Got myself a Fender Rhodes project!

[oliisfullysick]

hi, im brand new to this forum and rhodes but i just picked this up the other day for $200 australian (about $170 US), came with the sustain pedal/rod, cover, and maybe some legs if the owner can find them. got a bit of moisture in it so it needs rust removal and 13 new pickups, but the rest of it is in pritty decent condition for a 30yr old instrument, ive started using a wire brush on the end of a drill to remove the rust after the tonebars and tines have been soaking in kerosene, seems to work ok, anyone else done anything like this before and found an easier way to do it, like an acid or something that will eat the rust and not the metal? ive read alot of people have been using kerosene and sandpaper, but it wasnt cleaning the tines very well. also a little worried about breaking the larger tines with the drill when i get to them.

whats the easiest way to tune this beast, some of the tunning springs are jammed.

I coated all the tonebars with clear acrylic to prevent further rust

here are some pics







After a whole lot of cleaning





and a day with the wire brush and sandpaper










not even a quarter of the way through
As you can see i painted the harp rails, do they need to be sanded back where the conductive tape the pickups sit on meets? i wasnt sure if they are part of the circuit.

cheers

[jim]

wow and i thought i was the only one ever to own a rhodes this rusty!

yes the harp rails are part of the earth.

[oliisfullysick]

after 3 solid days of rust removal, just waiting for my pickups to arrive so it can be tunned and set up

[Kbjazzman]

Hard work project indeed ! Your rusty tone bar remind me the day I got my first Rhodes Piano.

[lylehopkins]

This project gives me hope for this summer. Thanks for sharing and good luck with the rebuild.

[oliisfullysick]

This project gives me hope for this summer. Thanks for sharing and good luck with the rebuild.

cheers guys, haven't completely finished tuning all the tines yet, but the ones i have sound great, haven't actually played a rhodes before so i have nothing to compare it with, but im stoked with the result, for a total cost of about $300 Australian, i have working rhodes, considering they usually sell for around $2500 over here im pleased

[oliisfullysick]

[musomarc]

Hi Oliver,
Great restoration job! Congratulations "lazarus" on bringing a rhodes back "from the dead"!
It looks fantastic, well worth the effort.
I'm also doing up a  Rhodes stage 73. I gave up my first rhodes in about '84 when the DX7 was king.
I've regretted and lamented over  it for years, especially since it also had the Dyno mod done by Chuck Monte when he visited Sydney in the 1970's!!
Did you go for new pickups, second hand or have you tried rewinding and rewiring them yourself?
Any ideas appreaciated.
Regards

[oliisfullysick]

Cheers, its the one that got me hooked on the rhodes sound, turned into a small addiction... haha

I bought them off someone on ebay for $5 a piece, unfortunately there not that cheap anymore..... I did fix a few by unwinding one loop of the pickup and resoldering