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As far as I know even CBS didn't know how it was wired :-)

Emiel,
   We need to convince you to do a video showing your setup :-)

I've a 2 year old at home who sings "sama sama sama" all the time. He may be one of your youngest fans. Its so cute!

BTW, just a question about the ART preamp you mentioned: it come with his power supply (AC adapter) ?
And a last minor question: do you feel ok with the Lexicon MX200  ?

take care
giorgio

Art amp comes with a 2pin euro adapter.

On the mx200 I bought it on recommendation as a good cheap all-round effects box with decent manual pot controls for tremolo speed and other variances for phaser, chorus etc. Its a joy to use.And on noise, I honestly haven't found it to be noisy.

Actually I forgot to mention where I use the effect loop.

I have a cheap Alesis mixer which introduces noise in the gain and effects loop. I regret ever buying the damn thing but I've read that cheap mixers in general are terrible for inducing noise. The more expensive ones are better but still can introduce noise.

So I now use the Art preamp to boost the Rhodes signal direct from the harp, route that through my Lexicon MX200 effects unit and then enter the mixer as a line-in stereo signal. This means that I'm avoiding the noisy on-board gain (pre-amp and fx loop) stages of the mixer.

I apply EQ from there which does add a little more noise. Mostly to up the 2.5Kz Mid and get a bit more treble. I also reduce bass a little.

I've read that some people use an approach with mixers to use the fx send but loop back through another stereo input and then bypass gain on the fx return. Normal mixing of the original input and return input is then used to balance as required.

I recently got An Art Tube MP from Thomann for €38. I had been using my mixers preamp for gain but it was too noisy. This preamp is very good and quiet. There's no EQ controls.. but that suits me fine.. I route the Rhodes though this pre-amp, and then into a line input on the mixer using the mixer's eq. For budget, its a good deal.

http://www.thomann.de/ie/art_tube_mp.htm

From my own (ongoing) experience with restoring a 1975 Mk1, I'd suggest you lift the piano assembly out of the case. This will let you clean everything and also get very close to the action and allow you a better view of whats going on.

The service manual describes the disassembly in detail.

Double-striking of hammers will cause this. Usually triggered/worsened by low escapement. With the sustain pedal down, bear in mind that some choking will always occur on repeatedly struck keys.. because the hammer is impacting a vibrating tine. That limitation comes with the territory.

Checking the Service manual is a great place to start... this is a piece of machinery.. it needs TLC and correct setting. Over time, it will get out of shape and possibly subjected to poor adjustment. So you need lots of patience and time. Above all you need to read the manual and understand how the piano works.

If you haven't got the manual.. check out these links..
http://www.fenderrhodes.com/org/manual/index2.html
http://www.vintagevibe.com/misc/Rhodes%20Keyboard%20Instruments%20Service%20Manual.pdf

Try to measure the distance between the tip of a hammer and tine when the key is pressed in full (but not forced). The measurements should fall within the recommended distances. I'd be trying for the max distances myself to start. I did some tests on mine by lowering a ruler to gently rest on the raised hammer tip and then getting a visual read off the ruler. You need to be careful here as the hammer will push back quite easily and give you an inaccurate measurement.

Another quick and dirty test is to raise the harp above the supports using coins/washers.. you may get some improvements. I certainly did with mine. But ideally, its best to do a full voicing of the piano to ensure that its set up correctly and work from there.

Most people tend to start the voicing by first checking the strike line to make sure the strike point on the lower and higher tines is in line with recommendations. The strike line is the distance between where the hammer tip hits the tine and the metal block of the tonebar. The manual has the recommended distances. A badly positioned strike line will cause too much vibration. Mine was correctly positioned when I checked it and I would assume that its usually correctly set on most pianos. But check it nonetheless. Don't forget to align the harp with the screw-holes because there is usually some forward/backward movement in the harp and you need to make sure that its correctly positioned. Keep the sustain pressed when straightening as that kind of movement can mess with the damper felts.

Then do a first pass of voicing where you adjust the front tonebar screw so that the gap between the tonebar and harp is 3/8" (9.5mm). Thankfully this distance is the same as the width of the tonebar block that holds the tine. So a handy way to achieve this setting is to remove the highest tonebar and use the block as a spacer for adjusting each of the tonebars. Alternatively fashion a piece of wood of the same thickness.

After that adjust the inner screw to align the tine with the pickup. You need to do this to get the correct over-tone. At this stage of investigation, its fine to just visually position it just above the pickup center. You can always come back for fine adjustment of the tone.

Rob has an excellent video on both of these steps.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvhMvS1tZS8
Also Vintage Vibe do this same step but using the tonebar block.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNGHPqheIaw

It might be best to just experiment with 1-2 octaves in the middle register where you are experiencing the choking and see if it improves after the voicing. If not, then measure the escapement distance as mentioned above and also experiment with raising the harp using coins, washers etc.

This older post may have some answers on this..

http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=5714

Check these images from FenderRhodes LA.. he was restoring a 1982 MKII with plastic keys (all black inside). I could be wrong but to me those pins seem thicker. I would think you might need a new front and balance rail along with a key set from an earlier piano to pull this off.

http://picasaweb.google.com/fenderrhodesla/McKnt1982Stage#5296796341332568242

I've browsed these picasa albums many times.. he documents the progress on various jobs for his customers.. its very educating to see different models in various stages of restoration.

Check this...
http://fenderrhodes.com/service/keybed.php

Afaik, the plastic keys used a different bed style and plastic pins. So I suspect that its not a simple case of swapping in keys. Lining up keys from each as well as examining the front and balance rails of both will speak volumes here.

That's exactly how you could set it up. But as mentioned in my earlier post, you could also use two chains. One from the instrument into eq, distortion etc, then into amp and fx loop through another chain of units.

Finally removed the assembly from the case. Unfortunately no date on the left side..

Left Side:


The serials/codes shown were.."21402 3" under the hammer rail and "6301-1" alongside the balance rail.

The right side however was more giving!...



Its a 1975!.. and June at that. If that date is several months prior to the finishing, then it means this baby shipped with Fender branding well into '75, possibly late '75. The other thing to consider here is that it is an 88-key. Maybe, they were not as in-demand as the 73 and more prone to this later transition.

Anyway.. I think we now know its not a 74 unless someone had a few beers too many or something else and got the year wrong on the date stamp.

The fx loop stage of an amp is post its pre-amp stage. This serves both the handling of of high impedance inputs directly from guitars, Rhodes etc as well as applying gain on the weak signal. The weaker the signal into the FX loop, then more noise can be introduced when adding gain on the return.

When using an FX daisy chain between the passive signal and amp input, it seems the mileage varies according to how much noise one person gets versus another.

However I suspect its largely due to built-in preamps or DI-like High to Low bridging in some of the FX units in use. Any kind of EQ control, distortion etc... all will involve a boosting of the signal.

The general approach taken in performance scenarios, is to pre-amp the passive high impedance source as early as possible usually with a eq box or with a DI box. Signal degradation is generally avoided or greatly reduced and if the preamp stage is good, then the noise induced is usually quite low.

I should also mention that a guitarist will often distort or equalise a signal before being fed to his amp. But he may still use the fx loop of the amp for echo/delay and reverb types of effects.

It ensures that these delays/reverbs act on the fully formed and equalised or distorted sound prior to the final power amplification.

Its usually cleaner and more realistic. For instance a real venue's echo or reverb would be based on the final audible sound. So a fake effect like that is best done prior to power amplification.

Emiel,
   some images attached of my wood/plastic hammers. Looks very symmetric here. No indication anywhere of differences. The same applies to other parts of the hammer.

So the variations you've got are definitely something unique to the all-plastic hammers and seemingly more emphasised on the Mark V hammers.

sorted!

I'll check my '74 hammers tonight.. they are of the earlier format with the integrated hinge. IT would be interesting to compare the three.

I think from the photo that even your Mark 1 comb-type hammer on the left has a thicker right side. Not the same difference as the Mark 5 hammer.. but it is thicker nonetheless.

It may just be a weight distribution where the moulding was causing more weight on one side and they compensated with a thicker right-side swivel section.

One would assume that the intention is to have a fully balanced hammer. Given that it is struck evenly from below and expected to move vertically, an imbalanced weight is going to cause it swivel unevenly.

Well done.. beautiful.

Saw Herbie last Sunday night in Dublin. They encored with Chameleon, obviously an updated rendition of it. When they ended it, I was thinking "pity they never did the wicked middle riff section with the Rhodes solo".

But as soon as people gave them applause, they sat back down and went into the riff. Herbie played a variation of the solo on piano. It still sounds true to the original feeling of the section. Greg Phillinganes accompanied on synth pads but used a more rich voicing than the original. But great nonetheless.

Well worth trying to see them. They're in the UK, mid-November. There's two nights in London alone.

See here..
http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=4666

The gig was great.

The lineout..

Herbie Hancock (piano/keyboards),
Kristina Train (vocals),
Lisa Hannigan (guest vocals one song)
Greg Phillinganes (keyboards/vocals),
Lionel Loueke (guitar),
James Genus (bass)
Trevor Lawrence Jr. (drums)

No Rhodes. Herbie played a Fazioli grand and Korg Oasys to the right of the piano. He did use a Rhodes patch on the Oasys at one point. He also played a Roland AX Guitar synth a few times during the performance, playing solos against the bass, guitar and Greg.

Greg Phillinganes played an Oasys lower tier and a Triton on top. To the right was something I thought might be a clav. But he ended up playing lots of different pads/patches from it. Based on its shape, I'm banking on a Korg M3 as it had a solid raised section. Greg also sang several of the numbers including the cover of Imagine. That guy has a 500W set of pipes.

A couple of the songs featured small levels of vocal recordings from the new album. He mentioned that they can't tour with everyone, so they brought them along on a hard drive.

Encore number was Chameleon and they performed it in a way that when they ended it and got a huge applause, they then immediately restarted it and went into that bad-ass middle section where Herbie originally played that awesome Rhodes solo. Obviously today he plays the solo on piano and Greg added some gorgeous pad transitions underneath it... it really held up to the feel of the original.

All in all, a great night. I strongly recommend it to you lads in the UK to get and see this lineup if you can.

Check the ground cable that hangs off the internal RCA.

Its uninsulated and usually used to connect to the damper rail to cancel out noise. It makes no difference in my setup but I digress..

But if it you're not careful, it can short out the pickup signal. Just make sure its threads away from the harp so that it is not shorting with any of the other wires.

I caused that kind of issue myself once or twice after endless iterations of modding, damper bending etc.. rail goes up, rail goes down.. things will move around.

I'd be tempted to suggest carrying your own little mixer, so you have a complete self-contained monitor mix of your own at your fingertips.

Amen!

When my stereo speakers and amp could not properly amplify the passive out from my Rhodes, I went to a music gear shop looking for either a stand-alone pre-amp or a self-powered DI box. The guy in the store convinced me to get an el-cheapo Alesis mixer (~€100).

While its not the quietest (has a tendency to introduce noise from the pre-amp and gain etc), it does the job. It's also something that you or someone else will easily use in lots of applications, be it MIC mixing, recording etc.

In time. I'd like to get a better quality mixer and possibly one with a USB out so I can conveniently record etc with as little noise possible.

You possibly could split the passive out or RCA into two mono feeds, one to each amp.

However I'm wondering if the passive signal can actually survive two amps drawing from it. I've never set up something like that before. So I'm not sure if that would really be an issue. Hopefully someone can confirm this.

Assuming it is an issue...

One possibility with two amps is to use a preamp out or effects loop out from one amp and route to an active input on the other. The output from the first will have been through a preamp, so you shouldn't use a passive guitar/mic input on the 2nd amp. Come to think of it....surely that's a common feature of guitar amps for daisy chaining?

A standalone mini mixer with passive inputs or an active di box with a Jack splitter will do a similar job of first applying a preamp. The output is then definitely splittable. The mixer option may provide more control here however by using multiple outputs, or a stereo left/right, each with its own volume adjustment.

Well its a mono signal by definition. It only becomes stereo via an effects processor (chorus, tremolo etc).

You could rewire the pickup serialisation and partition them into groups (Joe Zawinul did that i think). Its then a multi output solution then where they equalise bass, mid and treble sections separately. But it's still 2+ mono signals.

However such a setup could be mixed in stereo with left mid and right bias for each output creating a stereo effect.

Wiring the RCA to twin jacks is possible, but its merely twin mono.

Herbie Hancock is performing at the Grand Canal Theatre, Dublin this coming Sunday 24th. Tickets still available AFAIK. I'll be there.. although I'm not betting on a Rhodes showing up, but I am ticking off one on my list to see before I die.

He's in the Everyman Palace in Cork on Saturday night as part of the Guinness Jazz Festival. That will almost definitely be sold out at this stage.

Other dates of note in the UK..

Nov 12th, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
Nov 13th & 14th, Royal Festival Hall, London

I've never actually removed the assembly from the case! Will definitely do this at some point to see if I can actually find some kind of date! thanks for those images!

No dates found anywhere.. several pencil scribbles, of initials at best, but not digits or named dates.

Thanks for that.. I'm in the process of recapping the keys at present.. so I'll check out the lower keys and left frame to see if I can see anything.

A recent Vintagevibe video showing bridle strap installation had them installing the new straps on replica wood/translucent plastic hammers. Looked quite cool TBH.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eE1aS-t1xY

OK,
  no luck in finding a protractor or anything else for that matter that would tell me the angle of the leg. The best I could think of was to take a folding measuring stick and get it to form the angle. Then I laid this directly on a scanner.

This is what we would call pigeon science!.. I'm hoping you can derive something useful from it. The horizontal as you see it is the base of the piano. The section veering downward and to the left is the leg.

Hopefully someone else can chime in with a more accurate value.

I'll try to get a protractor this week-end if this is of no use to you.



Update:.. I googled for a protractor and got a PDF of one that I imported into GIMP. With a little rotating and transparency, I overlaid one on the other. It suggests the outer angle is about 78 deg, meaning the leg is angled at 102 degrees from horizontal or 12 degrees beyond perpendicular.

I'll try and get the angle approximated tonight. I've no protractor on hand. So I may have to improvise something.

Thanks for the kind words folks.

Having this forum live on is as important for me as anyone.. I'm still quite green in the area of restoring a Rhodes.. so having this kind of resource is quite important.

I'm still learning the ropes of this restoration task.. I now know for instance that paint stripper is really not a good idea to remove paint from the keys.

My piano keys are yellowish and appear to have been painted in the past. Keybrite etc had no effect in getting back the whiteness. On closer inspection, you could see that someone in times past had painted them with a thin layer of retouching paint. Several of the keys show a whiter plastic exposed behind cracks in the paint. It would be heresy if it turned out that the painter didn't like the whiteness and wanted a more off-white look!

I gently scraped off some of the paint but this was going to scratch the surface and also take too long. So being careful, I decided to try some paint stripper. I figured that a plan B would be to get a new set of caps.. so its not the end of the World if this fails.

I tested two keys with small amounts of paint stripper. It took off the paint horray!.. but it also messed up the original plastic, dissolving it.. the two guinea pigs now look they've been chewed by a dog. The irony.. is that they looking stunningly white!

So plan B applies.. I'll be re-capping my keys at some point in the next few months.

We learn... we move on!

Almost definitely because the amp you're using is not a guitar amp or one that has a pre-amp required for the passive output of the piano.

Update: Just checked that amp link... that looks like a guitar amp you're using and should have the correct pre-amp.. strange.

I had the very same kind of static issue as I was trying to connect my 1974 Mk1 to a pair of powered computer speakers that I would use for my synths etc. There was an audible buzz coming from the piano.

I ended up buying an el-cheapo Alesis mixer (€100) that had a pre-amp which was able to bring the Rhodes output up to line-out levels and it worked like a treat.

Of course it still could be another issue.. although I'd say a Mark V is likely to be in much better condition than most other models. If you can get a loan of another guitar or bass amp from someone.. it will answer this in no time for you if its the piano or amp.

Alternatively a powered DI box or a mixer (w/preamp) may help.

BTW: Post some pic links if you can.. so the rest of us can moan in jealousy.

I took measurements from my 88-key piano. Based on pictures of mine and a typical 73-key. I think the rear and front legs are spaced the same distance apart and that the piano is just centred over the legs. You may want to wait until a 73-key owner can confirm these figures.

My piano.. you will see that the legs are not as close to the edges as with a typical 73-key piano


Typical 73-key.. (source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rhodes_Mk_II_73_cropped.jpg)



My measurements (taken from the centre point of any given leg)
leg to leg distance (rear-rear & front-front) is 91.5cm / 36 inches
front leg to rear leg is 34.5cm / 13.5 inches

front leg to front edge is 11cm / 4.5 inches
front leg to side is 21.5cm / 8.5 inches
rear legs have the same distances to the rear edge and sides. So the legs are centred against both dimensions.

In the absence of some concrete 73-key measurements.. try working with my leg-leg distances and see what that would mean for the flange positions if you centred a 36x13.5 inch rectangle underneath the base. I have a suspicion that the legs in the 73 & 88 are the exact same install dimensions. You never see old legs or even replicas for sale where they explicitly state that they are for a 73-key or 88-key piano. And given that the rear legs are cross-braced, it would mean they are the exact same.

A Leg is 2.25cm diameter.. thats about 6-7/8 inch but definitely not 2.5cm/1 inch. This was a visual guess. I didn't remove the leg or use a calipers etc. I just put my measuring tape alongside it and made the best visual approximation.

From what I can gather, the wooden base of the suitcase piano shell is not as thick as that of the stage piano. This could have implications with the conversion process. So you might be better off, just sitting it on an EP heavyweight stand. Otherwise, you may have to consider refitting or the bottom with a thicker base.

Another probably more expensive option would be to purchase a replica leg set with replica flanges and construct only the upper base frame with the flanges welded or bolted in place. So from a distance, it would appear authentic but in fact still be a custom stand.

There's been some discussion of this kind of suitcase/stage conversion before..
http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=5867.0
http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=3712.0

..it might give you some food for thought or even someone to contact in case they can elaborate on what they ended up doing.

I'd suggest you take plenty of photos of the exterior and interior so people can see the true state of the piano. Upload them to Picasa, Flickr, Photo Bucket or whatever you prefer and post a link here.

A youtube video of a test run would also help in determining how good the playable condition really is.

This might even solicit some offers from people interested in buying a 54.

[Rules]

Rules
These should be obvious to most.. but here we go..

• This is a discussion forum for help on vintage electric pianos & synths (Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Clavinet, etc.) and their modern reproductions.
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Just some links that may prove useful for users that like to track activity on this forum etc.

List of recent posts
The following will list recent posts on the forum, most recent on top:
http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?action=recent

Posting images or links to images
A common problem for some users.. see here for details on what to do..
https://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=10896.0

Hi folks,
   my name is Cormac Long and I'm the new host for this forum on the Fender Rhodes. I'm Irish, based in Ireland and own and play a Rhodes piano. I'm not a tech and have absolutely no commercial interests with regards to this forum.

I bought a 1974 Mark 1 SP 88 in August 2010 and have been restoring it bit by bit since then. Its a slow and painful process. I'm learning lots as I go. I'm sure it will take forever, will never play as well as the works of art that several of the pros have produced. But this is what you do on a budget!. As it turns out, it will only ever be used at home. I'm not a professional musician. Just someone that lacks a lot of practice and plays a bit at home.

I found the Rhodes Super Site forum to be pure gold in terms of a reference on all things Rhodes, especially the tips on restoration. When I found out that James Garfield was looking for a new forum host , I thought I could help. I have previous experience hosting forums. I already have the hosting space for other projects I run. So honestly, its no big deal to do this. I'm getting as much if not more back as I'm putting in.

So with the permission of James, I migrated the phpBB forum archives into this forum. This forum is based on Simple Machines Forum, otherwise known as SMF. Its software I've used before in other jobs, so its what I know. It very conveniently provided an import utility to convert the phpBB database contents into its own format. It transferred all posts, user accounts etc. So the wealth of information is preserved.

We did do some cleanup.. all accounts that never posted were deleted (over 2000 of them). Lots of spam posts were deleted. There are probably more still lurking there in the archives.

The registration process is still moderator approved. I've also modified the registration agreement, asking that new members email myself with some answers to fairly simple questions as a means of rooting out the bots! without that email, all registrations are deleted within 24 hours.

I also agreed with James and assure you now that I will not abuse this privilege. Your email addresses are sacred to me and will NEVER be shared with 3rd parties. I will also NEVER send you adverts or any sponsored rubbish etc.

Also onboard as a moderator is musician extraordinaire, "Rob A", aka volvoxburger. Rob has been an immense help to me behind the scenes over initial weeks as I was preparing this forum. He has also been assisting in cleaning up remaining spam in the archives and moving valid threads back into the main boards.

So thats it for now.. sit back and enjoy this forum!

Oh yes the rules.. do read this when you get a chance.. (only accessible to registered members)
http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=6149.0

OK,
  I've removed all dampers and hammers.. those bridal straps are just not cutting it. Too much tension variation in them from damper to damper and I just can't get the bending to compensate correctly. So I'm just going to replace the lot and suffer whatever I have to in the process!

Getting wiser on costs.. I've ordered a set of bridal straps, new front and balance rail felts, paper shims, a new scarlet felt strip for the front rail and keybrite.  The total cost of the order is $39.45 (excl postage). It is indeed shocking the differences you can get in price.

Update: vandaking came back with a shipping cost of $42.. sorry.. too high.. will only cause customs to charge me again for import duty and Irish VAT (tax). They base this taxing on the cost of goods and shipping combined. So I cancelled order and managed to order the same set of items (except Key Brite) from tech-note.co.uk. Being in the EU means no import taxes. £45 all in with shipping. Works out at €54 for me.

Onto the dampers.. It appears that the upper dampers were replaced on my keyboard along the way. The upper treble section, keys 77-88 is a single section of 12 dampers. When I removed it, there were the full 12 holes and glue strip traces for the originals. So this is not an original and from what I read, the use of damper sections only came in later on in the 70's and was certainly not in use in 1974.

View of the upper treble section, showing the gap from the removed 12-damper section, some old-style single dampers and then another smaller combined set of 4...
http://picasaweb.google.com/dresdner353/2010RhodesMk188August#5508255068359160258

Closeup of the 12-damper section..
http://picasaweb.google.com/dresdner353/2010RhodesMk188August#5508250968367828594

The question for you experts.. can anyone confirm the correct length for these treble dampers?

I'm going to try and remove my extensions and refit so that they are all the correct length. With the new straps etc, I'm hoping that the with correct lengths etc, that I can have a better go at this.

My own extensions are merely thin but rigid metal strips glued onto the existing dampers. So I'm inclined to hope that they will do the job with the correct lengths etc. To replace the top 33 dampers would be expensive at $3 each. So I'm going to leave it as a last resort. Would appreciate any suggestions on EU pricing for these if anyone knows of a cheaper option.

BTW: Lest is not be said enough.. Thanks again for all the help here.

.

The key is that there is a little point of plastic on the hammer arm that you use as a guide to get the length correct.

I noticed that point yesterday as I was wiping some of the hammer arms clean of dust etc. I thought it was just a moulding artifact. There's a purpose for everything it would seem!

Thanks for that advise and also on the link. I may source straps and keybrite etc from there.

rockstardave.. when you say adding shims to the harp.. where do these go exactly?.. on the wooden rests under the harp (where the securing screws go? or is it somewhere else?

Some update on the restoration...

The vintage vibe kits arrived. Lots of fun ensued..

I removed, cleaned and refitted the tonebars with the new screws & grommets. The springs were also cleaned of rust and grit. Given that the tuning springs were moved for the tine cleaning, I need to do a serious tuning session! I've already done a basic retune using an app on my Android phone (gstrings) to get it playable but you can still hear it needs more attention. The tonebars now feel quite secure. Their only movement is what the springs give them. Prior to this, the screws were loose and didn't feel like they were held in that well.

I've installed the new hammer tips, miracle mod bumps/felts and back-checks. I made the silly mistake of installing two thirds of  back-checks first before doing the miracle mod. The result that the back-checks needed some re-bending to get them back in contact with the slightly raised hammers as they now sit on the new felts and bump. But no big deal.

For the miracle mod itself, I found I needed to sit the bumps at the very edge of the flat pedestal block. Any further in toward the hammer arm and the hammer would still be still sitting on the bump in the raised position. That seems to be the rule of thumb for positioning these. The post referenced above was very useful to understand what was being achieved here.

Certainly now the bounce effect is significantly reduced for raised keys. When returning to resting position, the back-checks help but do not totally remove the bounce.. but they do remove enough. If you sit the back-check too close, the hammer will stick or sit too high.. so its a compromise to get the best balance possible. I can now play fast sequences between adjacent keys without the whole thing getting caught up. So mission accomplished here.

For the damper felts.. I first removed the old ones and straightened up the dampers to have a consistent alignment in their various sections. One of the problems I have is that the hammers and dampers can impact during play. I trimmed some of them a little to relieve this. However I messed up many of the upper treble dampers in that they became too short, barely clearing the pickup!.
So I had to glue on some thin metal strips to extend them again!. Oh the regret and shame! But in fairness.. I think a previous owner had already trimmed them.. so I was only adding to the issue.

But now most dampers are fine with only some still experiencing the hammer impact. I think I may use some of the old pedestal felts to glue a soft area onto the plastic arm of the hammer where the plastic raises as it connest to the wood. Its right here that the damper and hammer can impact each other. So the tick noise may be lessened with a softer surface.

The fine adjusting of the dampers was slow at best. Your dealing with dampers that do not move at all, versus ones that are not resting on the tine.

For the ones not moving away from the tine, I did some bending near the bridal strap hook to increase tension on the strap. This generally helped bring more movement and occasionally required a little upward bend nearer the felt tip to get it to make contact with the tine. There are still a few needing attention in the mid range. At least 7 at the top need a lot of work to get things right.. but no doubt my clipping and subsequent re-extensions are not helping here. I may even leave some of these undamped as they do not have strong sustains.

I wonder if I should have ordered new bridal straps. But it seems that installing them is very difficult. I reckon if I ever decide to do this, I'll consider getting new dampers aswell and try to get a fresh run at the damping again. Give that such a step would be expensive, I'm going to work to the bitter end with what I've got until I can't stand it any longer!

For escapement, I used a wooden edge that is about the width of a tine block. This helped get things move evenly positioned. Then  I worked on the inner screw to get the tines just above centre with the pickup tips. I also moved most of the pickups closer to about 1.5mm from the tine. This has improved the bite a lot. I'm not looking for a dyno-my-rhodes effect, but at the same time, I don't want the sound too soft either. I'm actually quite happy with the results I'm getting.

I'll try and finish the damping work this week-end and also get the tuning sorted. I'll upload another video then to give people an idea of how far I've got.

[Refurb kit]

I've ordered some things from vintagevibe to start the refurb rolling...

Refurb kit (damper felts, hammer tips, tonebar screws, washers, grommets, pedestal felts and miracle mod). Several of the tonebars are loose and seem to have partially disintegrated grommets. Many of them have a lot of rust on the springs and screws. So its probably wise to just refit the lot and use the same opportunity to clean the harp wood, forks and tines.

Back-check Kit. Boy do I need this.. those hammers bounce when you release them and its affecting repetitive fast key presses.I used my finger to simulate a rest for the hammer and it had instant results.

10 tone-bar clips for the high register. The 88 has a higher pitch range than the 73 and I noticed that even with the sustain pedal held, that many of these do not hold the note well. You get 1-2 seconds max. The clips seem to be answer here.

2 replacement hammers.. unfortunately I managed to break one at the axel by accident and while I'm going to try and repair it, I decided to play it safe and get two replacements in case more damage is done.

So lots of fun ahead!

Point taken on the voicing efforts.. but when I got it, some of the tines were located nearly 1cm above the pickups.. probably due to the overly large dampers. It really sounded bland and lacked proper Rhodes sound.

When I did the escapement (using a piece of wood that was about the width of a tine block) and then repositioned the tines to get decent sound, I found that many of the tines were permanently dampened. So I had to relax the screws again to get something that was playable. I tried a little test bending of one or two dampers here and there. I even trimmed some with a scissors rather than bend the strips. Some of the felts are glued on top of older felts that were not fully removed.

Video link below..
Disclaimer: I'm not an expert player and I'm definitely lacking practice!.. but also bear in mind, that in its current state, its a bit of a struggle to play it.

Its a lot of foot on the sustain to compensate for the dodgy damping. I edited out the really hidious bits. So you will see its cut together.

The audio recording was taken from the output via preamp/fx unit. So you're not hearing the noise of the hammers and dampers or myself using expletives as I hit bum notes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PiM-DGPiPs

Sean
  ..that is so cool!.. So it could be a '74 like myself!

The pedal is indeed curved so possibly is original.. I noticed it for the first time during the week-end and for a second thought it might be warped or bent.. but of course it could also be a reproduction or one from a later/earlier model.

And yes the knobs are replacements (the seller had fitted these). I may try to source non-numbered versions at some later point.

I'm going to shine some light on the harp tonight and see if I can make any digits out.

Many thanks for the help here.

Thanks Rob,
  knocking 2 years off is better than nothing.. I was born in 1974.. so its a competition to see who is older!

I'm going to try and look more closely under strong light to see if I can spot an outline. A friend is going to try and dig out an old black (UV) light and go all CSI on this. Although I fear what else it might uncover.

Was actually using your escapement video over the weekend to try and voice this baby in its current state.. lots of fun indeed.

[2]

Folks,
  first post here.. hello from Ireland!

I recently acquired a Mark 1 88 branded as a Fender-Rhodes. It lacks the serial sticker/stamp and digits on the top & bottom right of the harp.

The "Fender-Rhodes", Mark1 and curve-top format suggests a '69-'75 timeline based on my understanding of info I've read here etc.

The sustain/damper rail pivot pins are held in place on either side with a square bracket that is screwed onto the plate, with 2 screws. Also the centre of the rail has a bar and long screw securing it to the body below. I mention this as these designs seemed to vary over time and be of importance.

While the top of the harp has no markings at all, on the underside of the harp are 3 digits "242".

Going on the variable harp dating mechanisms, this as a short-form, might be week 2 or 74, day 2 of the week. But the question really.. has anyone else ever encountered one like this with no markings whatsoever and if the under-side numbering is of any use?

You can see this 3-digit numbering here..
http://picasaweb.google.com/dresdner353/2010RhodesMk188August#5503135106374937218

That link can let you see other images etc. I have a lot of work ahead to restore this baby but I'm looking forward to it TBH.

Regards,
  Cormac