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Ive just chopped my 206 and want to have a headphone out, line out and I also intend to make a small speaker box to house the original 8inch speakers in so will need a 3rd output for that. I cant seem to find any info about adding all that, so any help with wiring this all up and what components I need would be much appreciated. Will I need to have a dummy load when the speakers arn't plugged in?

Cheers
Oliver

OK, Ive got some help from my old man and Its still 110 and is putting out 8.4V.

The problems with it are;
D# on every drawbar setting apart from 2inch doesnt work.
C# 1 and 2 dont work when only 16inch drawbar is out
There is a large amount of hum,
and because the screws holding the tone generator rack were removed a few of the larger capacitors have broken off as seen in the pics.

After looking at loads of info and videos on the net Im going to give fixing most of these problems ago, replacing the broken caps and rebuilding the preamp will be simple enough, finiding any faulty transistors will be a bit more difficult but I do have access to a Oscilloscope.

Alenhoff Just had a look at all the info you put up on the Combo Organ group and your build. So much good info in there, cheers for putting that up.

After getting a 110v converter I ran It and it seems to work but found some of the keys dont work on different settings and it sounds a bit off so I'm going to send it off to a tech to get it sorted. If I can find one in Perth!!!

alenhoff: Iff I decide to sell the drawbar knobs I'll let you know

Great collection! Thanks for the photos  (not only because I love seeing great vintage keyboards, but also because it helps me with my wife).

("See, I'm not the only guy who has a room full of vintage keys.  And he has even more than I do...")

I'm thinking that if you get rid of that couch -- who needs a couch? -- you could fit a few more in.


Alan

haha, It all started a couple of years ago with a wrecked 54 that had been sitting in a flooded basement. Havnt been able to stop buying vintage keys since then...... Dont intend to buy anything else until I move out so hopefully the couch will stay, but you never know what will come up for sale.... somethings may be worth sitting on the floor for.. haha

Nice guitars too...what is that one between the SG and the green Strat?

I like the looks of it.....

Its an Australian Maton MS500. Amazing guitars and pretty underrated, easily comparable in quality to my Gibson Sg custom at a fraction of the price!

heres my little collection of keyboards

Unfortunately no voltage on it just a half amp fuse. The son had no idea about any of the gear or even what cables to use. It was plugged straight into 240v and seemed to work fine. Only ran it for a few minutes but dont want to plug it in again until im sure.

Unfortunately cant get hold of the owner as he recently passed away and i got these off his son. This was what was left of the giant amount of gear that had been sold. would loved to of known what got sold first.. Someone came round and bought ALL their fender gear..

After searching for a couple of years for a continental in australia I finally found not one but 2 that i got for a bargain.
Both italian made the single manual is in really good condtion but the dual manual is nearly mint, even the legs were still in plastic....
They came with all the accessories, including pedals, a 3rd pair of legs, a spare lid, and even the vinyl case  for the super continental.

After bringing them home I realised the single manual is a 110v machine but we have 240v down under. I tryed it out when I bought it for a few mins and it worked fine just had a little hum. Is there anyway to determine if it has been converted to 240 already? looks stock inside. Would seem strange to convert it to 240 and leave the american plug on it.... Would it of blown straight away in 240v power if it was 110v?

Im also in need of one of the metal attachments that the wingnuts for the legs screw into but have no idea where to find them or where they are from..

I used a wire brush on the end of a drill. Mine had a fair amount of rust as it was left in a flooded basement that scotchbrite, sandpaper and kerosene were useless. They are in this thread http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=5933.msg33394#msg33394.

I mounted the tine in the vice and very lightly went over them with the wire brush. Worked a treat just had to be more carefull with the longer ones but for them i mounted them halfway down the tine in the vice using the soft plastic attachment grip on the it. Didnt break a single tine.

I coated them in a thin layer of clear coat to stop them rusting again. Even with the pitting and clear coat it didnt effect the tone.

If you have access to a vice, you can place the square part of the tine in between the jaws. loosening and tightening the tine becomes nice and easy then

That would be a great start, finding it had to get anything that low.
Cheers

Chassing the lowest, #1 and #2 tines and tonebars for a 73 key rhodes. Been looking for a while, If anyone has any spares they are willing to part with that would be much appreciated.

Cheers
Oliver

The white and clear wrapped ones sound the same. The 73 model hammer tips and felts will all work. Its all the same action, just specify when you order that its for a 54 key and they will give you the right ones. Not sure where to get the slider pot though..

They are chromed. On my old rhodes I removed all the rust and got to the metal using a wire brush on the end of a drill. I then sprayed on a clear coat. Came out really good and nice and easy

Not a rhodes, but just got given this hammond l100 tonewheel organ, sounds great but the finish was a little worse for wear. So finished it off in red, cant see it in the pics but the grain shows through and looks great.

haha, yep not me

howd does it sound? hammer tips all good?

Your the lucky one who got it, I had the second highest bid 

Was this the one that just sold on ebay Aus?

I just stick mine on the curved top and throw some socks under the back
stops it rocking and it doesnt move anywhere

haha, just a regular guitar cable.

I did try using some shoe polish, which helped with some of the minor scratches and shined it up nicely but did nothing for the big ones. Im going to end up sanding and filling the scratches so its smooth and painting it black sparkle like this.

Rhodes Electric Piano Custom Sparkle Top by Vintage Vibe, on Flickr
image property of vintage vibe

heres a pic with a few other toys.


Still have to finish of the internals and put a few new key caps on, work has halted until exams are over.....

Cheers, its the one that got me hooked on the rhodes sound, turned into a small addiction... haha

I bought them off someone on ebay for $5 a piece, unfortunately there not that cheap anymore..... I did fix a few by unwinding one loop of the pickup and resoldering

theres alot of them going up atm, all for 1300 buy it now but contact via email. saw one for  a minimoog the other day..
their hacking reputable seller accounts hence the good feedback.

I tried fixing my amp aswell, bought the kit of vv and replaced everything but it still didnt work, then spent $60 taking it to a local guitar amp tech and he sorted the amp out for, think its pretty simple if you have experience with amps

Cheers, thats what I thought, remember there being something on my 54, I thought vv had them for sale but cant seem to find them on their website anymore...

There should be a wooden dowel in the back.  Picture #2 you have with the green screwdriver and the bottom case empty - the square wood box in the back center, a wooden dowel with felt on both ends goes there.

Heres my first restoration, a rust filled 54
http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=5933.0

and heres the one im working on atm, a mark1 73
http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=6337.0

next is a wurly 206 chop

Finally getting around to restoring this.. ordered new hammers, felts, grommets and hardware from vintage vibe and some sparkle tolex.

heres the case after removal of the old tolex


some shielding was added by the last owner, stuck on well so its staying.....


some pics of the old hammers and felts




case all sanded down


awesome new gold tolex



Have replaced all the hammers and felts. Next job is the grommets and rewiring.. Then straighten and smooth out the top and respray it black sparkle..

need a few more parts if anyone has any that they want to sell;
tine and tonebar #1&2
hinges attached to the harp and keybed
rca plug on harp
front nameplate

Is there supposed to be a piece of wood between the damper rail and the sustain pedal rod? theres nothing on mine the rod makes direct contact with the rail and hums like crazy!!

My rhodes is missing a number of the end caps on the keys and some are chipped, i dont really want to replace the whole lot with new ones as I like the yellowed look, does anyone on here have any old ones after replacing there new ones that they want to part with?? my rhodes is from 1974

Ive got a 206 that I'm about to chop, I found some legs off an old table that are very similar to the 200 legs so im going to mount them but I have to make the mounts and add a thread to the top off the legs. I want to mount them in the exact same spot and make the plates the same size as the originals so if I ever get any I can swap them over easily.

If anyone with a 200 is able to give me the measurements of the mounting plates, there distances from the edges, how long the legs are, what thread is used and if the legs are on any angles or just straight down that would be really appreciated. Also any pics of the underside of your wurly would be a great help   

Cheers

we just had this one advertised
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Rhodes-MkV-Stage-73-/260776627958#ht_500wt_1156
$10,500 anyone? haha

Wish they were that cheap over here..!!
sold one of my mint 206's recently for $1500!!

yeah from what I read I was thinking around 74, the hammers are wood and plastic, and with the wooden rail supports.
The pedal is from my 1980s mk2, didnt actualy come with this, although with the interesting wiring mods, you get a nice hum when its hooked up!!

Just picked up a new rhodes, looks a little hagged, been well gigged, but sounds and plays great.
Its had a few interesting mods, the new wiring to apparently quieten it down, and no end tines/tone bars or hammers.
I'm going to replace the felts, and clean it all up.
If anyone has any old keycaps/ends that I could buy a few, that would be great. want them to match the yellowed original keys.
Any tips for the deep scratches in the lid?
Any way of dating it? I cant seem to find a date on it, but its got wooden hammers and harp support so im assuming early 70s??

just chasing a working amp for my wurli, havnt had any luck with rebuilding mine. cheers

yeah didn't think its a transformer problem as it powers up. cheers for the help anything is a godsend atm, so frustrating, just want to play the the thing, sitting there teasing me, ha

Think I might find a local guitar amp repairer, im sure they'd be able to handle the simple circuit. I saw a working 200amp go for $40 on ebay, kicking myself for not getting it, Anyone have any spare amps for sale?

cheers

Ive rebuilt the amp with the vintage vibe rebuild kit. But its still the same, a constant hum, only a lot louder now. I have no idea what it could be any more. Ive checked all the reads with a feeler gauge and non are touching, vacuumed them all and am pretty sure there's no short there. I also tried the amp in the second wurli, with no luck.

I did have a few problems during the build though, as i first thought the problem was with TR9 and 10, i replaced them first and tested the amp with the same result. I was following what vintage vibe told me about the output transistor pinout, which was they were the same as the old ones. after I sent them another email asking the exact pinout they ended up being the different. I soldered them the right way round and added TR8 and TR1, This time the fuse just blew. I think this was due to me making a rookie mistake and not bolting the circuit board in and i think it shorted something on the screw mounts.

Not wanting to make any more stupid mistakes I got someone to help me build the board entirely. I replaced all the capacitors and transistors and am pretty certain there in right. would of wiring the output transistors wrong killed them? I didnt replace the 2 diodes that came with the kit as im not sure which ones they are meant to replace, not sure if they could be part of the problem?

Theres such a small amount of electronics in these things and was sure rebuilding the amp would of solved my problem. Any help would be much appreciated and without anyone local with any knowledge of these things, and not having enough cash atm to buy a new amp i need to try and sort this out myself. Is it possible the transformer is the problem? and where and how should i test sections of the amp, I wanted to plug something into the RCA to make sure it was receiving an input signal but am worried about the 150V killing whatever i plug in. how is that usually tested? The hum gets alot quieter when the reed bar is disconnected. Seems very weird to have 2 with the exact same problem.

cheers

cheers,  prob leave the blocks alone, no paint left.

going to wait until if got the amp rebuilt and working before i decide which piano im going to keep. both are in reasonably similar condition, whichever plays better is the keeper.

just got 2 wurli 206 student model pianos both in really good condition apart from faulty transistors in the amp (got the deluxe amp kit from vintage vibe in the mail to rebuild them) and a few sticky keys on one of them (whats the general solution for them? do you use lube on the key pins?)

im going to be selling one as a student model (once its working) and keeping the other, wasnt going to do much to it, but after i managed to score some leftover paint from my old man painting a rally car. i gave the top a coat, and am now going to do the full 206-200 conversion.
Throught id through it up here as who doesnt like a diy build with pretty pics?

when i got it



after a fresh coat of orange 2pak auto paint


as it didnt really match the brown/tan base, thought a bit of orange cloth would look a bit better, unfortunately not (its alot more red in person). So im going to rip it off the base and make my own sustain pedal and legs. have a few ideas in mind, anyone done this before?also will need to buy a electric piano faceplate, does anyone have any for sale?



also decided to make my rhodes match =]


and painted an old scratched PRS i had

by the looks of it, TR8 and 9 are dead, im just going to replace all three output transistors, does anyone know what the new model equivalent are? i want to get them locally but am a little unsure of what to order.
cheers

cheers for that, just checking, my old man will be helping me now, hes an electrician, so im hoping it shouldnt be to hard to sort out

cheers guys, ive checked the pickup rail, seems ok,
yeah theres just a hum no output at all, there was no smoke anywhere,

im going to check the transistors this week end when i get my hands on a multimeter. just wondering how its done, i have the schematic, which of the the 3 prongs do i measure from? and is its measured with the piano on?

i know they stock all the parts on vintage vibe, but id rather get them locally, do i need to get a modern equivalent of the transistor, or do they still make the originals?

if only it was an easy as a rhodes to fix

just picked up a 206 student, its in really good nick, i wired it up so it runs of mains power, it turns on but theres no output out of any headphone jacks or the speakers, it just hums when set on whatever output its set on. ive checked there are no cracks in the circuit board. what else should i check/ replace? im in Australia and dont think i would find anyone local who has a clue about them, as they are very rare over here, and ive spent all night searching for info on the net with little luck.

any help or where to find it would be really appreciated.
cheers

This project gives me hope for this summer. Thanks for sharing and good luck with the rebuild.

cheers guys, haven't completely finished tuning all the tines yet, but the ones i have sound great, haven't actually played a rhodes before so i have nothing to compare it with, but im stoked with the result, for a total cost of about $300 Australian, i have working rhodes, considering they usually sell for around $2500 over here im pleased

after 3 solid days of rust removal, just waiting for my pickups to arrive so it can be tunned and set up

hi, im brand new to this forum and rhodes but i just picked this up the other day for $200 australian (about $170 US), came with the sustain pedal/rod, cover, and maybe some legs if the owner can find them. got a bit of moisture in it so it needs rust removal and 13 new pickups, but the rest of it is in pritty decent condition for a 30yr old instrument, ive started using a wire brush on the end of a drill to remove the rust after the tonebars and tines have been soaking in kerosene, seems to work ok, anyone else done anything like this before and found an easier way to do it, like an acid or something that will eat the rust and not the metal? ive read alot of people have been using kerosene and sandpaper, but it wasnt cleaning the tines very well. also a little worried about breaking the larger tines with the drill when i get to them.

whats the easiest way to tune this beast, some of the tunning springs are jammed.

I coated all the tonebars with clear acrylic to prevent further rust

here are some pics







After a whole lot of cleaning





and a day with the wire brush and sandpaper










not even a quarter of the way through
As you can see i painted the harp rails, do they need to be sanded back where the conductive tape the pickups sit on meets? i wasnt sure if they are part of the circuit.

cheers