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I agree with Opie and Dzdpgtehu, it looks like somebody has installed a Fender silverface era amp in a student Rhodes. That silver rail bar's controls go in the same order as all the 2nd channels of amps from that time that were derived from the Twin Reverb. Then the amp inside has the pedal inputs for the footswitch even.

But then the label inside says "Home" on the model, so perhaps it is a prototype built by Fender. Very strange.

Either way, fantastic find, and thanks for sharing it with us to scratch our heads over.

I'd recommend a Silverface too. I have a '73 SF Twin and I really like it both for all my keys and guitar. The silverfaces are bit unpopular with guitarists compared to blackfaces, but I like the SF's bigger headroom and more cleanliness. And when I want some slight breaking up, without making my ears bleed too much, I use the master volume. I don't think using the MV for that is a popular opinion, but i'ts nice to get that sparkle without having to unload too much power.

Also SF's tend to be cheaper.

I just learned of this recently. Sad news, but at least his family was there to be with him in his last few moments.

I had the pleasure of seeing him play with Roy Rogers a couple years back, as well as talking over hotel waffles the next morning with him. He is a great musician, but he is also a great man. He will be missed.

It is possible to roughly get the sound with a phaser, but I haven't heard a phaser that was as subtle as the filter on We Won't Get Fooled Again.

If I were to do it, I would use a square wave tremolo pedal (so you don't have to keep hitting the notes) and a standard wah because lfo-controlled filter pedals aren't a common deal and tend to be expensive, and are usually part of an volume-controlled autowah.

Mine will always be the solo from Hancock's Chameleon, that Cormac posted. That's my favorite Rhodes tone ever, and it's just such a great solo.

I've also always liked the solo from Riders on the Storm: http://youtu.be/DED812HKWyM?t=2m46s although it's often too "plunky" and I like how Chameleon is ever so slightly smoother.

I can confirm that the stock Vox 847A has some really sharp, harsh highs. A friend of mine has one, and I borrowed it to mess around with one day. Way too sharp on instruments with a lot of highs that don't sound good when "piercing".

My experience on prices is limited to Missouri, where pretty much everything is cheaper, but highest I've ever seen a Rhodes go for was around $1100 or so, and that was a really nice '74-'75 stage with a pair of similar condition Super Satellites. Never, ever seen a Rhodes, even fully restored, go for really anything above that. Maybe a sparkletop will hit up there past $1500, but those are also a bit of a niche deal too, with their upkeep being so much more difficult than MkI's and later. I think that's what they average on eBay too, only really ever topping in the low $1000s.

Also, I agree that huge cosmetic changes will lower value no matter what it is, but I just meant more of a new top and new tolex (given they're original colors) and some upgraded speakers or the like will boost the value as opposed to refinishing a vintage guitar, even if in the original style, will diminish it for sure. Making it look and work like new only ever boosts keyboard values, as far as I can tell.

That might just be a bit of confirmation bias on my part though. I've messed with a lot more keyboard sales than guitar sales.

I have been experiencing the same questions with my Piano Bass. The hammer bounce on it is horrible, you can hear them bouncing loud and clear and it makes multiple strikes a nightmare.

There are some very interesting points here that they are a compromise. I think they might be worth it in my case, since the problem is so severe, but if there's a more permanent fix, I'd like to consider that.

Also, one of my favorite things about keyboards is that function is valued more than factory originality, like with guitars. I love how a highly functional, well-working Rhodes is worth more than one that works okay but is fully original.

I've been debating doing this with my own harp lid, so then my Rhodes matches the Piano Bass. Haven't gotten around to it with so many other projects.

Anyways, looks great! I can only hope mine looks half as good (once I get to it)!

The Twin is a powerhouse. I have one and have had it for a few years. It's just plain loud. That's it's main attribute. It can get LOUD and still sound sparkling clean.  Loudest I've ever turned it to was 6 I think, and that was playing a small show for a friend. I've found it's great at home and great at a show, as it mostly keeps the same clean tone no matter the volume. It's not like other high power tube amps that start to break up as you crank the volume.

I've always liked the tone best around 3-4, but that's often too loud so I just turn down the master (I have a silverace). I've always found it more as where the speaker really starts going or something like that. With the G101, it just really rips right around 4, as I think that's where the brightness of the signal is retained very well. As for the Rhodes, I've always found it works pretty well just about wherever, probably 3 being my favorite.

I'd say play it some more. At first I didn't just love mine, but now I wouldn't trade it for any other amp.

Yeah, I'd say it's shopped too. The angle of the keyboard doesn't match up with the angle the legs are sitting at.

No I haven't, thanks for pointing those out. I'll be doing some digging around I guess. Kind of surprises me on how little there is about repair on these seeing how common they are,  but at the same time, maybe that's a testament to their reliability.

Also, a bit of a random question. Has anybody here ever heard of "Kagen University"? On one of the side panels, somebody wrote "Kagen University Juno VI 1979". Haven't been able to find anything out on what or where it might have been. Guy I bought it from had no idea either. Just a little bit of curiosity here.

I got a Juno 6 for a very nice price a few weeks back, but it has a problem. I was just going to have somebody fix it, but had an issue with my car come up, and long story short, I won't have enough to get it fixed for a while. I've gotten pretty good at electronics after fixing up some pedals, the Orchestron, and an old drum machine, and figured it'd be worth seeing if I could fix it myself, depending on the size of the issue. I've narrowed it down to voice card number 3 as the one with an issue, as it is always the 3rd note after turning on the synth that does not play, and then after that it is every 6th.

I've done a fair bit, at least a few hours worth, of searching, but haven't been able to find anything about the voice cards (which really aren't even cards on the 6/60) because the stuff on the 106's just absolutely drown it out. So, I figured I might as well ask here. I'm wondering if anybody knows of any schematics, or any guides, or any service manuals or anything of that nature. Or if anybody has messed around with one of these themselves.

Any help is really appreciated, and thanks for reading!

I was looking for some videos on Rhodes played with different effects when I ran across this song. Moggi's Elziviro. I really love it, especially with that echo.

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

Thought I'd try to track down the record of it, but that album goes for something like $300. Yikes!

I think there's a thread somewhere in here that talks about this, but I couldn't find it after a little bit of searching. Anyways, the Rhodes is unshielded, so the noise you're having is the magnetic field of the other keyboard being picked up by the Rhodes' pickup. Similar to if you stuck a guitar right next to a laptop. You're going to be picking up some 'noise' produced by the laptop.

I had this problem too, so what I've done is take foil tape (mainly because I have a lot sitting around) or any other type of plated tape, and then cover the inside of the plastic harp lid with it, and then run a wire that I can easily plug/unplug down from the foil tape to ground on the harp. Keeps my Juno from making my Rhodes buzz.

Supposedly copper tape is a better conducter, but foil tape does just fine, and like I said, I had several rolls sitting around.

Honestly, I wouldn't bother with a claim. Unless I'm not seeing something everybody else is, I'd just keep it and move on. You'll never see the corners anyways, and you'd probably get that same damage if somebody dropped it.

Seems like too much trouble to fix something that's not really broken.

How would you go about sanding the bars anyways? Would Scotchbrite work? I used it on my tines and it took all the rust off without just too much trouble.

I have some pretty corroded tone bars myself but figured I'd just leave them since replating is too much money.

I've been considering getting the backcheck mod for my Piano Bass. The action is great on it, but man is there some horrible hammer bounce.

With the tonebars, it's simply cosmetics.

I use a decent bit of pedals with my Rhodes, and I use the two outputs on the power amp on the cab. That way the Rhodes signal still goes through the preamp. If I remember right, the "Rhodes" era Peterson amp actually has a full effects loop, like on other amps (except in stereo), with two post-preamp outs and two pre-poweramp inputs. The top two should be the preamp out and the bottom two should be power amp in. Mine doesn't have the inputs because it's too early to have them, but I just run the pedals into a Twin Reverb.

There's also the input-output on the faceplate, with the top jack being send and the bottom being return. Never liked that way as much because then the signal is weak due to no amplification. But then it's easier to still run in stereo.

There's a handful of factors in getting a barky tone, but the one that affects it the most is the position of the tines relating to the pickups. The closer the tines are, the more 'bark' it will have. The relation of the end of the tine and the crest of the pickup also has an affect in how much harmonic versus how much fundamental. I have mine pretty close, don't know the exact distance, and just above the crest of the pickup. Then I run that through the preamp with the volume and EQ all the way up, and then into my Twin Reverb. It's a good balance between the tone my Rhodes does best and the tones I'd like to mimic from recordings.

I'd also recommend reading the manual here http://www.fenderrhodes.com/service/manual.html

As a follow-up of sorts, I ended up getting the MXR Stereo Chorus, and I'm really loving it. Definitely matches everything and more that I wanted out of a chorus. Sounds great on my Ensoniq too, as well as the G101. It does the smooth shimmery chorus very well, and can also get very warbly. I'll probably get a flanger for anything too deep though.

Pretty much everything will rust in your Rhodes before those tine blocks do.

My '74 had a long life being stored in a basement. Just about everything had some rust or corrosion on it, except the tine blocks. Very few of them had any corrosion, the only blocks that did were the silver colored ones. They had some of the white fuzz-like corrosion in splotches.

No, it'll be just fine. The differently colored plating is simply the result of a slight change in production, only difference is in the cosmetics.

Awesome post and pictures! I almost jumped on a Wuril 111 that popped up, but I missed it by a day. Then it happened to pop up again later, but once again I was just a little bit too late. If I had gotten it, I would've probably played What'd I Say until my neighbors went crazy.

Also, out of curiosity, how hard to move is the 112? I've heard their horrible for gigging, but it doesn't look too unmanagable.

After some more digging through the site's archives, I found that somebody recommended the Electric Mistress. There happens to be a reissue Deluxe EM on Craigslist, and I was wondering if anybody had any experience with it, or maybe some recordings by chance?

A lot of a Rhodes' sound is in how it's set up. It's probably the most overwhelming aspect in how one sounds. There's dozens of threads on here about setup. Moving the position of the tine to the position of the pickup will make an easily audible difference as well. The 'Rhodes' sound is probably one that's a bit cleaner and belltone-ish, but you can get that rougher 'Fender Rhodes' sound by moving the pickups closer.

Asides from that, search through the site on setting up a Rhodes. There's threads that can offer much more depth than I can.

Wow! Thanks both Dan Belcher and Jean-Papa for the recordings. They both sound great!

I like the sound of the MXR Stereo Chorus a decent bit more than the others I've heard. It seems to be a bit more 'full' sounding. The CE-5 sounds good too, but I feel it's a bit too cool and glossy for my tastes, where as the MXR sounds a bit more fleshed out. I think I'll do a bit more research on the MXR Stereo, definitely my favorite I've heard so far. Too bad it's $170 new, but they look to run around $100 used.

Thanks for the suggestions! If there's any more I'd love to hear them. (especially recordings, they're great!)

I've been looking to get a chorus pedal for my Rhodes, but haven't really been able to find a consensus on which one is best (aside from the pricey CE-1).
Around $100 is the budget, what's the best chorus pedal I can get for around that?

The CE-5 looks promising, but I've read it sounds a bit sterile due to it being digital. Also, I'd be using it with a Deluxe MemoryMan and a Phase 90, if that has any effect on which one would work best.

Thanks!

Rhodes pianos have a very low output, so that is likely why you could not get the volume to trigger. You'll need a clean booster or preamp before running it into the auto-wah.

I go to garage sales professionally, and it is pretty much an extremely strange combination of social sciences and luck. And there's a lot of people out there doing it professionally, a whole lot of competition.

I've found scanning through new musical instrument posts on Craigslist daily is better for larger music gear anyways. I've found some good mics, cables, pedals and such at sales, but nothing bigger than that. Anything that's decent sized, people will usually research even slightly. The common path of thought is "it's big and old, must be worth something"

I originally stumbled upon the website when I played guitar before swapping to keys, but www.Gilmourish.com is a great resource for pedal/amp/various sound/tone info, although it tends to stick to David Gilmour and is guitar focused. Either way, the site runner did a bit on Leslie emulators a while back. I can't find it specifically, but he provides a list of roto-sims he recommends. http://www.gilmourish.com/?page_id=278 (Scroll down to Uni-Vibe and Rotating Speaker Sims)

Aside from the obvious playing thoroughly and trying every note, I would open up the lid and check for rust, especially on the tines. I'd also check the condition of the damper felts. As well as if the keys are warped. Many issues in a Rhodes are fixed without too much trouble, but warped keys are one of the few issues that can't be fixed without a ton of work.

As dor the sustain pedal, it is not overly difficult to make some device that will work in it's place. All it has to do is find a way to push a rod upwards. You can get the stage pedal, which should work with a suitcaxe despite the the suitcase's hole being a bit bigger, but they are expensive and you can probably work something out that works and isnt so pricey.

David Aubke Uploaded a 73 case that had been done in Google Sketchup. You can get any dimension you wish from the sketchup files, and I've used them to write out my own dimensions, as I'm redoing my case eventually.

Here's the link to that thread: http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=6986.msg35208#msg35208

I owned a Stereo Pulsar for a bit, and it's mono in and stereo out. I liked it, and it was pretty versatile, allowing for you to switch between sine/sawtoothish and square wave tremolo. Can't tell you how close it was to the suitcase trem though, didn't have a working Rhodes preamp while I owned the pedal.

I got the idea it was a controller, but what I was more of getting at was that if you were unfamiliar with it, you wouldn't really be able to get a clear picture of what it was from their site.

Not to mention the response to the guy's email about not listing a price.

It looks neat and all, but the website just leaves me overall confused as to what it is and does.

I plunked around on it for around 10 minutes yesterday, and the pots are a bit scratchy, but nothing beyond easy maitenence. Keys were pretty level as well. 
Thanks for the response.

Thought I'd see if I could get it for $350.

I have an opportunity to get a working Micromoog for around $400, and I was wondering if anybody knew if that was a good price. I also wondering if anybody had some thoughts on a Micromoog as a first synth. I've done some research, but can't find anything definite.

Also, anybody know if it's capable of the bass and other synth lines from Chameleon? I'd love to be able to get those sounds.

I think for less than $172, you could find a pretty nice working Peterson amp module. Seems like that would be the easiest solution. You could probably find a whole working cab for $200 or so.

If I remember right, the larger of the two knobs should just slide off with some prying.

If you have the money and time, I'd say it would be worth it to order a set of grommets and screws, and then straighen out the tines as you replace grommets.

New grommets make a big difference, so if you have $60-$80-however much to spend on grommets, definitely do so. Then you also won't have to worry about bent screws.

After plenty of distractions, I've finally gotten back to working on my Rhodes. I currently only have two speakers in the suitcase cab, being a pair of original-era 32ohms. One of the speaker's voice coils has been knocked and will rub against the frame making this awful 'flappy' super-overdriven germanium-fuzz type tone when the volume goes past 5.

I don't really want to buy another 3 of the 32ohm speakers especially since they tend to be pricey and the speakers I have ordered felt cheapy and were damaged in the mail.

So, I'm looking for a full set of two pairs of speakers to use in my cab. Any suggestions on what would be good?

I think this is the fourth or fifth 88 from 74 to pop up on here since I joined. Did they just make a whole to of them that year? I haven't really seen any 88s from other years either.

Also, welcome to the forum. Sounds like you've done some great work. I'm hoping to get my 88 up to speed soon, but I always seem to buy a new keyboard or something any time I get some cash.

I would definitely put something on the tonebars. Humidity varies with location, but when I was sanding my harm frame to paint, I had to wait 4-5 days before I could finish. In that time a thin coat of corrosion had already started building up, and i had to sand it all over again.

I don't know if they'll have it, but Parts is Parts (link:http://www.guitar-parts.com/) is the official parts supplier for Korg, and if anybody has it, it'll probably be them.

I have a '74 88 straight-edge case lid in good shape that I'd sell for much much less than $1500. I'm doing a chop from an 88 to a 73 and I'd rather swap lids than cut one, so PM me if you're interested.

I'm looking to do this as a much cheaper alternative for the miracle mod, but how much do you need to order? I can't seem to find any info on how much you get.

A couple days ago an ad for a Vako Orchestron popped up on Craigslist near me, and I managed to get it for $300. For those unfamiliar with it, it is an early 70's sample keyboard like the Mellotron, except it uses 12" film discs to store sound and not tapes.

After a couple days of really frustrating work, I've gotten it to work most of the way. I'm having rampant speed issues, but they're fixable. I can see why a lot of people just tossed these out though, it is a pain to work on. It's pulled apart kind of easy, but some parts are almost inaccessible, like the spindle for the discs and where the belt for the idler wheel-like drive goes. It also needs a full cap job as it is really noisy. I'm pretty lucky in how little repair it really needs though. I replaced the bulb, the rubber on the pinch roller of sorts, oiled moving parts, Deoxit-ed connectors, repaired key contacts (all bent and corroded). More than anything it needs a new belt, but I haven't found a 2" diameter O-ring yet.

I love the sound. It has all 8 discs, but by far my favorite is Vocal Choir. Very hollow and murky. Goes very well through a powerful amp like a Twin Reverb. I also tried mixing it with a slight bit of a phaser, and like that a lot too. Covers a bit of the noise up and adds another layer of murky depth.

Here's some videos, not mine.
Vocal Choir: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRZRi3V4ptY
Violins: (which sounds great with the pitch lowered) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhkIOw4TyXE&feature=relmfu
Kraftwerk used it on their mid-70's work, very notably on Trans Europe Express http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBGNlTPgQII&feature=related

And last, some somewhat low quality pictures. I seem to have misplaced my good camera.

I think that's a pretty good price for a fully restored one-owner wooden key Rhodes. I don't care for the tolex, but it looks really good and he did a nice job on it. Can't tell what pedals you get with it, but that's some extra value there. Probably plays pretty well, but you can't tell for sure.