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Regarding tone bars and tines - is the plating on it a health hazard? I thought the yellowish zinc on the tone bars and the harp frame itself was zinc chromate. Commercial electroplaters remove it using an acid bath because it is a known carcinogen.

The tines themselves don't appear to be plated, but the tine blocks do. Mine have a shiny silver plating on them. Possibly another hazard coating? Zinc cadmium?

Sounds great! Any chance of a demo of the vibrato?

The clone seems to have a bit of extra noise going on. Do you know what might be causing it?

At worst, you might shear off the head.

It is funny you say that! When I was removing all of the tone bars from my piano one of the screws did shear off level with the timber.

Always curious what the advantage was of this? If any?

It is used as a lubricant. The screws go in easier and there is less chance of the wood splitting.

On closer inspection that is exactly what it is. For some reason I just assumed it was silicone from its appearance but it definitely feels like wax!

Hello braintrust!

I have two rhodes pianos on the bench at the moment in various stages of restoration. Both are MKII pianos - an 88 from 1978, and a 54 from 1982. The usual plastic hammers with wooden key rails. On both of them i noticed silicone sealant was used in the tone bar screw holes in the wooden tone bar rail. Was this a factory thing? And more importantly, do you add more silicone when you replace the screws and grommets?

As I said above, the location on the key stick where you put the weights makes a huge difference. The further back in the key, the less it makes it heavier. I am talking about " jiffy" key weights. They attach with two screws.

Wouldn't that actually make them heavier?

The fulcrum point on the rhodes is intentionally further towards the back of the key to counteract the weight of the hammers. That is why when you lift the hammers by hand off the pedestals, the "ivories" will dip. You shouldn't actually be able to play any of the notes when you lift the hammers. By placing even more weight at the back of the keys near the key pedestals, you are actually making the keys even heavier to play because you need to lift more weight with each key press.

Putting weights under the key caps will make the notes lighter, but you also risk a sloppier action as well because the hammers are the only things keeping the keys raised.

If you ask me, key bounce in a rhodes is entirely the result of hammer movement. It has to do with the way the spring loaded damper arm is (literally) tied to the hammer. When the hammer is striking the tines, the spring tension in the damper wants to help gravity throw the hammer back against the key pedestal. If the hammer bounces off the key pedestal, the key will bounce with it. The backcheck mod is designed to stop the hammer from bouncing.

To be honest, I didn't like its sound--it was too thin and trebly, with no body.  The bass notes had no depth or richness.   ...just one person's opinion.

Yeah, it isn't my cup of tea either. I like my tone a little more... swampy for a lack of a better term.

I really love the story about the Leeds E Rhodes though.

Might even be a bit cleaner in some cases, just less power.

Doesnt that contradict ? I thought less power means bringing the main amp tubes faster to distortion resulting in a less clean sound. the 135 watt twin is because of its 135 watt a clean monster.

Mark II

not really. Wattage is decibels, tubes are your amplification, the tube distortion/saturation is really just extra .
Why would they distort faster, I don't see reason for that? You're actually giving your tubes a break with a smaller, less powerful speaker.
What I specifically meant was that, when you crank a Deluxe or Twin up beyond (I think it was like..) 6 or 7, you get that "edge" everyone always talks about. The Princeton doesn't have that....well, my Princeton doesn't have it
Then again, it all depends on the different types of tubes and speakers you have..obviously there's a vast amount of ways to produce the sound one desires....and some tubes distort faster than others.

I know this is an old post, but it might be useful information to someone. Unlike the finer details of EP tuning, guitar amplifiers I have lots of professional experience with.

A fender twin is a much, much, much cleaner amp than any Princeton. A Princeton on 10 is about the equivilent of a Fender Reverb on 3 or 4. It is largely about wattage and speaker surface area. 2x 6v6 valves and a 10" speaker in the princeton have no chance in keeping up with 4x 6L6 valves and 2x 12" speakers in the twin. Doubling speaker surface area doubles the percieved volume. As does increasing wattage by a factor of 10.

That isn't to say a princeton isn't a nice amp. I love my early 1960's princeton with its tube bias vibrato... but when it comes to clean sound, a 105watt Fender Twin will do 4 laps of the city then sit down for a nice hot breakfast before the princeton even gets out of the driveway.

All good! No harm done. 

Thanks Dave! That is an immensely helpful resource. 

Hey guys,

Sorry for such a simple question... imperial measurement is like reading ancient aztec to me. The 1/4" hex washer head is the easy bit, but what are the thread dimensions? Are the No.8 x 1/2"?

Hello EP-Forum!

I have just dragged a Rhodes 54 out of a storage locker and want to give it some TLC. I bought it probably 6 or 7 years ago, but because of life getting in the way... it has been stored for the last few years. This will be my first exbidition into electric piano servicing... so bare with me. I may call some stuff the wrong name.

Externally the case is ok - the metal hardware has shed its nice chrome finish, but nothing a few replacement parts and a few hours won't fix. Internally, its actually in pretty good shape. I suspect it may have had a pretty major overhaul a decade or so ago by a previous owner, but there is a few issues that I would like to pick your brain about. Here is a rundown of what I have noticed.

- Keyboard looks good. Nice and level, no stickyness of keys, pedestal felts in excellent shape.
- Key combs look good, hammer tips show no sign of wear with the exception of the 5 highest key. These are all of the wood core tips, and I suspect weren't replaced with the rest.
- Dampers all need replacing. Damper arms and Bridle straps look pretty good but they need some fiddling with.
- Tines are ok. They are showing early signs of surface rust so a clean is in order. Their ends are neatly square.
- Tone bars are ok. They have lost about 60% of their zinc coating, but aren't really that rusted.
- Grommets are all hard & crusty and need replacing.
- Escapement looks pretty decent, but I need to get in there and measure it.
- Pickups are mainly white wrapped ones with the expection of a couple of red coils. Probably the usual white pickup syndrome. The 1/4" screws supporting each pickup are probably the most rusted things on the piano. I will be replacing them all.
- The harp frame & harp pivot links are quite corroded as well. The harp supports are aluminum and look pretty ok.
- Sustain pedal/rod/damper action is pretty stiff and unusable. I have yet to remove the damper release rail...


So. Some questions...

Starting with the rust on the harp frame and pivot links - given that these aren't entirely tone related components will sanding the rust off followed by a coat or two of a zinc-based rust resistant paint be an ok approach? I am in the process of getting some prices for electro-plating the tone bars. If that happens, I will add the harp frame in with it. Unlike its bigger brothers, the 54 doesn't have a rectangular harp frame. It only has a right angled pieces connecting the tonebar & pickup rails together at each end of the piano.

Action. Perhaps it is the last few years of playing a synth action midi keyboard, but this rhodes seems to require a bit of a heavy hand to get notes to play. Is this common in Rhodes? There is little finesse in the action. Could this be an escapement issue? 

Preamps. I love the sound of this piano through my 1962 Fender Princeton. The chime of the rhodes with the warm tube-based tremolo sounds amazing... but I would really like something with stereo trem for recording. Any suggestions? Perhaps building an MK2 suitcase preamp as an outboard unit?