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Very interesting. 

I don't think the steel wool thingy caused a short (there is no electricity there), I guess it is either disturbing the magnetic field or touching the tine's tip and disturbing its vibration.

Well....my tines are grounded from the aluminium tape under the blocks....and the pickup circuit as a whole will eventually run up to the 'main ground' (sic) to make the audio circuit...

But, what I don't know,now you've got me thinking about it, is whether the magnet/nipply bit of the pickup is actually wired into the pickup circuit, or that the coil is wrapped around it with insulation between? I'm guessing you're suggesting the latter?

Just wondering if anyone has considered or does leave their damper arm engaged when the piano is not being played?

I've just been through a full felt replacement and now I am back to putting it all together. As I reached back to disengage the dampers by hand for the 100th time...or was it when I was looking at the heavily indented old felts for the 100th time...or was it when I read my 100th "how and when to service your rhodes" articles....not sure, but either way it hit me: surely resting firmly against the tine 23 hours a day is degrading these felts more than the hour each day that they come off and on the tine repeatedly while playing?

Thoughts?

Started cleaning my dampers and hammers tonight ahead of replacing. Pictured are my 'first slice' clean cut removals. Neither are super clean.

The felts seem to have been attached with a somewhat messy glue, but they might be candidates for acetone or thinner if required (have to check aluminium reactions) but I wouldn't think this residue should effect the new felts much?

As for the hammers, chemicals are obviously out. The hammers themselves sit kinda unevenly anyway, so I would think a little bit of residue would be lost in the noise, but happy to be corrected.

Advice appreciated!

Thought the following might give some of you a laugh - I'd be pleased to hear if anyone else had created this situation before, but I suspect it might be a world first!

I've been servicing up my MK1, replacing grommets and springs, and looking at the other key variables.

Starting to put it back together tonight, I am hearing a strange buzz on (of all keys!) my middle C. It sounds more electrical than vibrational, but it's on the borderline - thing is, I haven't really touched the pickups - mostly just a reseating of tines and tonebars at this stage...then I take a closer look...



With the flashlight showing it up, it's pretty obvious, but this ultrafine piece of steel wool I used to buff up some corrosion on the tine obviously got caught in the tuning spring, with some of the fibre then sucked onto the pickup magnetically!

This was resulting in a short to ground (I think?) as the vibrated over the point where the two stands of steel wool touched.

What a ridiculous self induced issue to encounter - thankfully one that didn't take too long to diagnose at least.

Just came across a very old thread where Sean referenced an animation of the Rhodes action to help illustrate 'braking', but they lamented that it was no longer available online.

This seemed like it would be very helpful for me, so I did some digging with they archive.org WayBackMachine - the captured history seems to be fully functional - informative for me and hopefully for others too:

https://web.archive.org/web/20101124221621/https://www.keyboardmuseum.com/v_teach/rhodestone.html

In some cases, the first 4 tonebars right from the right harp bracked will have medium springs on BOTH screws. The intend seems to be because these 4 tones use the somewhat softer white hammertips.

This probably saves me getting on my hands and knees looking for light springs...as I get to the last ten or so tonebars I was thinking I was missing a few!

The average distance between the bottom of the tonebar and the wood of the harp should be 9,5mm (= thickness of the square tine bolt). Looking at the pic, most of them seem to be too low.

Jenzz

Thanks mate, that's a very helpful rule of thumb....but how will I align my list tonebar when I have used up all my tine blocks?! ....jokes, I have *almost* the right thing for the job.

[is this correct?]

I am in the process of replacing the screws and grommets of my MK1 73. I have some questions:

• I ordered a number of the stronger bass springs from vintage vibe - these are referred to as 'back springs' by VV. I assume this means the spring furthest from the pickups - is this correct?
• I had been carefully keeping the springs in the same positions/on the same bars as they were originally, but last night there was a small accident and about ¬30 tonebars went out of order and some lost their springs. This has caused me to pay a bit more attention to the tightness of the existing springs (when referencing the keys that weren't jumbled up!). I am noticing that my treble keys have two different springs - a light spring at the 'back' and a heavier spring 'at the front'. This heavier spring seems to be the similar to the mid range springs, if not the same. I've never seen any reference to differential springs before, and based on the above, where the heavier bass spring goes at the 'back' the orientation of the light and heavier spring seems at least 'backwards'. Any advice here?
• Is there any guidance on general tonebar spring tightness? It seems pickup alignment can be achieved across quite a range of turns, ie: I can achieve alignment, then tighten each screw a half turn, and have that alignment back, and another half turn and so on. I realised that I had tightened my new bass springs to the point they were completely compressed, which doesn't seem like a good idea to me, but I imagine too loose would be a problem, too. I've attached a photo of current state, noting I have not done fine adjustments top to bottom yet.

Also, based on your grommet picture they likely do need to be replaced sooner rather than later. If you've already gone this far its probably better to do them and the screws now.

I thought you might say that, and I think I will.

Any thoughts on the aluminium tape, the tonebar springs themselves?

What is your opinion on the tonebar clips?

...but if your tines were angled slightly then the previous owner likely moved the pickups so that they would have the proper volume...

Why wouldn't they straighten the tines on the tonebar? I was planning on doing that in a few cases.

Thanks mate, that's helpful.

I wouldn't say I am familiar with the sound of my rhodes enough to be attached to it - I am very out of practice and haven't really touched any of my gear for many years - getting the band back together, as it were, at the moment.

I've never really found myself getting any of the signature sounds that clearly - be it the bell like tinkle or the mushier, spine tingling sustain of a flatter sounding piano, or the bark  - I've recently found myself more likely to go to a Rhodes VST or Kontakt sampled version when noodling about, which is never a good sign. Probably OK to reseat everything


As for the grommets, I don't think they are original - they are very pliant and bouncy....but I can see some that are sitting unevenly - a bit like a squashed pillow. Trying to find a pic, it seems like they have relieved themselves somewhat now that they are no longer under pressure, but you can see in this one, the grommet has started to 'hug' the tonebar a bit.

[questions]

I've decided to open up my 'good' condition Mark 1 and give it a bit of a service - something that is new to me, but I am familiar with electrical and being 'handy', and I've been doing lots of reading in recent days.

I've broken my piano's current state and questions into sections - this probably means that I am sort of asking some questions in multiple spots.....sorry, my brain is weird and I struggle to remain succinct - appreciate you making the effort to read and advice:

Pickups

• I am pretty sure I have 'picked up' (get it?) that the pickups should be adjusted after the tines and tonebars have been placed, by moving the pickups forward and back. Is that correct?
• Should the pickups first be 'squared' to the frame? A few of my pickups are at slightly odd angles, with a few really obviously skewed out - I assume these should all be more or less straight and more or less evenly spaced up the piano?
• Is there a standard spacing between pickups? I likely have some spacers or feelers if I know the right measure.

Tines and tonebars

I think I'm across vertical alignments, and I know we want to have the tine horizontally centred on the pickup, but:
   

• How important is the centring of the tone bar itself? I've more or less been  trying this but the dog leg in the bass tines is giving me a bit of confusion and obviously the treble tines are so wide...so it shouldn't matter for them?
• A few of my tines gave quite sharp angled ends - but they are in tune. Not sure if this is just sloppy trimming from the previous owner, or maybe they broke. Does it matter, as long as its in tune and sounds consistent with the rest of the piano?
• One of my tonebars was installed upside down (number facing down). Does that make any difference or is there any reason it might have been that way?
• The letters 'ST' are written on pickup 9's bracket and 'NP' are written pickup 71's bracket. Any idea what this means?

Grounding

• I've heard tonebar grounding can help with EMF. Very few of my tonebars return to ground, even though my tape aluminium looks intact. (I *think* - see pic)
• From what I can tell, the only way the tonebar and tine can get to ground is via the spring where it is in contact with the tape, and the other end where it is in contact with the tonebar - doesn't seem like a very resilient connection to me?
• Would the inconsistent grounding likely be corrosion on the springs? Or the corrosion on the tonebar itself stopping my meter getting a read? Both?
• Should I be able to detect ground on any pickups lower than the highest pickups, which are directly series wired to ground? I can't.

   
Corrosion

• I have
  
  • Very minor white corrosion on the tonebars.
  • Moderate white corrosion on the tine blocks
  • Moderate green corrosion on some tuning springs
  • Moderate white corrosion and early rust on the harp frame and RCA angle bracket.
• I've gathered this is mostly a cosmetic issue. The lid is going back on, so I don't want to spend time scrubbing or spend money replating unless there's a real benefit.
• Is there anything else I should consider either in terms of resonance or conductivity?

   
Potential replacement parts

• I live in Australia so Vintage Vibe costs and shipping aren't great, but I'd probably consider redoing the springs, screws and grommets. Maybe the tonebar clips.
• A few of my bass tines move around 'in circles' when hit - I couldn't quite tell if this is the 'figure eight' issue I've read about.
• A few of my adjustment screws introduce significant left and right movement - but they look straight to me.
• A few of my bass tonebars have two springs on them - I guess this was a previous owner trying to deal with short/weak springs.
• I only have one tonebar clip and its placed really high - I can't quite tell if its making that much of a difference at C#8 or whatever the note is. Do people really rate these?

Based on the above, or anything else what should I be looking/listening for to see if new parts are worthwhile?