This Rhodes Mark 1 was made in November/December 1976 (4776-5064). This was my first Rhodes ever, and my uncle had to make a custom crate to ship it in (from CA to CT. With the proper crate, UPS can do no harm really). I'll never forget the day I got off of the school bus (maybe back in 2002?) and literally ran to my house. When I first saw it I couldn't believe how large it was. It seemed really friggin big. And I couldn't believe how poorly the action felt. Horrible, just a nightmare.
I was told that the seller had some work done on the piano in 1977, including an exciting custom brown-vinyl job on the outside. The pickups were split so that the first 24 notes were given a dedicated output (a ¼” output is drilled directly over the “R” in Rhodes). The adjustable legs we swapped with non-adjusting legs for "added stability". Many of the mid-range hammer tips were replaced with harder tips (to add a stronger attack).
Unfortunately, none of these modifications translated into a better sounding and playing piano, and when it arrived in 2002, the instrument was suffering from years of serious, major neglect. My first impression of the Rhodes was a very bad one. The action was unbelievably sluggish, the individual pickup volume was completely uneven, multiple pickups were dead, and above all, the sound was not like the Rhodes I cherished. The sound was boring, flat, limp, flaccid. It was quite nasty.
In 2004 I got the courage to do my first "overhaul" and make my Rhodes come to life. If it weren't for the help provided by Steven Hayes and John Della Vecchia (just to name a few), this Rhodes would still be crude and unplayable. I began by soaking every single tine in kerosene and carefully cleaning each one. I replaced all grommets, all hammer tips, re-wired the pickup scheme to a single output, replaced all of the dead pickups, replaced broken tines, and made sure the tone bars were all clean. To help the action, I added the key lift option, which helped individual key articulation and allowed me to do trills. Re-adjusted the damper arms, (arms were bent, but felt was in good shape). I lubed all points of contact. I replaced the balance rail felt and guide pin felt (which by the way, makes the action feel new again. Really makes it nice and soft). I re-adjusted the strike line because it was all out of whack. I re-adjusted the escapement to factory spec, as it had been lowered. The timbre was set to capture the more harmonic sound of the Rhodes tines. I placed the tines as close to the pickups as possible. I did this to help with the lacking sensitivity, and low volume (I know a lot of guys don't like them too close but I like it). Upon removing the wooden keys, I noticed that the first one had the date of “10/20/77” written in pencil – the date when the first “modifications” were performed.
One other thing I did, which by the way happened after these sound samples were done, was remove the keybed felt, thus giving the keys a longer keydip and hammer tips further distance from the tines (there is still some keybed felt/glue remenance so the wooden key isn't actually touching alluminum). The action really isn't sluggish now, and if I had to choose, this was probably the most critical "mod" I performed because now the tines really get whaked hard and they bark loud as a result (sadly I don't have a recording to demonstrate). Well here it is, ugly and brown!
Here are the respective sound samples. Tell me how you think it sounds! It's not perfect. I'll bet a REAL tech would find a number of problems. I don't get to play too many other Rhodes..at all..so I have nothing to judge it against. PS- not very good recordings at all. Quite low and noisy- for the stereo tremelo it's a dunlop TS-2.
http://octavecat.homestead.com/JazzChords1976.mp3 http://octavecat.homestead.com/FastStereoTrem1976.mp3 http://octavecat.homestead.com/MinorchordsReverb1976.mp3 The following sound sample is me going friggin crazy. Actually, what I mean is I was so desparate to get the pre-1975 wood/plastic hammer sound- you know, the "Fender Rhodes" sound, as opposed to the Rhodes. I wen't crazy trying best to get that sound, so what I did was cut small pieces of maple (about 1.3 inches long and however wide the hammer is) and put them directly on the plastic hammer, for about 24 notes. This did make it sound more like a pre-'75. Actually one tech guessed it was a 76' pickup/tine rail on a '74 action, so mission acomplished to a degree. It was impracticle though, but I would like to do something similar again, to get more upper-midrange bite. Warning- sound sample is bad, only this time worse :oops:
http://octavecat.homestead.com/FenderrhodesSample.mp3 EXTRA- Here's a photo of another Rhodes I now have, which is an updated 1978 with dyno my piano mods (the 78's with the modified peds). Can't say I've ever seen one before. It sounds good- it's very different than the '76 though. One thing that really bugs me is understanding the keydip. The key dip travel is longer than the '76's was (before I removed the keybed felt) yet the keybed felt is 100% intact on the '78. I have no idea how other to increase keydip without removing keybed felt. To this day I still don't get it. Shim the action rails? It doesn't make any sense. I've looked over both of the pianos in and out, and I can't
see any difference, though what I can't see might be my problem.
Well in any case I hope you had a good read and a good laugh. I've enjoyed reading all of the other submissions. I especially like seeing the "Fender Rhodes" !!
Best Regards
