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Sarcasm (01/24/07): My wife's comment as I moved the harp & pickup rail out of the way (i.e. into the living room) to get to the pile of music on the shelf behind them was along the lines of "I'm so glad you got another Rhodes so you could fix it". Isn't that why people buy one in the first place???

She refers to it as a 'Rhodes'? That's nice, mine usually gets called 'synth' or 'thing', even by musician friends (they are mostly guitarists though) .

I just got a Rhodes Mk1a 88 from 1974, very clean inside. Problem is it smells bad, kind of like dog pee. I don't think a dog actually peed in the Rhodes, its more like some of the front guide pin felts in the keys have some lubrication thats gone bad. The balance rail felts do not smell.

Any ideas about what I can do to remedy this? Other than that this Rhodes is smell free, unlike my newer 1977 which smells pretty good.
Some air freshener could do the trick but I do not want to spray anything that could interfere with the felts.

As it is now climbing under the piano near the keys like Keith Jarrett is a no-no..

Mike

Which hammertip configuration is the standard?
The Rhodes service manual states:

Hammer Tip Number Durometer Reading
(Hardness) Height
1 through 30 30 1/4" (6.350mm)
31 through 40 50 5/16" (7.938mm)
41 through 50 70 3/8" (9.925mm)
51 through 64 90 7/16" (11.112mm)
65 through 88 Wrapped (extra hard) 7/16" (11.112mm)

while Steve's technotes state:

00 - 23 = 30 shore
24 - 33 = 50 shore
34 - 43 = 70 shore
44 - 57 = 90 shore
58 - 81 = Maple with 3 layers of shrink tubing

If I recall correctly Majorkey has another recommended configuration.
What is your hammertip configuration? I've followed the Rhodes service manual except for a few tips here and there giving my Rhodes a quite mellow and smooth tone. I certainly see the need of having a second Rhodes set up differently .

--Mike

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to advertise a backcheck mod I discovered which I think you will find interesting. Check:

http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=2362

Any thoughts?

--Mike

We're all familiar with the bouncing keys of the Rhodes, and here's a quick solution if you happen to have an extra set of hammers+combs (I have a full set left over because I exchanged my old worn hammers with ones I got from Vintage Vibe).

Simply take comb+hammers, flip upside down and fit against the nameboard rail (actually resting on it) so that the hammers (now called backchecks) are synchronized. The backcheck combs may need to be shimmed or fitted with felt so that the hammer is caught properly. On my piano (a 1977 Rhodes Mk1 73) there is a near perfect fit, I needed only to shim the backcheck comes with some paper. The backcheck combs can be secured to the nameboard rail by drilling holes where the comb mounting screws go.

Here's a photo of the whole set of backchecks installed:



It works like this: When a key is depressed the backcheck will rock with key and release the upgoing hammer so that it can fly up and hit the tine. When the key is released the backcheck will catch the hammer coming down and reduce key bounce. See the pictures and videos below.

Hammer at rest:



Key depressed:



Here are two videos demonstrating the keys with bounce vs keys with backchecks, and the action:

http://www.audiorealism.se/tmp/backcheck_keys.mpg ~4mb
http://www.audiorealism.se/tmp/backcheck_action.mpg ~4mb

This works surprisingly well, I've been playing with this for a few hours now and the key bounce is almost completely removed. The rest of the action feels as normal if not tighter. It does not feel any heavier.

The cons of this mod is that the rhodes lid must be cut since it will now be resting on the backcheck combs instead of the name rail. I have not yet commited to this as I'm still experimenting with it, but if your interested on how backchecks might feel and you have some left over hammers it may well be worth a try.

So what do you think?

--Mike