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I definitely prefer VV's damper felts, and have experience with both. The Avion kit has extras, yes, but it's unlikely you have any need to replace bridle straps, for example. I agree with Alan - determine what would actually benefit from being replaced. e.g. Check: are the grommets pancaked and squashed, or crumbling? Are the damper felts floppy and falling off? Are the hammer tips badly beat up? (minor grooves don't count - new hammer tips begin to develop grooves almost immediately.) The attention you pay to optimizing the escapement and then the strikeline are the biggest variables by far, much more than replacing any parts.

David

There isn't enough popcorn in the world to accompany a reading of this historic thread: https://gearspace.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/191821-rhodes-mark-7-a.html

WOW!!!!!!

Dude nice one. Glad your fiancée nabbed it, you're doing a killer job. I've had my hands full working on three clavs this month anyway, so it would've just been sitting in my basement. Good luck with getting it all done!

Thank you, that's exactly what I did in the end. Carefully scraped away old glue along the seam, then used a sewing needle to bead glue around the edge. After letting them dry overnight, I've put the keys back into the keybed - no clacking! Hooray!

Thanks. I can see where I'd able to inject glue with the white keys, but the issue I'm having is exclusively with black keys, which are much trickier - I can't see a way to inject glue into the flat contact surfaces at the rear of the key. Is there any way to make a glue injection with the black keys, or should I just bead around the edge and hope that that holds?

Looks like there is a ton of old glue around that edge also; what would be a safe way to soften and remove that glue without damaging the old keycap plastic?

Thank you!

Wanting to fix the annoying plastic clack that is coming from a bunch of keys, basically all the black keys, whose plastic caps have become slightly loose from their metal frame. Has anybody had to do this? Do you just rip the cap off entirely and re-glue from scratch, or try to inject the glue without removing the cap? What adhesive did you use?

D

I'll keep that in mind, thank you. My new grommets arrived today, so I'll set aside and save any old ones that don't completely crumble, or are pancaked beyond use.

Meh, the grommets didn't look so bad, so I decided to put my money towards a custom tolex kit instead. Can't wait to get my piano re-skinned in alligator to match my gigging shoes!!!

Sorry, couldn't resist... Yeah, grommets, screws, hammer tips, some key shims, and then new name rail felt as an indulgence.

For anybody following.... After a chat with one of the kind techs at VV, I ended up going for the new 6-zone angled kit. I might need to make some escapement adjustments, but I'll buy shims from a local hardware store if the need arises. I'll update my progress when it all arrives.

I'm working on another D6, where the entire lid compartment was stuffed with pink fibreglass insulation. Such a mess.

Stevo - It's a stage. Picked it up over a decade ago for around $900, gigged extensively with a few bands until I became too lazy and switched to a Nord, and then when my kid was born and my music room became a kid's room, the Rhodes got packed up and stored until we moved into a bigger place a few months ago. Now my Rhodes and my Clav have breathing space - alongside my new upright piano. Not bad for being stuck inside with no gigs.

4kinga - Yes, I already had a jaw-dropping change by adjusting the strike line on the left side, and just measured the escapement - it's 5/16" on the bass side (so 3/16" too high?) and around 1/8" or 3/16" on the treble side (so around 1/16" too low?)... I'm hoping I can stick to adding shims, without having to rip off the shims that are already glued onto the aluminum supports.

Thank you both. Just need to decide what to do about hammer tips, then. Might give VV a call tomorrow to figure it out.

Would love to hear experiences others have had using different types of hammer tips to get more bark out of post-1978 pianos.

What a coincidence... I responded to that same ad only 10min after it was posted, but I was too late as I guess your fiancee was crazy quick on the trigger!!! I'm just starting another restoration and wanted another aspirational project to go with it.

Hopefully you work something out with Sean to complete the piano - he is generously helping me out in another thread.

Hi all

I'm getting ready to freshen up my Mark II from 1980 - plastic hammers, wooden keys. Have a series of questions before I take the plunge and make the parts order from VV. I know some of these have been asked before, but hopefully this thread will be useful for anybody doing a late Mark 1 or an early Mk II restoration.

Like many Mark 2 owners, I've never loved it as much as the Mk 1 that I played in high school, so I am definitely looking to get that warmer barkier sound, less of the bright modern tone, although I do prefer the action of the 2.

- no-brainer is replacing tone bar grommets (pic1)

- am I correct that I do not need to attend to the key pedestals? They have a built-in bump, and while the felts have a very slightly worn groove at the rear, they look otherwise ok. (pic2)

- am I correct that my damper felts are still good? (one of them in the photo looks floppy, but while angled it still feels firm) (pic3)

- the big one: hammer tips! (pics 4 and 5)
Mine have some grooves and pits, so I am assuming that I should change my tips. I've read here and there that using older-style tips, either square or graduated, might get me closer to the sound I've been looking for. However, I've also read that you shouldn't go from graduated to non-graduated, as it screws up with the strike line. So...
- should I get new tips?
- should I stick with graduated tips, and rely purely on voicing to get the sound I want?
- or should I try a different tip? I know VV sound very excited about their new angled tip set, but I'm worried about moving to non-graduated tips

- finally, I'm pulling out my hair trying to assess my tines. I suspect a few might be dying, but with my old grommets I can't be sure whether it's the tine or something else. Anybody have some insight there? Related to this, I noticed that there were multiple harp mounting holes, which allowed me to try a couple of different strike line positions. Playing around with this was game-changingly impactful, but didn't get me any closer to knowing if I should replace any of my tines.

You can hear the piano here: https://youtu.be/CtjcEj3wWBU

In this video, which I made to document this project for myself and some colleagues, I mull over all the above questions and take a closer look. If anybody has the spare time to glance, it would help me immensely, and hopefully others who are working with this era of pianos.

Cheers to all of you, very excited to become part of this community!

Thanks Jenzz. I was actually referring to the component kits that they each sell for around $20USD.
https://www.vintagevibe.com/collections/clavinet-electronics/products/clavinet-preamp-rebuild-kit
https://store.clavinet.com/Clavinet-D6-Preamp-Upgrade-Kit-_p_22.html

The clavinet.com may well be the component version of their ultra preamp, but that can't be the case with the VV kit, as their vibanet preamp is totally different.

Thank you both.

I'll be restoring it to the original configuration, with 9V battery jack and a DC jack at the back. (I've heard its best to run it off 9V though, instead of a power adapter.)

While I have this thread going, I'm also looking at upgrading the preamp with a rebuild kit, either the one at Vintage Vibe or at clavinet.com, anybody have experiences with those, or can compare them to each other? Does anybody know if those kits will take you part of the way in the de-noising battle? (As opposed to / in addition to getting a shielding box for the preamp.)

Thanks,

Any updates?

Hi all

1st post, working on a D6 which I picked up a decade ago.

Trying to figure out what is going on inside. Looks like somebody has done some hobbyist work, and there is a Hammond transformer wired into the power supply.

I've attached a pic, can anybody tell me what is going on in here?

Thanks,

David