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Hey so did changing your tubes fix the problem. If not did you figure anything out? I've been having the same problem and will be recording soon. It's annoying enough to deal with but no way can you record with this problem. I've got a custom Deluxe Reverb clone and one of my power tubes has been doing this. I'm going to switch it around with the other power tube and see if that helps.

Is this a stereo suitcase, or the '72 Stage with the Stage Vibe, because isn't that mono?

Will do.

Yes, I have to same problem with the internal speakers creating rattling, buzzing on the mid and bass. I haven't really tried to address the problem yet because I usually play with an amp but need to tackle this problem. Here is some advice from Vintage Vibe on their website:

Sympathetic Vibrations:

   Noise such as vibrations, after ring of a note even when damper is working properly or monophonic sustaining when notes are played can be attributed to a reaction caused by frequency. Frequency can play out a number of symptoms heard inside your piano.

   When a note is generated a certain frequency related to the note sounds, everything inside the piano  has a frequency it reacts to or it's own reaction point. Frequencies in the mid to upper spectrum will especially agrivate thin metal objects. Certain frequency can agrivate or stimulate objects inside your piano to start vibrating. Often it is an exact frequency that will activate such  a distubance, say for instance middle C# may cause an aweful feedback or rattleing but the C or D next to it will not.

   We can see now that everything has an exact frequency it reactes to. The Wurlitzer Electric Piano is a very complex instrument when it comes to frequency, it is very suseptable to these kinds of reactions. What we need to look at is how to stop them.

   In my experience rattling vibrations and monophonic feedback or sustain is caused by loose screws a majority of the time. Let's list some;

1. Loose screws on the back hinges
2. Loose music rack screws
3. Loose harp screws
4. Loose pick up screws
5. Loose ground screws
6. Any screw in the harp area should be checked for tightness, any and all
7. Rubber pads should be installed on your reed bar shield to absord sympathetic vibrations cast by frequencies.
8.Wood to metal contact, particularly Damper arms vibrating against pick up shield
9. Speaker screws, should be snug but not to tight as to have cone rubbing on the case.
10. Music rack grommets should be fresh, faceplates should be secure, cables and wires should all be tied and secured, rubber pads should be placed between hum shield and top case.
11. Inspect all grounds and screws under damper arms, particularly on 200A models where a reed bar shield is present.  This shield and the hum shield are major sources of vibrations.
12. Oscillation occuring inside the closed lid can lead to monophonic feedback or sustaining of note, again this can be caused by loose screws causing vibrations that perpetuate the symptom.

   Another cause could be too much gain from the amp causing speakers to feedback inside the enclosed case. If this is the case turn down your pre amp gain pot on the amplifier.

   These are annoying symptoms which can all be fixed, if you take the time to troubleshoot and find the cause.

I know for sure that Vintage Vibe has them, you might want to check the other usual suspects as well.

Hey all, I'm in Lincoln, Nebraska. Looking for a Fender Rhodes Stage, preferably 73 keys from 1970 to early 1974. It would be nice if it had the legs, braces, sustain rod and pedal. As far as the shape of the Rhodes itself I don't care if it's beat up cosmetically as long as all/most of tines and tone bars are intact.

If you want to trade for a later Rhodes I've got a 1976 Stage w/ legs, braces and sustain pedal that's in good shape, set up and tuned. I've also got a 1980 suitcase top w/ blonde tolex  (5 pin). I've got the a sustain rod for it but no pedal at the moment, and no power supply, just been running out of the effects loop or from the harp.

Thanks!

Well, I sold my suitcase bottom, but looking at my pictures I have of it, there's channel A and B power amp inputs, that's what I used and was able to play both at the same time. Are you going in to the pre amp outs? Don't think that would produce any sound through the amp though anyways.

If you're going in to the power amp inputs and can't play both at the same time, I'm not sure, maybe something was modded, maybe someone with more electronics experience could help here? Good luck, sorry I can't be of much more help!

Just plug the Microkorg into one of the line inputs in channel A or B. I used to do this all the time with synths and a nord electro.

Also if your basement is pretty damp that may have caused it due to the keys absorbing some moisture and swelling up. If you have to keep it in your basement maybe run a dehumidifier occasionally to help with that.

Here's one more I found, first with the new Hammond from the C1 and Rhodes followed by some clavinet, be sure to click on high quality for stereo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIf7dSp-xB0&feature=related

The organ sounds great and he really goes through the new Rhodes sound set pretty well as well as with effects.

Keep an eye on ebay otherwise you'll probably pay a lot for them. Maybe somebody else can confirm but the only difference might be a different style key cap, otherwise the keys should fit fine.

Edit: Looks like Bjammerz got it for you.

yes, but very carefully. This is how professional piano techs are taught to handle this. I use a wide screwdriver.Hit the metal pin, not the key. This doesnt always work perfectly though.

Wouldn't the screwdriver scratch the pin? Any other things that you do to cure this? Thanks.

So in relation to the keys being tilted the proper way to level them is to slightly bend the balance rail pins. Thanks.

So I ended up finding the Du Pont stuff in a spray, but exact same stuff. Let you all know how it works.

Just out of curiosity,  when you are adjusting the pickups for volume, say in general or when setting up the piano, how loud do you have your amp? Do you set it like if you were playing live so you have some more dynamic when the volume is turned down? I'm going right off the pickup rail by the way and using a tube amp.

My the key bushing felts need to be re fluffed, or possibly replaced, but I just don't see that effecting it, as far as the front rail key bushings (the red ones). The key bushings on my balance rail look alright.

I did turn the front rail key pins slightly to tighten up the action, but I'm really not happy with the results and will be turning them back to the original position. What I've noticed is that it messes with the spacing of the keys creating gaps where there didn't used to be any. I don't know if this could have messed with the horizontal leveling at all. I'm guessing that on pianos they only adjust this for actually spacing and not to tighten up the left to right sloppiness, they probably either fluff the key bushings or replace them.

I've seen this question asked before but don't recall any answers or suggestions to it. Sure leveling the keys is easy and simple, but how do you get it to line up horizontally, meaning I'm noticing that some keys seem to be slanting down to either the left or the right slightly. How do you go about tackling this problem?

The Rhodes has been cleaned out, so the back rail felt is clear of debris, as well as the pedestal felts. Maybe I need to replace the back rail felt to even it out? Any suggestions are appreciated.

Hey Rob have you used this stuff before, I'm assuming it won't melt plastic? How much do you put on, I don't want to over do it. Thanks man.

Ok, no response from the guide pin lube thread, deserves it's own thread anyways:

I'm curious what people are using for lubing the white pedestal felts on the 75-76 Rhodes that had a bare pedestal? Since it's right on the plastic hammer are people using Teflon powder with a brush for these, and if so what kind of a brush do you apply it with? Does Elmer's Slide-All melt plastic, because that would obviously be easier to use a spray.

I haven't lubed any felts yet as the action on my 1980 mkII is already light enough, but I just picked up a 76 mkI with the above mentioned felts on the hammer cams and the action needs to be lightened up.

I'm curious what people are using for lubing the white pedestal felts on the 75-76 Rhodes that had a bare pedestal? Since it's right on the plastic hammer are people using Teflon powder with a brush for these, and if so what kind of a brush do you apply it with? Does Elmer's Slide-All melt plastic, because that would obviously be easier to use a spray.

I haven't lubed any felts yet as the action on my 1980 mkII is already light enough, but I just picked up a 76 mkI with the above mentioned felts on the hammer cams and the action needs to be lightened up.

This is the one, Simply called Moog I believe:

http://www.zu33.com/moog/

There should be a "sticky" on this in the parts and maintenance forum. You can lube the pins if you want with silicone spray. Then you lube up felts with that or teflon powder or spray.  You have to be careful that whatever you're using won't melt any plastic, test it first to be sure. Try the search function, there's been plenty of discussion on this.

There's a couple threads from this week discussing this exact subject, you should take a look at those, they are in this sub forum.

I thought about posting this in the other thread about weight limits on the lid but decided a new thread was in order.

So will the stage legs hold say a Clavinet? I saw the picture with the mark ll and the clav and all the other keys on top, but wasn't sure if that was actually stacked or if it's just showing you the different keyboards you could put on top. Anybody have any clues as to what the max weight specs are for the legs (with the brace)?

Nice demo, wish there would have been more with the Wurly though - there was like ten seconds of the 200a at the end.

These guys are featured on the Moog documentary --in the actual movie and the whole song as one of the extras on the DVD.  Cool stuff, quite relaxing.

Update: I should have some samples up next week.  I'm in the process of moving to another state.  All referb work on my Rhodes is pretty much done except for tuning (will do that before I post a recording) and some stubborn notes in the top octave that won't sustain yet.

Once I get some gear set up I'll be using my friends audio interface (motu ultra lite mkll I believe) and do some different stuff.  I'm not a great keyboard player or anything but I'll do my best, perhaps I'll have one of my friends who is quite good do some stuff too.

My Rhodes is a 1980 Mark ll suitcase top (sold the bottom). I don't have a 5 pin power supply right now so the recording will be direct off the harp.

Side note/question: I noticed that when taking the signal of my Rhodes through the accessory 1 jack that the signal seems to be hotter then when I take it right off the rca jack.  Does anyone have any similar experience?    

Gracias mi amigos...

Most likely ebay, or maybe some of the parts suppliers/restorers will have them (more expensive).

As a related question will either a 73/88 mark ll flat cover fit on the mark 1 round cover?  Any differences in the mark 1 harp cover through the years, how about the name rail?

In short, no.  It is either a 4 or 5 pin cable.  You can buy power supplies for either from the usual suspects. You can then use the preamp and vibrato.

It should also be noted that I installed new hammer tips and that the ends of all my tines are all cut nice and flat, with none that need to be filed down.

but if the tine is cut too long or short, your strike line will be off, and you'll never get a nice tone out of it.

Speaking of this, after putting in Mcmaster grommets some of the notes in the top octave (as noted by other forum members) don't sustain at all and instead just "thunk"  and some sustain a little but sound muted.  Before changing the grommets my Rhodes was already disassembled for quite a while and I really don't remember if those notes were already dead.

So I would like to swap out a tine that is for sure good to test and see if it's a tine problem or if I need to experiment with swapping old grommets/hardware, but it seems like the strike line would indeed be off.  Any thoughts?

Yeah, I didn't realize that you just got the little jar with some of the glue, just got my dampers and hammer tips from them yesterday.  I agree they should just give you the whole tube.  Should be around $5 at the hardware store for a tube though since yours dried out.

On second thought, you should probably email Vintage Vibe and tell them what happened because that's not your fault --sounds like the glue was sitting out too long or the lid wasn't on tight enough.  Either way they should credit you back some.

PM sent.

I just ordered a damper kit from them as well but it hasn't arrived yet.  It comes with the super weatherstrip and gasket glue right? Just go to the hardware store and pick up some more of the same.

So I'm returning my order from Reliable Hardware and decided to sand off the rust on my corners I already have and spray paint them a gloss black as well as the heads of the screws and the latches too.  I need to do a couple more coats tomorrow but so far it looks good and will be saving me some money. I can't believe I didn't think of this before.

Hey, just a heads up. I posted this here because you can't post unless your a moderator on the new section for generic parts (from dnarkosis' blog).  I ordered a set of 8 black corners and a bunch of silver from Reliable Hardware (the ones for the stage and suitcase tops) and they were too small. The ones from Reliable hardware are basically uniform in that all three sides measure the same, but on my Rhodes at least, the corners are different.  The two sides go out the same distance and then there is a smaller lip that goes down.

The corners from Reliable Hardware would work just fine, but being that they are smaller, you would see the old drill holes pretty easily on the sides, which looks pretty ugly to me.  

I've got cream blonde tolex and being that my corners are rusted I thought it would look good to go with black hardware.  I ordered black latches and those will work fine. I know vintagevibe sells corners in silver, but does anyone know another source for black in the correct size?

Long post, I know but it will maybe save some people the trouble of having to have a $25 minimum order from Reliable Hardware, high shipping cost, and then having to do a return.

Yes, it sounds like you're missing the damper rail rod, or dowel. It's really actually a quite simple piece. They are always on ebay, here's a link: http://cgi.ebay.com/NOS-Vintage-Fender-Rhodes-Wooden-DAMPER-RAIL-ROD_W0QQitemZ110334045006QQihZ001QQcategoryZ1289QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I don't know the exact measurements of it, but if you have the tools it would be really easy to make and save some money --shipping alone on that auction is $6 are you kidding, I'm not too happy when people charge so much to ship stuff that weighs next to nothing.

Did you also check in the suitcase bottom to make sure there is the stick of wood and spring (I think there's supposed to be a spring or something) with a cork at the top? That serves as the sustain rod.

Well, I have plenty of experience with the P120 and thought it was great for acoustic piano. Rhodes wasn't bad and clav was surprisingly good.  It has the same graded hammer action.  I don't know for sure but I think the sounds are pretty much the same minus the speakers on the p90.  Go for it, but are you getting used, because if not I wouldn't pay the money for it new, find a used one and save some cash, or find a yamaha s90 or s90es (bulkier, but better action and you get great pianos, ep's plus a decent synth).

Keep in mind that there's the old analog CX3 and the new digital one.  It may be the analog ones that you're seeing at low prices, although I'm sure either will be a better deal costwise compared to the XK3.  But I'm still curious myself about an A/B of the latest Hammond vs. Korg!

I was talking about the new CX-3, thought it would be understood since I was comparing it to the XK-3 but I probably should have clarified. I've been seeing them go at much lower prices then the xk-3 and many times they come with a road case as well making it an even better deal.

A little off subject, but has anyone gotten a chance to compare the CX-3 to the XK-3? Seems like you can get a much better deal on a used CX-3.

I realized that I said that incorrectly now. So let nme sk this.

Is there a round thick felt pad that goes on the balance rail similar to the one on the front rail? The one that goes on the guide pins on the front rail.. this big thick ones.... are there similar ones that go on top of the punchings?

Then secondly, once I have my keys all level, how do I set the key dip? If teh front rail and balance rail is set, then how? The back rail has no adjustments other than the thickness fo the backrail felt right?

The front rail felts are thicker then the balance rail felts. If you need to order balance rail felts I know vintagevibe.com sells them, you could check the others as well. They also sell the paper punchings for leveling the keys at the balance rail.

You need to read Steveo's post again, the answers are all there about adjusting key dip, but I'll repeat it: You use the same paper punchings for leveling  keys, put these on at the front rail and that will adjust key dip because once you put enough on each key it will stop the key from traveling at the height you want (about 3/8").

But make sure to follow the order as Steveo also says:

1) Level keys

2) Set key dip

3) Set escapement

Are you still looking for an amp Jazzpunk? Shouldn't be too much longer now until I get  a recording of the Deluxe to post. It may be direct from the harp until I get a 5 pin power supply -- anybody have one that they don't use anymore and wants to sell?

If you do decide on a Deluxe Reverb (or a Twin,or any of the other Fender amps that are currently reissued) I would recommend not getting a reissue simply because of two things really -

1) Sound quality, due to cheap parts that don't sound good.(Well maybe not as good).

2)  It's easier to repair a point to point wired amp. Sure any good amp tech shouldn't have any problems  working on a reissue but the old ones are easier to work on and the build quality was much better which means less problems for the most part.

I would say to look for a early 70's silverface as they are cheaper then a blackface and can sound just as good.  Take it to an amp tech and have him replace the filter caps and other electrolytic caps as well as a general tune up. If you want they can "blackface" it for cheap too. From my experience getting all that done to my Twin Reverb when I had it wasn't very expensive and was worth it.

So I've solved the problem. Last night I had only started on the first tone bar, putting the screw through the grommet first and then trying to put it in the tone bar. This morning I took one of the grommets without putting it through the screw first  and it fit fine. So yeah I feel kind of dumb once I realized that you have to put the grommet  in first and then put the screw through the grommet as the screw expands the diameter of the grommet slightly.

I'm starting on the first tone bar replacing grommets and hardware from McMaster. I order the part number listed on darknosis's blog (thanks for putting that together by the way), the part number is 9305K21, and on their site it says the diameter is 3/8"
(edit: that measurement is of the head, the actual measurement of the part that goes through the hole is 1/4")

My question is that it seems to be a really tight fit for the grommet to fit in the holes in the tone bar.  I'm wondering if this is the way it is for others that use McMaster grommets? It's actually such a tight fit that I can't even really get them through the holes.  The old grommets though obviously worn and packed down still fit through the holes quite easily.  Would it be ok to use some silicone spray to try and get them in there, or is it not supposed to be such a tight fit? Thanks for your help.

Nice...I love Robert Walter. This one isn't Rhodes, but it might be my new favorite tune by him, Kickin Up Dust: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epV31NWU-j4

Be sure to check it out in the high quality version.

Damn dude, that's fucking sick! It seriously looks awesome now with the suitcase preamp installed. I'm in love...maybe someday I'll get another Rhodes and do something similar.  Thanks for sharing.

After doing a search on this I came up with one thread but the question didn't seem to be fully answered. How important is it to have all the hammer tips be a pretty much the same height? It seems like this will directly effect the key height, correct? My key height is nice and level across the board, but right now I have all the keys out on my Rhodes so hammer tips are all  uneven, but I'll see what it's like when I put all the keys back in.

Having uneven hammers/hammer tips seems to me to effect the following:

1) Escapement clearance
2) Dynamics due to escapement (some hammer tips closer to the tines, causing unevenness in which hammers strike the tine first).
3) Anything else?

Thanks.

Ha!  I actually hadn't tried doing anything yet, waiting for your responses to proceed. Turns out like Bjammers said I could just use my thumb nail, and actually just a cloth removed it. Thanks everyone.

I did  search about cleaning tines and the most recommended answer for cleaning corroded tines was soaking a metal grade sand paper in kerosene and lightly sanding.  Is 220 grit about right, perhaps higher?

I don't have rust or corrosion on my tines, but mostly in the high traffic area some black rubber build up from the old hammer tips.  I searched for Brasso metal cleaner and only found one thing.  Anybody have any experience with Brasso?  I ask because the stock it down the street from me at the hardware shop.  Otherwise I'll just use the kerosene method.  Is tiki torch fuel kerosene, cause I've got some of that.  Thanks.

Im not sure how to control your original problem (the bounce) but I think it has to do with the bridle straps and dampers being too tight?....

That is something to consider.  I'm not sure on mine that they are too tight, but will have to examine it some more.  On mine I'm noticing most of the bouncing on the back rail, and my felts seem to be packed and worn pretty well which is why I'm hoping it will help alleviate the problem some.