded down


awesome new gold tolex



Have replaced all the hammers and felts. Next job is the grommets and rewiring.. Then straighten and smooth out the top and respray it black sparkle..

need a few more parts if anyone has any that they want to sell;
tine and tonebar #1&2
hinges attached to the harp and keybed
rca plug on harp
front nameplate

Is there supposed to be a piece of wood between the damper rail and the sustain pedal rod? theres nothing on mine the rod makes direct contact with the rail and hums like crazy!!

[Ben Bove]

There should be a wooden dowel in the back.  Picture #2 you have with the green screwdriver and the bottom case empty - the square wood box in the back center, a wooden dowel with felt on both ends goes there.

[oliisfullysick]

Cheers, thats what I thought, remember there being something on my 54, I thought vv had them for sale but cant seem to find them on their website anymore...

There should be a wooden dowel in the back.  Picture #2 you have with the green screwdriver and the bottom case empty - the square wood box in the back center, a wooden dowel with felt on both ends goes there.

[oliisfullysick]

heres a pic with a few other toys.


Still have to finish of the internals and put a few new key caps on, work has halted until exams are over.....

[David Aubke]

At first I thought that green patch cable was a length of garden hose.. wondered what sort of weird talkbox accessory you might be using.

Did you come up with a solution for dealing with the scratches in the top (other than covering them with cool equipment)?

[oliisfullysick]

haha, just a regular guitar cable.

I did try using some shoe polish, which helped with some of the minor scratches and shined it up nicely but did nothing for the big ones. Im going to end up sanding and filling the scratches so its smooth and painting it black sparkle like this.

Rhodes Electric Piano Custom Sparkle Top by Vintage Vibe, on Flickr
image property of vintage vibe