Messages

The last tremolo option from ehx:

http://www.ehx.com/products/super-pulsar

Any opinions about it?

I would also love to ear a rhodes throught one of these:

http://www.ehx.com/products/b9

http://www.ehx.com/products/c9

They also seem to have a new uni-vibe:

http://www.ehx.com/products/good-vibes

Too many pedals I´d like to get, too little money 

What about the last one in the market, the super pulsar from ehx?

http://www.ehx.com/products/super-pulsar

The tittle says it all... Maybe this has been discussed before. Yesterday I noticed Thomann is selling some of the Vintage Vibes pianos online. Good news for rich europeans around

http://www.thomann.de/gb/vintage_vibe.html

What about the tanglewood amps? They are said to be a decent copy of the AER, at a very reduced price...

[in]

As all the other options to get an stereo in and out panner are terrible expensive, I decided to try the behringer tp300. And I have to say that used with a proper power unit, it is pretty good, almost noiseless. I payed 20 euros for it, wich is dirty cheap. I don´t like behringer stuff, this pedal in example is made of plastic, but I know I´m not going to step on it, so it is ok

I find the last video very interesting. I don´t know if you are right about this, but I´ll check it in my rhodes, thanks!

I can show you one almost as ugly as this one:

http://www.hispasonic.com/anuncios/piano-rhodes-mark-ii/291127

Not cheap either...

I´m very interested in the answers that the gurus around here could offer to Garyrhodes ask

And sorry, I just don´t undestand The Real MC answer

I would love to try one of those:

http://www.rockshop.de/en-es/products/21250?department=keys&category=accessories&subcategory=monitors202f

As we are a new company any feedback you would like to give would be really appreciated.

I´m missing tines and pickups between your products.

If possible, I would like to see prices in euros aswell

Ufff! what an expensive adiction this rhodes thing is...

I guess I´ll better get a mxr stereo tremolo then...

Maybe somebody can help me about this:
Could this one be fitted to my Stage 73? Would I get an stereo tremolo out of it? Is this one suppossed to be a Peterson preamp or what?
So many doubts 
Thanks

WOW!
What is this called, Bossa-funk or what?
Anyway I love it, thanks for the link.

I understand all the VST loving. It was my first approach. But setting all ready on stage, was a nightmare for me.
I specially remember an autumn outside gig, with cold-wet weather, and my mac laptop (with mainstage, and the best Native Instruments software) tied on top of a drum case, attached to the controller (plus the footswitch) and to the amp. Then small raindrops started to fall. I unplugged something to start covering things, so I got this nice Mac -PEH!!!- to the P.A. All the arena could ear it. Oh boy :´(

I own the spd4-74, and gig with it. I´m not a keyboardist, just a sax player having to play keyboard parts in some songs.

That said, I think it is a terrible value for money.

It has a LOT of usefull sounds, in fact, everybody says it is a PC-3 engine with less controllers on top. It can be boring and time consuming, but I still haven´t found a keys sound I can´t mimic with it (in a live situation, that´s it). If you like tweking with sounds and parameters live, this keyboard will leave you unsatisfied. If you just need a sound and a couple of parameters to modify during the song, you will enjoy it.

Nice electric pianos, nice hammonds, good synths, usable piano sounds... Kurzweil is also doing very good work giving costumer support, new sounds etc.

It is very light, and very space saving. Sturdy metal body. And best of all terrible cheap
Only down side till now, my sustain pedal is not working any more. After some erratic behaviour I got a yamaha one, and throw away the original one.

Also, after trying it on a shop, I would recomend buying the sp4-8 if you can. The key action is MUCH better. sp4-7 is ok but not great.

That said, mine goes to gigs, and sleeps in our rehearsal room. It is not coming home any more. Since I own a mk-1 is the only thing I want to play

The Real MC, you are probably right, and I plan to doing so in the future. But right now I´m taking time from some other important things, to put my rhodes in good shape. Ungluing the hammer felts, and gluing new felt in the key pedestals sounds like a pretty time comsuming task. I´ll do it but in the future.
Pianotuner Steveo, I agree with you these bumps are simply at the edge, not in the ideal point at all. I plan changing their location, but I´ll wait and do it all at the same time. Right now I´m cleaning the tines, giving the same scapement, volume and tone to all the keys, and then tuning. Things are going nice but slow.

Thanks to everybody for your helpfull advices

Sorry Bjammerz, I tried to take this picture for you, but I couldn´t get the proper angle
I agree with you about the thick of the pick reducing the effect of the bump.

I´m quite tired lately, so my english is even worst than usual 

Sorry, once again giant pics:

In this one you can see the first and second felts in the hammers have get deformed by the bumps (I referred to this as gapes, maybe grooves is the proper english word?). Also the guitar picks in the key pedestals, behind the bumps:



Detail of a guitar pick added to a key pedestal, beside one undamaged pick





Why did I made this? I thought that a smooth surface on the key pedestals would improve the action. I had those picks laying around, so I become a mad scientific The delrin really improved the action, but as I said, the dinamics are wrong now on these keys. Simple tape over the key pedestals works just right.

Hi, I just wanted to share how things are going
After removing the left side shim, i used a lubricant with teflon on the hammer felts and keypins. Lubricating the felts was quite hard. I did it with a simple toothbrush, full of lubricant. I can happily say that my action is now much faster.

To answer to bjammerz and bjammerz, you are probably right, the mod bumps probably were not factory installed. But since the felts have now developed "gapes" where the bumps are, and it doesn´t feel like much double striking is happening at all, I will leave them as they are for now.

I also used adhesive tape over the key pedestals as somebody suggested here in the forum, and I think it also helped to make things go faster. As an experiment, I cuted some delrin picks of 0.46 and installed them in some keys. Delrin is very smooth, and self lubricated. I used Jim Dunlop picks, 0.46 thick. These keys work very fast, but the dinamics become affected, strong playing does not sound nice...

Thanks again everybody

Yes, but maybe the samples are "cooked" with some reverb to make it sound smoother or whatever...

Thanks for answering Camaro guy. That silicone lubricant, when I make an order to Vintage Vibes will be on top of the list.

bjammerz, the action seemed harder on the left side, and there are no sticky keys, I fixed them.
My Rhodes does already have the "miracle mod bump modification" installed. I suspect it has it from the factory, but I might be wrong. The red plastic bumps are installed just at the end of the key pedestal. My felts are in the hammers.
So as you suggested, I completly removed the left side shim. Not it as become a lot easier to play, and I´m quite happy with it. Now I think I have a little sluggish action, but I´m not going to make questions yet. First I´ll try to use the search bottom, and then, maybe I´ll be back Thanks for your help!

Hemm...
Bu the way, sorry for the big pictures, I thought they would (magically) become smaller once posted...
Still, I think you can see them by pushing the mouse wheel sideways.

Hi, My name is Jorge, I´m from Spain.

After a long time wanting it, I finally own a Rhodes, an Stage Mark I of the year 1976 (I think). I´m loving the piano and its beautiful sound. I´m in the process of reading as much as I can, to restorate it, and make it fully playable. So, I´m afraid I´ll have a lot of question in the future for you people...

Ok, first problem I have, is the action. Is so hard that it is ridiculous. I´ve only played an electronic keyboard till now, and I believe that a rhodes will, by its own nature, be harder. But that thing is crazy. I almost can´t play a note with my pinkie.

So, I tried to see if the escapement distance was right. Without proper tools to measure it, and according to the service manual, the scapement seems to be too high. I´m not sure, because it is a difficult task to insert a rule between the tone bars, keep one key depressed, and looking sideways to read the distance.

So I tried to reduce the scapement by turning the "adjustable coil springs". I did it in middle C to middle F. That helped a lot, now these keys are easier to play. But the height of the tone bar assembly to the tone bar rail is now really short. I´m far away from the "factory setting" (3/8" or 9.52 mm) and more likeky a lowered position (3/16" or 4.76).



In this picture, you can see six of the tone bars lower than the rest, these are the ones I adjusted. They look very low, don´t they?

The service manual says you can adjust the scapement also by "adding or sustracting shims from the harp supports". What does it mean, I don´t know. But looking at the harp I noticed the particle board over the aluminium harp support is very damaged:

Right side:


Left side:



That´s probably due to lifting the harp without care. Am I right thinking this damaged particle board is the so called "shims from the harp supports"? Are these damaged boards the reason why my action is so hard? Would a slimer particle board make it easier to play the piano? If so, what should I replace it with?

One last question: As others pointed out, the action of the piano is softer when the sustain pedal is pussed, due to the relaxed bridle strap. Would I get a softer action by changing my damper arms for the ones vintage vibes offer?

Ok, that´s it for now. I know I make a lot of questions, sorry. Any help will be very wellcome

The real rhodes is the winner for me. I can´t explain why, it sounds less clean, but still I preffer it. Speacially the intro with the bass notes, I think it probably was harder to play in the rhodes, but I think it has more character. Second comes the scarbee, which is ok. I don´t specially like the nord, too much reverb in it.

Amazing playing man!