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Yeah, you know- you're right.  If it isn't a full band mix I guess I do tend to record and mix it a little more spread out.  With a band recording I like to pan it away from the guitar.

Dnarkosis is a god for researching and putting up that page.

One of the best Rhodes resources on the web, period.  :!:

Seriously, man- I ordered grommets from the rubber manufacturer Darknosis posted a link to- ten bucks for 200.  They got here in two days and they're identical.

Yeah, Jim- it's at the end of the "post your Rhodes" thread.  Man, I'm really loving the cream and red.  What does it remind me of?  Some kind of ice cream bar.

Look forward to your pics.

I forgot- I put all the black hardware on.  It's slowly turning silver from the road.

I love The Red Lady more than anything in the world.  I got her off ebay a couple of years ago from a guy in Long Island who had not idea what the value of this completely cherry '79 Stage 88 was.  450 bucks.

I did the red tolex myself last summer.  I haven't really had to replace anything.  The grommets could probably use a swapout.  I adusted the strike line and tuned and voiced it and soldered the cable off the harp straight to the output, bypassing the pots.

I gig a lot, usually 3 or 4 times a week and I'm on the road a lot.  I've never had an instrument that feels like a friend before and I feel at home when I'm behind her on stage.

I'm like the rest of you guys.  I'm happiest with the harp cover off and some tools near by, just tweaking by the hour.

Long live The Red Lady.

Wow, that is really cool.  I love the red cheekblocks.  My Rhodes tolex is red but the harpcover is still black.  Red would look awesome.

However I record my Rhodes I always find that the best rule of thumb is to treat it like an electric guitar- it's a passive instrument with pickups.  When I first got it I tended to record it very clean and spread out because I'd track an acoustic piano that way.  

Now I keep it tightly identified in one area of the stereo spectrum whether I mic an amp or take it direct through a tube pre.

I do tend to boost 1-2 and 10 Khz fairly hard on the board on the way in and pull out some of the mud at around 200-300 hz at mixdown.

Hey, I really love the idea of mic'ing the harp.  I'm going to definitely try that.

"Yoko Ono debuting The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964"??

?

I missed that.

Dude, just get a Kawai synth with weighted keys before you have a coronary.

:twisted:  :twisted:

Seriously, I had to bid on at least 10 Rhodes until I got mine.  Ebay's weird; sometimes you just get lucky.  People stop bidding on pianos that have a part missing that is easy to locate.

This has happened to me a couple of times while the piano was in transit.  I just took off the namerail at the gig and took out and replaced the sticking keys.  They went back in fine.

Wow, that looks badass.  Mono out, tolexed analog heaven.  I've never heard of Monacor.  Were they like Monaco's number one reverb manufacturer?

It sort of looks like it belongs with a Rhodes.

Wintemper is interesting- appreciate you mentioning it.  Do you use a certain preset?  Do you know if there is one that represents the holy grail of Stretch Tuning?  Thanks---------

I've been running my '79 Stage 88 through a Dynacomp, Seymour Duncan pickup booster, Small Stone Nano phaser, Danelectro tremolo and Boss EH-2 enhancer into a small Mackie board.  One side of the stereo out feeds a JBL Eon 15 on stage and the other gets DI'd to the house.  Sometimes I feed the house through a SansAmp Bass DI, sometimes a tube pre.  I'm still looking for the right thing.  Next thing I want to try is the Boss FDR-1, a stompbox that emulates a '65 Deluxe Reverb.

I like a big, clean sound on stage, though, as opposed to a tube amp.  Monitoring-wise, it's easier to find myself onstage amongst all the overdriven guitar if the Rhodes is clean.  I'm the singer too, so I buss my vocal through the Eon onstage too.  Headroom for days.

Out front they can grime it up all they want- they have my blessing.

That's awesome, Dan.  Yeah, I remember reading that the classic Steely Dan Rhodes tone was through an MXR.

Anyone ever try one of these on a Rhodes?  They sound awesome on guitars.  25dB of, as far as I can tell, uncolored boost.  I want to give one a try with my '79 Stage 88.

I've used the Danelectro tremolo pedal on stage a lot.  it was futzing on me for a couple of gigs but I resoldered the input and output and it's fine.

I've been trying the Electroharmonix Nano Small Stone for phase and really liking it.  It sounds like the Rhodes on Donald Fagen's "Nightfly"- I can't stop playing the one-note intro to "Green Flower Street.

That is one amazing Rhodes album.

O.K., I apologize in advance for being the uncoolest among all you rippin' improvisors by posting this.  Really nice stuff, everybody.  I'm offering up my Rhodes in its capacity as an amazing accompanying instrument in a late-night runthrough of (of course) "Rainy Days And Mondays".

Forgive the tired voice- I'd just come off 5 nights of shows.

Oh- '79 Stage 88.  Recorded direct through a TMP-1 tube pre to disk with a tiny bit of chorus and verb.

http://www.4shared.com/file/11299082/2020ee8b/Rainy_Days_And_Mondays.html[/img]

Anyone try one of these yet?  I'm curious.  They're like 80 bucks and they have the "color" switch.

I've got one of those and I've been kicking it across stages for the last year.  It's holding up fine.  I like the sound and it has a "hard tremolo" setting that's great for guitar.

I'm fourteen again.

Did anyone notice that the drummer has a bass drum for a floor tom?

worst case you have to get a bunch of parts.  Bridle straps?  

Heads up- there aren't any leg crossbraces.

That was beautiful.  Beautifully put.  And then to cap it off with a Kierkegaard quote.  You know, I was never a big Buy American guy but in recent years I've really come around as all the Chinese manufactured stuff has been gaining a foothold in our music gear marketplace.  I can't imagine how hard it must be for a smaller American manufacturer.

I strongly suspect, although I don't own any of it yet (but definitely will), that the vintage vibe preamp line is the utter bomb.

One of the biggest reasons I started playing a Rhodes in the first place was that I couldn't see much that could happen to it on the road that I couldn't fix on the spot with a good selection of spare stuff and a tool or two.  If my Kawai or whatever decided not to light up on any given night in Maine or New York I'd be toast.

The point of this is that I imagine if you bought a vintage vibe pre you'd be buying some real customer support with it, too.  And you'd be getting a box that was solid and gave you a good, safe feeling on the road.  For me, coupled with the fact that you're helping a small American business by buying value for dollar, that's what it's all about.

And I'm totally not on the payroll.

Hey Alex-  yeah, this is customized.  They only made them in black originally although it looks like those new (?) Mark VII's come in some different colors, red included.

Hey, I recovered my '88 in red tolex recently and I saw a couple of websites that sold actual checkered "Cheap Trick" textured tolex.  I'd link the site but I can't find it right now.  It's out there.

I did a retolex on my '79 Stage 88 a couple of months ago.  The two screws on the ends hold the entire assembly in to the case, and the two in the middle hold the plate to which you affix the leg supports.  Careful with those outer two screws- how the assembly sits in the case is pretty crucial to alignment.  I had to try a couple of times to get it to sit properly.

Whiny- I've had good luck with the silicone stuff when it comes to the squeeks and squawks of the damper mechanism.

Less so in my private life.

Can you guys argue and bitch some more?  That was hilarious.  Especially the admin blowing his stack.

Thanks guys--

No kidding Ray- when I got this 88 last year the pedal was new-looking.  Will definitely get that powder coat.  Good luck w/ the vintage.  Pics.

I did build a "sled" sort of thing with removable casters and padding also covered in the red tolex.

The red really pops.  I was leaning towards something really messed-up like the orange or the da-glo green but my wife was like "I'll like that as much as I liked it when your hair was orange."

And that was very little indeed.

Sorry anyone else who isn't getting the pictures- probably my bad HTML.

Just finished retolexing my '79 Mark I '88.  Looks amazing on stage, especially if I dress in red and black.

I certainly have my priorities straight for modern music, huh?

yeah, it sounds great too.









New black hardware on it too.  Wasn't easy, wasn't cheap, but worth every hour and dollar.  Took a lot of sanding and filling- I took off some wood when I pulled off the 17-year-old tolex.

I don't have to tell you guys what a blast this project was...next time I'll go orange.  Long live Rhodes.  Playing synths onstage is like punishment compared to this thing.  People think I'm crazy for lugging it around but I'm just a slave to Cool.  Again- I know I don't have to explain that here.  We all have to herniate a disk here and there in this life.  Plus, the numbness in my left leg means I can do great party tricks with needles.

Someone referred to their Rhodes somewhere on the forum as their "Black Lady".  I thought that rocked.  It's so beautifully '70's.  This is my "Red Lady".

one or two Alicia Keys videos have a Mark I 73 in them.

Man, it looks great.  A really cherry-looking Rhodes like that really reminds you what a sexy piece of engineering it is.  Loved the sample.  Nice playing, nice phasing.

Awesome, man.  That's exactly what I needed to know.  Really appreciate it.

Hey gang- I want to recover my '79 Mark I 88.  Does anyone know how much tolex I need to buy?  Looks like it's generally sold by the yard in 54" increments.  Remember- it's an 88-key.

Appreciate it!