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[^^^^As for this guy^^^^]

Lots of valid information here!
Guys and gals- with the amount of boost pedals available today its cheap enough to buy and try- figure out what works best for you - call it a day! Live and be well, go make some music!

for what its worth those MXR 10 Band EQ pedals are great for boosting/eq and dish out unique tone shaping.
Beware there is a point where excess boost creates unwanted microphonics- I've found this to occur with any pedal that adds gain/distortion.

Wow, a lot of smart guys on this post for real. For the rest of us dummies who are looking for the real deal tube clean boost, I can only suggest the best Clean boost available. Whether it be for the Rhodes (Tine Bomb) installed in the piano  or guitar ( Tube Bomb) in a stomp box  you will not find a better suited clean boost. To this day, I have never met anyone who did not rave about it.  It started out as Rhodes boost pedal but is quickly turning guitar players on all over the world.  We sell this at a very fair price, for those who do not wish to DIY with transistors caps and resistors-

http://www.vintagevibe.com/products/fender-rhodes-stage-tine-bomb-pre-amp?variant=899477483

^^^^As for this guy^^^^
With the amount of pedals on the market- you nor anyone else can claim your product is the "best" There is no best its about personal preference, debate it all you like, there is no victor when personal preference is concerned.   For the record I looked at this "Tube Bomb" and Frankly sir its a "Time Bomb" as there is no ventilation for heat to escape!
At what point of operation does the tube or other electronics inside your sealed box suffer from heat or create noise?
Electronics operate best when cooled, cool or tepid at best, not sealed and baked.

For the record, Every tube product I've seen in the last 20+ years may it be a tube amp or gizmo has some sort of ventilation or cooling fan.

Good luck!

[Just do the yarn.]

Just do the yarn.
It doesn't suck to do.. Takes a couple hours or less one time and yarn is a valid  tested method which works.
Just do it the right way.

The whole gel thing is intriguing. Having worked on other vintage keys with that nasty black or blue goo inside and seeing how this stuff degrades overtime makes me stick to how it was done before. Maybe in 10 years I'd contemplate using it.

[Do not]

I very much hate to say this but it seems you have unknowingly fallen into an absolute endless pit of problems & reworking. Along with many other people here.  "Zeroing" a piano is a ton of re-work. if your piano worked before but had some issues, it likely needed certain things replaced and many other things adjusted or tweaked. Now that you have zeroed every setting with a new part or a turn of a screw thus changing all the settings which sort of worked- you have to go and tweak & redial the entire instrument for it to function right.

What was wrong with the original felts that justified replacing them? Generally speaking damper felts don't expire.
Unless the felt has decomposed or frayed apart its likely still good and the actual damper itself requires tinkering to make it function right.
 
Replacing the felts will not resolve dampening issues. (Sorry folks, flame me all you want) The chances of every damper felt being bad is slim to none.  Replacing all the felts makes dampening issues 100% worse- its like wiping the operating system off your computer which once worked sort of but needed a few tweaks.

After dealing with a re-felted piano a couple of weeks ago I discovered the aftermarket felts are also too hard in comparison to the originals (surprise) and create this insipid chiff noise which you can't dial out.  Once you hear this noise it will drive you mad! And its something that just became an unwanted part of that pianos voice.

As for hammer tips, if the original tips aren't cracked, grooved or crystallized (hard) there is no reason to change them. If the tips are grooved- depending on the year Rhodes you can remove the tip and turn it (again if the tip isn't cracked or crystallized). (in rhodes service manual btw) If you absolutely need to replace a tip make sure its the same style tip. Use a fresh razor or utility knife and cut the tip off. Sometimes you can grab them by hand or with a small pair of pliers and yank them right off clean.  You will need a razor to scrape the detritus off to make a flat and clean gluing surface. Do not use solvent like acetone,  alcohol etc to clean off the hammer, it will melt the plastic hammers, loosen bridle strap glue etc. nightmare.

The E6000 glue works great it is rather fumey!
You need to apply that glue to a very clean surface, dirt,fuzz and old glue seems to get in its way of solidifying entirely.
I've noticed it also can re solidify old glue and it doesn't play nice with other glues. Loctite 380 works better for gluing hammer tips, it sets up much faster and bonds well rubber to wood or rubber to plastic.


Post some pics, maybe we spot something that needs tweaking.


Good luck.
Al.

Fabulous score!  For some seriously proper Wurlitzer parts and whatnot give Retrolinear a call.
Last year they did a 200A for a local Phila studio my band was cutting tracks at.  That wurli was F**kin spot on perfect (excuse my french) Now if I could just get the studio to sell me that Wurli!!!!!


Al.

in 1 year
12 Months
52 Weeks
365 Days



33rd week of 1971 sir

Although the sticker is a good amount on the listing, it's in pretty nice condition and one of the few I've seen with the original preamp intact.

It has a peterson installed, not a Jordan, with the later suitcase style knobs too.
From what one can see in the pictures it appears they failed to use bi-polar caps in the rebuilding of that preamp. Also they didn't fully re-cap the Peterson.
Those polarized caps will not last too long with the positive/negative voltage swing- maybe 10-20 hours of use before they pop.
is it really safe to advertise as "Fully Restored" ?

From the auction:
"For sale is this vintage 1964 Fender Rhodes Student Seventy Three piano. Incredibly rare in this GOLD sparkle/split pedestal configuration, it also happens to be in very excellent cosmetic condition and perfect working order. Completely restored and recently serviced by Luke over at Custom Vintage Keyboards, this Rhodes piano is undoubtedly the best working gold sparkle example in existence. A new custom preamp was thoughtfully installed to achieve the quintessential Rhodes Suitcase dual-speaker tremolo panning. So not only does it look absolutely incredible, it sounds better than the most Rhodes keyboards. Do not miss out on this opportunity to own possibly the rarest variant of and Rhodes piano. Please note that this keyboard can be shipped Worldwide!"

Great info guys thanks! Ok, so with all this in mind i reckon its pretty safe to go ahead and chop my harp VV style, though i'll somehow need to add a couple of extra supports as they have coming up from the keybed to meet the underneath of the wood...unless instead i could get a new triangular harp frame made from aluminium instead which would ensure theres no flexing in the new reduced size harp.

Is there a reason nobody else has done this to their Rhodes? I would have thought everyone would be on this now seeing as its not complex to do, seemingly is safe to do and everyone wants a lighter rhodes right!?

I bet good money that if you hack up your Rhodes the result wont be a good one. Don't do it and don't get enchanted with pixy dust and magical beans.
Nobody likely drills holes and hogs out material because after some thought one realizes its not worth it.

Accept it! Rhodes are heavy and sound like like they do because of how they are built and what they're built of. It is what it is! A vintage heavy instrument with a great sound.
If you seek a light weight instrument why contemplate a rhodes anyway? Everything associated with the Rhodes is heavy and has lasted so long because its solid, robust and not built like S**T

Putting that aside what would be the real weight savings?
You spend hours/days "lightening" your piano. What would the savings in weight be 10-15lbs?  Call it 20lbs.
Would it be worth disassembling your piano, messing with every setting and then having to reset it to loose off 20lbs?
No imo.

If the harp material was trival Rhodes/CBS would have used cheaper grade plywood or low grade pine. Generally speaking in many instruments, especially stringed instruments mass = sustain/resonance and tone. Imagine a les paul with 100 holes drilled into it? Well gibson did that and many folks dislike those instruments over the non-swiss cheesed versions, even the ES-335 designed as a semi hollow still has a center block for sustain/mass.  Even the VV guys have boasted in the past here on this forum about how good wood is and having it makes for good sound. Strangely enough seeing the inside of the VV piano and after reading their praise of wood is good I was surprised to see the cookie cutter approach. I guess it works for the VV piano, but a VV piano isn't a rhodes-  So removing mass, weakening a strong frame on a big heavy object- uh-

Get a nice hand truck if you have to move that thing

Sorry to be so objective but "good god man drilling holes isn't the answer"

A strong recommendation would be to NOT post any of your solid files! Someone could easily go into business with what your doing here, its happened before on other forums where "DIY" recipes were posted and people with no morals just copy/paste and put the stuff into production leaving you stuck high and dry while they cash in. Good work though I tinker with solidworks from time to time its a difficult program to operate!

Nice work

call Tim over at Retrolinear, their hammer tips are spot on!  Tell them Albert (Al)  sent you over


good luck!!!

With today's manufacturing regulations & costs producing a proper Wurli-Reissue would be a logistical nightmare. It would cost a fortune to replicate and one would want something par with the original wurli, or better.   To execute a reissue the costs would be astronomic.  The in-house part production & assembly line method these vintage instruments were built on doesn't exist anymore anywhere.. Those epic old-school factories with minions of workers making parts on-site with fine precision/quality control all under 1 roof-  That's a rarity in today's day and age.  All the processes needed to execute a reissue- I'd guestimate costs per unit around $6-9K, after you get done paying for all the tooling, castings, plastic work, electronics and the man-hours required to assemble it and that price probably still wouldn't cover the costs.    Lucky for us you can fix originals!  Parts are available.  And too boot there will always be one on craigslist, ebay, or someone has one and they can't figure out how to dispose of it quick enough..

The Stage sustain pedals need to have weight to them..  You want a rock solid footing that isn't going to shift during use..  Spring for a real one off the bay or You can order a sustain pedal from CAE sound that's cast aluminum as it should be with a nice sustain rod.

I can't suggest the VV pedal,  folks its too light in weight, it shifts around very easily on the floor.. Especially on hardwood or tile flooring...

[it's crazy]

After some research out of sheer curiosity, I have to say that making a Wurli reed out of a feeler gauge is, well - I can't express this any other way, it's crazy, my apologies, but no gain is obtained in rolling your own here. Its okay to want to save some coin, the economy sucks right now- very understandable but if you are taking the time to repair your vintage instrument  why not do it right?

Making a reed from this gauge even with a Dremel or even if you had access to a CNC/milling machine is just not worth it.
$20 for the right part isn't really steep. A properly produced part from folks who have obviously spent some big $$$ to make the parts for us DIY'ers. supports the DIY community. (agree with Max on that)

Again my apologies- I just don't see the logic in this process. Time is money..

I dearly hope folks do not embrace this.
Sorry - this is not the right way to fix sacred vintage equipment.

[Before modding, what year piano do you have? A few minutes research on your piano will get you sailing in the right direction.]

Why not just order them from VV?

1. Depending on the production year & keys you might or might not need to bump mod.
Later pianos do not require the bump at all, the bump is integrated into the later hammers.
Just a preemptive for the naysayers: Sure you can install the bumps on any piano,
you can likely bank on the bump creating a mess of action issues for later pianos.
(Turn your pianos action into a bouncy trampoline like mess!)

2. The VV bump is 1 size.   One can run the risk of that size not being the right one, thus leading to potential action issues...

3. You can get half round styrene strip for $2 at just about any hobby store, in many sizes, and figure out which size works best in the piano.

4. You can get very good quality pedestal felt from Schaff.



Before modding, what year piano do you have? A few minutes research on your piano will get you sailing in the right direction.

Good luck
Al.

[DO NOT SPRAY CONTACT CLEANER INTO POTS!]

Before proceeding with anymore repairs - Get a good soldering iron w/ variable temp control,  De-soldering wick, decent solder (60/40 Kester)  wet sponge/tip cleaner (can use a soap-less brass or copper brill scrub pad) Its more than easy enough to destroy 30+ year old plastic & components with too much heat. You can't keep re-working the same stuff over and over, one can easily "Pay the price"..... Its much better to fix it right once..

A good rule to remember- DO NOT SPRAY CONTACT CLEANER INTO POTS! Yes it will clean the potentiometer, BUT it will also dissolve all the lube inside the pot/fader! This puts the wiper right against the carbon wafer inside, it wont operate smoothly, will likely still crackle and will wear out twice as fast with the removal of lube, leaving you in a pickle..

For pots/faders clean with>>   http://store.caig.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.293/.f     that stuff is invaluable..
For electromechanical connections like jacks/plugs standard evaporating contact cleaner is fine, be careful when using it, some cleaners eat plastic or tarnish polished plastics..

Its good your reading the Rhodes service manual, keep going with that and consider it the LAW/Religon/bible
and nearly everything else hogwash...

Tjh392 did you by chance rebuild your Peterson prior to the installation?  Just curious..
Keep in mind - at this point in time - any electrolytic cap is way past its usable life and should be replaced. This goes for amps, preamps- especially a peterson at 35+ years old..

I've played quite a few Rhodes with petersons which were properly rebuilt which made nothing but sweet ping/pong vibrato, no click or thump.


My apologies but: I must state that install procedure is Kind of dicey in my opinion, maybe some other folks can chime in here with their single sided pcb work stories..
Drilling into brittle single sided pcb material is generally a big NO-NO!

Single sided boards are extremely fragile. You have to watch your soldering temps as its easy to burn traces right off the board which leads to having to repair traces which is an art form in itself to accomplish. It would only be too easy to over stress the board while drilling. Wish they figured out a better way! An experienced tech might know/understand this, but is this info documented so your average Joe doesn't break out his 90Watt Well soldering/ray gun, pipe solder & Pop's trusty old Black & Decker 1/2 H.P. Drill to install this?

Allot of folks Nose dive into D.I.Y. stuff without full knowledge like the wonders of working with old single sided pcb material? or re-cap before modify? Just sayin..


Have any other Clips?

The dampers are raw & not plated/coated so they are eventually just going to tarnish/corrode again unless they are plated or sealed somehow which imho is diminishing returns on a non cosmetic/hidden functional part?? They do look nice!! but it really has no effect on the function of the piano having them shiny. Kind of a headache to polish them without messing their adjustment up isn't it??

As for the OP or anyone else about to embark on a Rhodes re-do.. Before you go on a shopping torrent replacing everything try doing things incrementally. Not every piano needs new everything.
In some cases a good cleaning and setup yields a fine instrument. Everyone gravitates towards replacing everything from the start and the results always seem to suck, especially around here! I see a pattern and its not a good one.  I cannot speak for everyone here but after a year of lurking around I've yet to see a "I bought $$$$$$'s of parts to fix my piano and now my piano sounds great now" threads, its always my piano sounds like "s**t" or HELP ME This **** doesn't fit or this doesn't work - "what do I do now" threads!! Everyone goes buck-wild buying parts and the results leaves this reader scratching his head thinking hmm, maybe they should get some better direction before pulling the trigger and executing their vintage instrument..

There are better processes of fixing these instruments and the path to follow to get there is doing 1 thing at a time and taking your time doing it. When you go and change every aspect of the instrument its just not a good place to start at, especially with a rhodes, they're so finicky.  Threads like this makes me weary of any "How to" videos on floating around .  Replace this, replace that- isn't working out too good! 

Find a rhodes service manual, a good deal of Valid information is inside them and its a good starting point on what to do..

I'd recap the entire preamp- all the electrolytic caps have likely drifted out of spec.. Visually check bulb intensity, verify the optos are evenly spaced to the bulbs. If the issues remain at that point..
(Avoid drilling holes / modding a peterson at all costs)  You might need to send the preamp and amps to a tech  for a rebuild rather than mod it which could potentially make it worse.  your preamp could have another issue not even related to the opto/bulb setup. With that being said you could mod the board, and still have the same issue -  anythings possible.

Peterson pre-amps are scarce, commanding a $300+ price tag, difficult to source, even harder to source an original which hasn't been goobed up with 30+ years of hap-hazard repair work. That's whats Leary for me about modding one.. They sound great when rebuilt properly.

When you repaired the modules, did you recap as well? 
Its safe to say any suitcase regardless of production year at this point would require a total recap all the way round, amps, preamp.

[minor]

Folks, if anyone is willing to commit a great deal of time futzing with the VV back-check mod then spend that same amount of time learning how to better setup your piano. The outcome will be better.  Back-check mods aren't necessary.  A properly setup Rhodes action is fantastic- and minor key bounce is part of the mechanical function of the Rhodes action. If the key bounce is excessive, its because another aspect of that instrument is not properly setup or functioning.   Key bounce is present on any real mechanical action one puts their hands on from a Rhodes to an acoustic piano, the bounce is there- even with a back check. in some instances more bounce on a worn instrument, but its still there regardless, even new weighted actions have key bounce.  If a Rhodes action is setup correct, the feel and responsiveness the instrument provides the player will be so good you won't notice the bounce.

The concept of drilling more holes into vintage instruments runs a chill down my back.. It could be that 1 key where the wood is more dry, which splits while your adding something that isn't meant to be there.   

Also why aren't these back-checks installed into the new VV tine pianos?
VV allegedly modeled their tine piano after the more desirable earlier era of Rhodes action according to whats been floating around the interweb here.
Also I've noticed its not installed on the majority Rhodes restoration work posted in their various photo galleries...

Kind of left me scratching my head??

The best phase I've heard to date was Deron Johnson with Mike Landau @ The Baked Potato in CA Jan 2011.
Deron was playing an older Fender Rhodes 73 Stage and used a Purple Ross Phaser/Distortion, the tone was stellar. 


EH Small stone phasers sound great but they do have a Known volume drop issue.  Mods exist to address the volume drop problem , a handful of companies offer the service, just do your homework on which one you choose to have one modded with.. Quite a few of these mod/hack guys are nothing short of idiots with soldering irons and no knowledge beyond that- so beware the lower priced mods.  Vintage EHX effect units are great but  almost all of them use the "millennium bypass circuit" which adds crud and grit to any signal chain even bypassed, this circuit puts a wooly like filter over your sound.  The bypassing circuit uses some cheapo fets/diodes for bypass buffering and they can clip easily, and color bypassed tone..  True bypassing the pedal will resolve those issues.   Howard Mick Davis designed a good bit of the older ehx pedals, and revised many existing pedals for ehx back in the early 1980's, late 70's... He reverses the millennium bypass circuit on many vintage ehx pedals.. (He did a memory man for me, made a huge difference) Howard also designed a good portion of the pigtronix pedals too.

Another great underdog Phaser is the Mutron Phasor I & II, if you don't want to pony up $800-2K for a biphase the mutron phasors are a great sounding unit and can be had for $150-300..
You can true bypass the mutrons as well, helps with coloration in bypass mode.

Is there a stamp at the top right of the harp??

it wouldn't a be a 1961, looks to be a later piano , Post '74-75 judging by the pics.

its understandable to dislike their business methods, Dumping good pianos for parts is a sin- 

Thankfully there are plenty of Rhodes to go around
and in all fairness a great deal of them are beat to hell!!!
Whats sad is when folks take good pianos, gut them, replace all the parts with aftermarket stuff and 86 the original stuff which in some cases is probably still good stuff!

Yes, the replacement options are limited- BUT luckily Ebay seems to have a consistent amount of original tines for sale at all times. Generally speaking replacing a tine for any reason other than its defective or broken serves no function.  Not to state the obvious!

And by no way was I suggesting using a bicycle spoke as a tine! I merely used the spoke as a reference to one of the many things made by a wire swaging machine.
A spoke would probably not work out too well

VV acquired the original machine from Torrington, so the tines will sound like the early 70s tines.  Good stuff.

So if one purchases the chisels Stradivarius used, they can then create stradivarius violins?

Wire swaging machines are very common and widely used to make anything from a bicycle spoke to wire rigging among many other common products.
A more accurate description of how a tine sounds should be in relation to its metallurgical composition & profile.
Rhodes tines were made on wire swaging machines, you could have all the tooling/machines in the world, same that Rhodes/Fender had, but if your recipe for the material itself isn't proper/correct you don't get the same sound of whatever era your attempting to replicate "results may vary..". No different than a stainless guitar string vs a bronze or nickel, yea they all sound like a guitar string from a core/fundamental standpoint but have tonal difference. Look at the tonal differences between a Raymac, Torrington, Singer or a schaller tine, yet they are all swaged, the difference was the material, some ring/sustain great, some are too bright, some snapped... Its the material composition, not the machine.

A friend of mine is on a waiting list to get one of these. We have plans on putting it through its paces and comparing it to a Mutron III which has been fully rebuilt.
Hopefully the Tru-Tron can hang tight with the original. The originals are hard to beat, The way they react to playing, touch/feel is unsurpassed and they also have a very specific sound to them which I would call the "correct" envelope sound, more of a womp sound that an auto-wah sound. By correct the envelope has a perfect amount of attack, sustain, decay, max peak and rest.   


-em.