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Anyone have a source for an early logo from a sparkletop? Seen here with "Fullerton Calif." under the fender insignia.

http://www.analoguediehard.com/studio/keyboards/fender_rhodes/sparkletop-badge.jpg

Does anyone have a parts list for the Jordan amp & preamp? Chasing some weird distortion on my '67 piano and I've already isolated the piano and speakers to verify they're ok. Time to dig in to the electronics.

I have the schematic drawings from the service manual but that's it. I can already see that somewhere along the line one of the big 8000uF caps on the power amp was swapped for a 6000uf unit. The drawings are a bit tough to read in places and I'd like to make sure I've got everything right.

First post here in years, I have a dilemma. I have a minty fresh '73 Mark 1A Stage I picked up years ago, it's in great shape mechanically and sonically. Love it, figured this would me my Rhodes for life. Until...

A '67 Sparkletop, complete with all original tonebars, came up for sale near me at a reasonable price. The only thing keeping this from being 100% original is that someone swapped out the felt hammers for neoprene at some point. Otherwise it's in good shape, going to look at it this weekend.

I can't afford both - I'd need to sell my Mark 1A to fund the sparkletop. I've lusted over one of these forever, and never thought I'd find one I could afford. I miss having a suitcase amp, I'm a student of the history of these pianos, and yeah, the Miles/Beatles/Billy Preston connection is fun. I also genuinely love the sound of the early pianos.

I have two concerns -

Will the neoprene hammers really sound THAT different from the early teardrop style? I know most of the sauce is in the raymac tines and larger tonebars.

Is this an idiot move? I know how special the Mark 1A is, but man, sparkletop...

First time posting in a few years! Some of you old timers might remember me from my "Courdorhodes" experiment 3 years ago...  http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=3639.msg15944#msg15944

So since then I've relocated to Tokyo, and the Rhodes had to stay in storage back in the US.  I've been playing out on keys and missing my Rhodes. I can't afford to buy one here, where a busted up Mark II with plastic keys might START at around $2,000. I could't afford to ship/fly a 73 stage to Japan, and certainly wouldn't be able to gig with one when I get around solely by train and taxi. Finally had some time in the states this summer, and decided to take some drastic steps.

Inspired by the stuff the Vintage Vibe guys have been doing, I figured I could chop the piano up and find some ways to save weight. I took the guts of the piano, decided which range was essential for what I'm playing, and went to work chopping things up. It wasn't until later that I realized I had chosen the exact same range as the stage 54...

Made the custom case from scratch out of 1/2" plywood, left out the sustain pedal mechanism out as I'm using this for rock gigs, and avoided a separate lid by eliminating the round top and using the case as the top. Drilled some holes in the pickup rail and harp in an attempt to cut down on weight, ended up saving a little bit.

Weight before - 105 lbs. Weight after - 64 lbs! I removed the tone bars and keys to get it to EXACTLY 50 lbs, and was able to convince the airline to treat it with kid gloves and avoid the conveyor belt and carousel at the airport. Added some ozite-like carpet, and it's 95% done. I need to solder up some stage electronics and I'm going to cover the wood "namerail", but othewise it's in business and plays like a dream...

Keeps getting weirder... thanks to Paul B's excellent post I know my preamp is ok, doesn't need a full rebuild. I was playing tonight and noticed there's sort of a faint "ticking" when the tremolo is on, goes away when I turn it off. I checked all the solder connections on the preamp and power supply again, and discovered that it goes away only when I disconnect the tremolo LED. With the LED disconnected the tremolo is whisper quiet and sounds great... I know an LED can't really "go bad", so I'm guessing this is a symptom of an issue elsewhere... any thoughts?

Looking for an idea on what I can expect to pay to get my 5-pin suitcase preamp rebuilt - the more I look at it I suspect it was worked on previously as there are some "interesting" solder joints and some poorly mounted caps. It works for about 10-15 minutes and then the sound either cuts out or gets distorted and the power lamp dims a bit. Anyone in the Boston area or a good mail order service?

I'd also be willing to trade a perfectly good suitcase power amp in exchange for a rebuild or a rebuilt preamp - anyone interested?

Here goes... a few years ago I got a great deal on a Mark II suitcase which I knew going in would be basically a salvage job. It had been stored in a damp environment and the keys and speakers were moldy, harp was a mess of rust, wood was shot, etc. The only thing I was able to rescue from the Mark II cab was the power supply, which I actually had rebuilt a few years ago in the hopes of restoring the whole setup.

A year or so later I come across a -mint- Mark I with the 5-pin preamp, the piano and suitcase cab are in perfect shape. No more need to restore my moldy Mark II.

My question is - can I take my "extra" power supply and somehow chop it down to the bare essentials and use it to power my Mark I when I don't want to lug around the cab? I'm considering a move to Japan in a year or two and it would be easier to bring over my Rhodes and a power supply than the whole cab. Any thoughts on how this could be done?

Does anyone have a parts list for the 100 watt preamp? (the one with the sliders, not the later mark II) I see rebuild kits for the 80 watt version on ebay all the time, but no love for my 100! Some of the caps are swollen and I can't get the numbers off of them...

I've wondered - are the post-sparkletop felt hammertips still available, and do they sound drastically different from the neoprene used from the early 70's onward? From what I've read they were only used for a year or two inbetween the "piano style" hammers and the neoprene tips.

I love the bell sound of the sparkletops and would love to approximate it on my Mark 1, and was wondering if this was at all possible and worthwile.

Hi again, Matt from Boston - I haven't logged on in a while and forgot my username... oh well. An opinion question - just picked up a MINT '79 Mark 1 suitcase, must've been the last of run before they went to the Mark II? Under the lid the piano looks and sounds like it just left the factory - had to replace a dead pickup, other than that it's perfect. The tolex and grill cloth are pretty beat up as it was left in storage for a while and had some stuff stacked on it, etc. My two ideas are as follows -

Anyone ever done a tweed rhodes? Maybe with oxblood grillcloth?

Courodoy? I'm thinking dark brown or black. It's cheap, fuzzy, and easy to deal with - just vaccuum it when it gets dirty. Not sure what I'd do about the grill...

any thoughts? I'll put up some pics soon. This thing needs to be seen to be believed - even the key bushings look new.