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Hi Sean, never got around to doing it! But I need to.... in the middle of a Hammond chop and custom leslie so... no time. Rhodes is working great, albeit a little noisey off the peterson. I've been running it direct for recording.

Awesome. Spot on. Happy times. Thank you.

Hello,

I have a beautiful Wurli 214a. The lid hits the back of the black keys and it is really annoying. I can push the lid back and it behaves for a few hours, but eventually it goes back to hitting the keys. Have any of you folks experienced this and do you have any suggestions to remedy it?

Thx!

Thx you Sean!

So, I dove back into this piano to try and eliminate some of the unwanted noise that I am getting from the longer wires extending from the pre amp to the faceplace:



What do you guys think the best approach on this would be? Any suggestions are much appreciated.

Thank you.

Looking forward to trying out a Blue Tube one day, in the meantime thought I would share my latest discovery. I have been using a cheap little Fender Vibro King XD 5w amp as a pedal/preamp in my home studio and the thing is pretty versatile. It's a modeling amp w/ a 12ax7 tube preamp stage. It has a gain dial plus on board efx. It's great for adding a bit of crunch. It has a line out which allows me to loop it in via the efx send on my peterson.... or ill tie  it directly to the harp and send the line out directly to the board... or both... the line from my harp is split. Either way its been a joy to use and is a great tool in the studio. I even use it with my Hammond.. Jon Lord tones at speaking volume = happy neighbors, wife and recording sessions while the kids are asleep.

I have a set of teardrop hammers, from this project: http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=9220.msg50228#msg50228... Can these be restored? Or perhaps converted to hybrid wood / plastic hammers?

I did this with my student Rhodes with some adhesive backed foam from McMaster Carr and it really helped. Details can be seen in this thread: http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=9220.msg50228#msg50228

I have had a few questions re where I got the plate fabricated and printed.... StainlessSupply.com & j6creative.com are the answers...

If anybody is interested in running a batch of my plates, I could probably make that happen. PM me. Cheers.

Impressive restore job.  No pedestal bump?

These keys had the marcel bump and the action was great as is...

Hi All,

I have been chipping away at restoring and customizing a '69 Student Rhodes Piano, and I am done. I have been meaning to share the project here for some time now, but my life is way too busy for my own good.

So Ill dive right into it. Ill let the pics do the talking and narrate as I go....

Piano exterior is in decent shape but the guts needed some love as you will see...


Felt hammers had be trimmed down, rendering the entire hammer assembly unusable.... the long hunt to find a replacement hammer assembly begins


Lil bit of rust and gunk, to be expected...


Lovely gold label...


Disassembly begins in earnest at this stage.... the particle board that the piano was mounted to had been drilled into so many different places that it had cracked in a number of places. I had to glue and clamp the board back into a solid piece.


After glue, the board is now solid and stable. Here is my lil helper putting some elbow grease into the project... lets get those pins clean!


New 73 (old) hybrid hammers... installing bridal straps, getting ready to glue tips on... I got lucky scoring a set of these at a reasonable price.


Installing a '69 Peterson pre amp is part of the plan, which means I need to rethink the control plate... the og student piano amp will become a new bookend.


New design for the custom control plate...


New hammers, damper felts, new tips, new bridal straps...


Harp supports had been secured to the particle board at two places with screws drilled in at an angle. Over time different length and diameter screws had been used causing the particle board to break. I secured the supports from bottom....


Moving on to the harp. Luckily no bad pickups... so it is was a matter of disassembly, and a thorough cleaning. Squared off tines, removed rust, shined everything up. New felt grommets in the tone bar assemblies. Painted the harp support gold. Added gold audio connectors.




New felts for the keys. Keys got thoroughly polished and cleaned... these keys had a ton of burn marks and dents... love marks . Supposedly this piano was owned by one of the JB's. I would have loved to hear those jams.


Putting things back together now...


New faceplate came out nice... mirrored stainless


And here is the faceplate after flatbed printing....


As far as the electronics go the plan was to power a Peterson with an external power supply that Peter Hayes was so kind to supply me with, in conjunction with a 100w class d mini amp. All these components plus a surge protector fit somewhat nicely into the cavity of the piano, where the old Student Piano amp used to sit. In order for this to work, I had to make a slew of custom cables.


Here are all the electronics before being stuffed into the cavity



Now, the Peterson pre amp does not fit perfect into the cavity... that would be too easy! So I had to sit it perpendicular to the face plate and run wire from the preamp to the pots that get mounted to the faceplate. I plan to shorten these wires soon, or perhaps use a shielded cable as I am getting some unwanted noise... bearable, but not ideal. Next project.


Now something I can't really show is the strikeline adjustments, voicing, tuning... but all of that took a lot of patience and love. I needed to shave off quite a bit of wood from the harp supports to get the everything to line up properly. Had to replace a number of tines. The tines are a pretty mixed bag. All notes sound good. Some of the notes in the upper octave could be improved, and that will be tackled in the next phase.

Cut and drilled some plexi for a bottom panel with the external speaker jacks and a jack that ties directly into the harp input which allows me to use any amp of my choosing. Also wired up a power switch.


The Student Pianos lid cavity can resonate the keyboard sounds due to its size. So... I took some adhesive backed sound absorbing foam and lined my lid to dampen the internal noise. Works great


Ok, all together now...



And a lil impromptu vid : https://www.dropbox.com/sc/gf73zee8551i67e/AABId1H0ddNz8bWd-HdvG1l3a

And that is that. Next up.... might paint it something sparkly... not really sure. For now I am really enjoying having it in my studio.

This forum really helped me put the pieces together. Thank you to all of you contribute so generously.

Hello, I have a lil 5w Fender Vibro Champ XD amp that I record my guitar, hammond and clav through quite a bit. It has a tube pre amp, models other fender amps, and a bunch of efx as well. It is very versatile and great for the home studio. It also has a line out and on occasion I have run the clav into the amp and the line out into my computer interface, hence turning the amp into a pedal. I can dial in the gain and get great grit with that amp to tape.

Now, do u think I could go from my efx loop out on my Peterson to the Vibro camp xd in , use the line out on the xd , and then back into the Peterson to utilize the amps tube pre and efx... And not damage my Peterson?

Does any body know where I can find the stand offs that support the the pcb board in the Peterson preamp? Not even sure if they are technically called standoffs. Thank you.

The piano had teardrop hammers and they had been sanded square and were unsalvageable. The square tone bar mod I am referring to is the one voltergiest implemented his sparkle top restoration  http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=7854.msg42198#msg42198

Hello Folks, I have been slowly ticking away at my '69 Student Rhodes restore as listed in this old thread  http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=8084 and here is an update.

I have, thoroughly cleaned the tone bars, tines, pickups, guide pins, keys, etc. the  I had to acquire a whole new set of hammers, installed new bridal straps, damper felts, and went with neoprene tips. (The new VV teardrop felt hammers look great, but they are too expensive. I am looking into their new felt hammer tips which are not quite available yet.) I also installed new felts on the marcel bump on the keys and painted the harp support frame metallic gold (bling!). I also did Voltergeist's the square-tonebar iso mod.

So this guy is ready to be re-assembled and voiced and my next plan of action is to create a custom plate that will accommodate a peterson preamp and replace the worthless but cool looking student rhodes amp on the left.

One problem with this is: The Peterson preamp is too big (wide) and won't fit into the space. (Even if it is centered on the plate.) This is going to force me to wire the volume, tone, vibrato and 4 pin socket from the plate to the preamp vs having them more or less directly sautered to the board.

I don't see a problem with this, but I thought I would get your guys thoughts on this before I start de-sautering connections on my perterson! I have a '67 perterson and an early 70's peterson to choose from. I was planning on using the '67 as it is of the correct vintage with the piano.

Here are is a link to some progress pics, plate design, and the two preamps : https://www.dropbox.com/sc/c3ndpyxrmr4kcbm/AAAbg9COw6ciJ6eM_B3crLg8a

Cheers!

Yup, I think the Warneck amp is the way to go, thanks Max. Attached is a photo of the stock speakers.

Awesome! Wrangle that beast!

Yes, my speakers have no stamp on them, but Ill snap some pics and post. Thx.

Hello good people,

I am the lucky owner of a Wurli 214a. It has 4 8" speakers in the cab. It sounds pretty good. I have been auditioning a bunch of different amps for the project studio (Fender Twin, Bandmaster, Kuston 250, lil 5w custom head, 12" cab, 15" cab, Ampeg Gemini II) and running the wurli through the amps, and they sound even better. So... I want to explore speaker alternatives for the 214a cab. The stock speakers lack clarity. Any suggestions?

Cheers,

Quality metal logo reproductions
True mk1 mirrored name rail reproductions

Olav, I found hardwood shims at Rockler. I had to sand them down a tad but they work great.

Anybody have any insight on how to set up an effects loop with a Wurli 214a?

Student Rhodes, to answer your question. There is a speaker grill for a smaller speaker, but no speaker and a 10" Vox speaker. What does yours have in it?

Hello, yes...  I realized that the hammers would need some love. I am weighing my options. My first plan of attack is to get it clean and then to reassemble it so that I can have something to actually play, even if it is a little wonky.... ill eventually get to the hammers. My other Rhodes is undergoing a full on refurb and won't be playable for many months.

I am well aware of some of the other "spirited" posts on the forum that dive into the modified vs original argument, especially with regards to the teardrop felt hammers. So perhaps we don't need to go there, each opinion is valid and each one has an audience.

I am a designer/creative director by day and have been very inspired by the work of Custom Synth  - https://www.flickr.com/photos/customsynth/ - . He has gotten me dreaming of creating a custom dual midi controller, I am learning Solid Works, learning about paint, metallic flake, polishing, plating, power coating, necessary tools, equipment, materials, wood, etc ... in essence, it has been fun dreaming and planning out these projects, even if it is  in 5 - 10 minute stints. I have big goals for my current Rhodes refurb and if it goes well, Ill probably try and go big with the student piano as well. My time line is long and that is ok.

Cheers!

Ah well jeez, I just realized I overlooked two screws. Problem solved. Dougggh! Keep you posted on the refurb.

Hello Folks,

First off I would like to express my gratitude for this forum and all of the rhodes lovers on it. I am new to the forum and my previous posts and questions have been answered with overwhelming expertise. Thank You!

I recently acquired a '69 avocado green student piano. (Yea!) The entire harp (tines and tone bars) are in great shape. No rust! My '78 is (was) decrepit compared to the '69. The key bed felts are trashed, many of them are crusty and hard. The hammers are hybrid wood teardrop with plastic and the felt teardrop hammers are pretty grooved but playable.

The biggest problem with the piano is that it STINKS! I think a family of rodents had lived in the base for years. I was not planning on going completely nuts with the refurb, but the smell is driving everybody in my family up the wall and stinking up my studio!

So, today I removed and cleaned all the keys, vacuumed the keybed and cleaned all the accessible bits. I unscrewed the keybed from the base board of the whale tail base and unscrewed the harp supports from the keybed as well. My hope is to access the bottom half of the piano, (the part with the speakers and amp in it), in order to clean and fix faulty wiring from the amp to the speakers.

For the life of me, I cannot separate the keybed from the base board. It looks like all the relevant screws have been removed, but the keybed, (or the entire frame/piece of wood that the piano sits on), will not separate more than a cm off the base board.

Are there any student piano owners who have any insight on this?

Super cool side note: The piano was owned by Ernie Fields Jr., a horn player who has played with Stevie Wonder, BB King, Marvin Gaye and The New JB's! He was super cool. He posted the piano on CL and I just happened to be the first caller. He said he wanted $200 and to come and get it. I left work immediately : ). Upon arriving at this house, he told me he had 12 calls after mine with offers up to $800! But he said: I am a man of my word and the piano is yours ... and offered to lay down some horn with me if the opportunity ever arose. How bout them apples. 

Here are some pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chavezechavez/sets/72157641639069253/

My suitcase legs were your typical grey satin (annodized?) rhodes suitcase leges. They were very beat up.

I wanted to expand on this and share what I have learned in my research regarding polishing and protecting the alloy parts on your piano. Combing the threads, I found three approaches to protecting your polished pieces. One approach is to paint a clear coat. Second approach is to do a clear power coat. Third approach is to protect with a wax or wenol type product and rebuff from time to time.

I am fortunate (I suppose) to work in an area that is rather industrial. There happens to be a lot of industrial platers, polishing shops, and painters close by. There is also a pretty big low rider, hot rod, custom car culture in the area as well. Because of this, I was able to chat with various pros and connoisseurs in their respective trade... quite the adventure in itself. While each approach will work, the advice that was most recommended across trades was the third approach, (wax and rebuff from time to time).

With the painted clear coat option I received inconclusive and confusing direction. There seemed to be concern with the paint adhering to the polished surface. There was also concern about yellowing of the paint over time.

The clear powder coat option is a good option. Everybody I spoke with said that it would work, however since this piano is going to sit in a studio everybody thought it would be overkill to powder coat the pieces. Also the protection is only as good as the quality of the powder coat and for the pieces that get used, like the sustain pedals, there was concern that coating will eventually wear off.

I did not explore the possible fourth approach of doing a clear anodization coat, but will have the opportunity to question the anno shop that does work for my day job in the near future.

Anyways, I hope this info is helpful, I certainly enjoyed the process. Cheers.

I have been chipping away at two Rhodes restorations and instead of trying to make some of the bits shiny myself, I decided to try a local polishing shop. I am super pleased with the results and thought I would share. The gentlemen that I took the parts to was quite a character. He was covered from head to toe in polishing compound, missing two fingers and eating soup! What a hard way to make a living.

 

Thank You.

Thanks MC...the Real MC that is. I wish I had some EE skills, I am so envious of the folks here that can design their own electronics.

I suppose the Vintage Vibe cheek block power supply will do, however I am personally not so keen on the aesthetics with the cables coming out of the cheek block.

Does anybody know if there is a 4 pin version/alternative to the Speakeasy 5 pin Power Supply? Any of you EE types care to custom make a floor model for me?  I will pay of course if the price is within reason.

Cheers

Sorry, forgot to post a link to more info: http://www.caesound.net/rhodessuitcasepowersupply.aspx

Anybody have experience with the CAE Sound Suitcase Power Supply?

Brilliant! Will chx these dry transfer decals out. Thank You.

Thank You everybody for your thoughts.

I guess when the time is right, I will test both preamps out. Good to know that they are both compatible with the amplifier. I have a design in mind that utilizes the mirror rail. The purist in me argues with the designer in me about this one, but the designer wins this round. I will be aiming for the quality of work that Custom Synth and Vintage Vibe produce. I am fabricating some pieces for this project and may make a custom mirror rail. If I do, I'll make sure my mirror rail finds a good home. 

Would any of you Sparkle Top owners be willing to take a close up of the preamp/control graphics and post them here? My graphics are barely readable, and I need to create some custom water slide decals as a replacement.

Cheers.

Happy New Year! After many years of trials and tribulations, I am finally getting around to restoring my beat up Rhodes. I am planning on converting my hohum 78 MKI Stage into a badass, custom, one of a kind Suitcase. I have two suitcase preamps. One that is in a gold box mounted to a mirrored name rail and one that is in a silver box that I believe is a MK1 suitcase preamp. I think have a MK1 Suitcase cab as well. (Model fr750 / serial 495-1702). My piano has been disassembled for years, so I have no way of testing the preamps... I need to get a cable as well. Will the "gold" preamp work with the amp that I have? Will the other one? What are the tonal differences if any? Which is more desirable? I am assuming the more vintage one is? (If it works!) Here is a link to some pics of each preamp as well as the amp in the cab. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank You!

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/1b7kdk8ymkss6rr/0TK3mB-qoW