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I'm modifying my 54 key Rhodes to go down to low E like the 73 key ones because switching back and forth is driving me crazy. I'm making a new harp and key bed to preserve all the original 54 stuff on the high likelihood this turns out terrible. I built a new key bed out of a spare 73 Rhodes (plastic keys). I made the frame for a new harp but am having an abnormally hard time getting the tone bar mounting holes nice and straight/ aligned with eachother like they are on a normal Rhodes. My process is just going through individually and mounting them so the strike point is centered on the hammers. It was around the #22 tone bar I realized consistent forward placement is important too for uniform hammer smacks. So that's been resolved on the remaining tone bars.

Originally I took some paper and poked holes in it along where the drill pattern was on the 73 I took the parts from, but those points didn't really line up exactly with the center of the hammer tip on each key. So now doing each individually.

But am I an idiot? (yes), but am I missing an obvious way I should be drilling/ installing these tone bars? How would they have done this in the factory? It's taking forever forever to do also. Thanks

Ah good point yeah my 54 is still wired in series with the single pickup arrangment. So I'll first change that.

And yeah the mixer makes a lot more sense.

On your diagram, could you confirm what's coming down the RCA lines going into C1, C2 and B2? Assumig C1 is split upper section, C2 is split bass section, and B2 is regular full range?

big thanks.

Does anybody know the type of wood used for the harp/ pickups mounting? Seems like a sort of plywood and maybe different than the wood used in the rest of the piano. Would these need a coating?

Hey Sean,
Thanks so much for putting this together. I'm referencing your design to try mod my 54 key rhodes, which really lacks a bass section, but am trying to figure out how I would incorperate a potentiometer that could blend both the split and regular/non-split signals so that  I could still have some crossoever between the sections on 2 handed voicings. Mostly I want to seperate a bass section to add fx like octave pedals to so I can bring it more into the bass zone without having those fx affect the rest of the keyboard.  Still thinking this through but let me know if you have any thoughts on the following questions...

1) Could a potentiometer be completely split in its most left position and completely non-split/regular in its full right position? If so, then would this act as the switch in your design.
2) Since I am blending these signals instead of switching, would I need 3 dedicated outputs (1 bass split, 1 upper range split, 1 non-split regular)?

Thanks again,
AV

Hi, I have a few rhodes and my Mark II has about half the output as the other earlier models Rhodes, even when taken straight from the RCA jack. When I run the other Rhodes through the Mark II is it not as quiet.  I've replaced the RCA jack and all the electronics/ cabling. I've checked al the pickups and they are showing normal resistance all the way down. There are no dead keys and it plays normally except for the output level.

It's not so quiet that running it through a regular amp can't get it to proper levels, so it might just be how these models are. But does anybody have any thoughts on this on any changes that could explain this in these models? My only thought is that maybe some of these pickups, although are not dead, could be going bad and are affecting the overall output? But all the individual keys are similar levels and adjusted about the same distance from the pickup. Does that happen with rhodes pickups, or is it more like they're good until they are obviously dead?

Thanks