New Fender Rhodes Owner

[hogluvr]

Just wanted to say hi and gather some information. For the record I'm a guitar player, this is my first piano. I've always loved the sound of a Rhodes and have wanted one forever. My dream came true Sunday. It is a '74, branded as a Fender Rhodes. I know this was a transition year where the eventually just became known as the Rhodes piano, were there any important changes made, and if so how do you tell. I was disappointed to find someone had torn the tolex off and spray-painted it black, I guess I will be learning to recover it. It has one dead key (broken tine) and several quieter keys (pickups?) so if anyone has any advice to share I would truly appreciate it. I still can't believe I finally own one, totally stoked!

[Alan Lenhoff]

'74 is an excellent year for a Rhodes. Some unfortunate changes to the design were made later -- in roughly the end of the summer of '75.You can get replacement tines from Vintage Vibe and other suppliers. On the quiet notes, you can tell if a pickup is dead by tapping the end with a screwdriver. If you don't hear a sound like you hear when you do that to other pickups, you may need to replace the pickup. But if some keys are just a bit quieter than others, you can loosen the pickup's screw, and slide it closer to the end of the tine. This is how you make the volume uniform across the keyboard.

The best place to start learning about your Rhodes is to study the service manual: https://www.fenderrhodes.com/service/manual.html

Learn about your piano, and enjoy the process of fixing it -- and playing it!

Alan