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Hi Student Rhodes,

i agree. But there are two aspetcts of my 54 that work better in live situations:

1. The velocity curve, so far i can not reproduce the beheavior. Seemes to be connected to the bump, backrail & form of the hammers. And maybe also to the tines...

2. The sound of the tines, as described above

The fine uppertones don't need so much treble (and as posted, i know the 54 can be basically brighter because of the lower imepdance - but when you use a buffer with high input impendance, this does not count any more i experienced). That makes it easier to place into a mix without boosting the treble too much. Plus - it has less sort of a 'click' than a longer sound - i like that.

The last days i tried the suggestions by @RealMC, played with the spring position and used different grommets/screw-combinations. My conclusion so far: the tines' sound stays the same - so theese are some different tines.

This month i was lucky to finally spotting replacing material for my 25k pots (tremolo intensity on 2 janus-preamps) that seems hard to find. One of mine was crackling and the other was broken and got replaced by a 50k & mod. But i was never really happy with the beheavior of that. Now they are fine again and i am happy so i thought to share it this with you.

As replacement i bought some StereoPot NOS made by CTS parts number: 2410011 / 1376842

It's not a perfect replacement pot as you need to reuse shaft and axe from the old/another pot. But the 25k rev log track works great with a little reshaping the legs and especially the second part from the stereo-unit is easy to use. I paid 4$ on ebay for a lot of 4 pots (4 x stereo --> 8 conductor paths...) - fair enough.

Some seem to be still availlable on ebay (seller in US):

https://www.ebay.de/itm/223929498483?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160811114145%26meid%3Db47e7b45f7594571ad0771b9a0b68bfa%26pid%3D100667%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D324103339381%26itm%3D223929498483%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2334524&_trksid=p2334524.c100667.m2042

Thank you for the input - i am waiting for some grommets i ordered and will do a second comparison including a mkV tine.

Yes, i thought the same (they really look different, matte finish, polished holes, reversed shape), gave it a try today and swapped them. It seemed to change the sound a little bit but the difference was not huge...

Hi Real Mc,

the 54's wiring is changed to standard/parallel-wiring.

And for the comparison i took only 54 pickups from the 73 harp (c to f as the 54), both running through the same preamp. So they should be well comparable and the sound of the tines is quite different to my ears.

When you hear the tines set next to each other i find it best noticeable (and this is the same for the other tines).

So i'd like to know what kind of tine this is. I thought this is the typical mk2-tine - but the left tine in the vid is a mk2 1981 tine and sounds like the 79 mk1.

Hello Rhodes-World - has no one an idea?

I read tons of excellent discussions here on EP-Forum about different tines (thank you all for that!).

Unfortunately I don't know the older (golden era) ones as my oldest Rhodes is from 79 - and the other one from 80.

But i know that the tines of theese both sound quite different and it would be great to have a clue what kind of tines these are.
Any tips are highly appreciated...

Sample with one (same) tine next to each other : https://youtu.be/4CaA_zbwmU4

(Details above)

Have a good weekend!

Dear members of the EP-forum,

the last months i dived deep into my two rhodes:

a 54 Rhodes from 15/80 (the wiring is changed to ,normal' 6 pin-groups) w. suitcase preamp.
a 73 Rhodes from 10/79 w. suitcase preamp.

Both are in good shape, are on gigs regularely, the 54 beeing the reference in a couple of things.

So i tried to translate the things i like about the 54 to the 73. And compared all the parts, which should be similar as they're just one year apart. I thought....

One that did not work and i want to ask your opinion is the sound HF-wise: the 54 has a ,high frequency shimmer with a longer release', the 73 more of a ,pick' and the overtones are not as high. (at the end of the post --> sound/video). I like to know, where this comes from, so i made a short video to show the differences. (I pushed the highs a lot to make the difference clearer)

https://youtu.be/4CaA_zbwmU4

For the experimental setting, i mounted three different D's next to each other:

left MK2 81 (Length = 59,5 mm)
middle 54 (60,2 mm)
right MK1 '79 (61,9 mm)

Tine's ends are even, hammertips the same, tines look the same.




Why is the 54-Tine sound behaving differently in the high frequencies? For me it sounds higher/opener and has a longer HF-decay vs the shorter 'pick' of the two others.

Is it just the tine? And what kind of tine ist this?
(picture of the three attached, they look the same to me). Or did i overlook something?

Cheers, Ulf

Thank You - that's nice from you... Maybe someone else?

Dear Colleagues,

i'm currently on tour with a band in Russia and a passionate Rhodes-Player. Unfortunately there are problems with the backline in the Cities: Nizhny Novgorod, (Minsk) & Kaliningrad - they can't provide any. That's bad....

If you are living there and have one (no matter which model) or know someone, don't hesitate to contact me. Of course you'd get a rental fee!

Answers highly appreciated,

best regards

Ulf

P.s. I treat them well, no worries...!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVIhtSOShNU

nobody? okay, then my rhodes will have to learn to fly...

alright, i'm dying - saw that category later... any suggestions before it's too late?

sorry, also here again:

hello everybody,

i'm gonna stay with my band (www.myspace.com/jazzteam) for about a week in spain, playing one/two gigs and rehearsing the other time. it's near valencia, in denia - is there anybody nearby, that could rent his piano for theese days  - of course i'd pay for it.

thanks for any suggestion...

all the best

sir_bass

hello everybody,

i'm gonna stay with my band (www.myspace.com/jazzteam) for about a week in spain, playing one/two gigs and rehearsing the other time. it's near valencia, in denia - is there anybody nearby, that could rent his piano for theese days  - of course i'd pay for it.

thanks for any suggestion...

all the best

sir_bass

yes, you're probaly right. on the other hand, each time i played on a mark 2, it sounded different to mine. maybe theese were later models.
so - also if anyone has an older rhodes, maybe early seventies and likes to check if an exchange would be cool for both sides, just let me know.

all the best,

sir_bass

hi mark II,

it has the plastic hammers. neopren, hm, how can you identify that?

sir_bass

hello,

i recently bought a second markI and it appeared to sound somehow like the one i already have, although this is from 77, while the one i had  is from 79. i'd like to exchange with someone, who ownes a mkII or even a mkV and wants to have a mkI. i live around frankfurt/germany.

cheers,

sir_bass

hi james,

do you have some hints meanwhile?

all the best

ulf

hey james,

that would be very cool.

the point is, if you  use the vibrato with two speakers wich are quite next to each other, it makes sense that change between the two channels is rough, because then the effect is more noticeable. ifyou have two speakers that are 3 meters apart, the vibrato can be rather rhythmic and can e.g. disturb the rhythm of a ballad.

that's why i'd be thankful for an ability to control that.

best wishes,

ulf

hi miguel!

you can increase the separation of the two channels. that means, if you listen to only one of them both and the intensity knob is set to 10 its like a soft on/off beahviour. i'd like to try to soften it a little more towards a sinewave than a rectangular. best would be if this could be done using a variable capacitor/resistor --> one knob more for my rhodes...

i'm not an electrician, but maybe someone can help?!

all the best

sir_bass

hi there,

i have a question about the original vibrato effect in the newer 5-pin suitcase preamp. i would like to change the vibrato to a softer change from left to right, right now it has a more rectangular-like waveform. is this possible by maybe changing one or more of the resistors or capacitors?

all the best

sir_bass