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Post your Rhodes pics and its story

Started by Ben Bove, January 18, 2006, 03:29:12 PM

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Clavier

This is my Rhodes as seen after about 8.5 hours of playing, the day I got it.  :D

Keys: Rhodes Mk1 Suitcase, Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, Hammond RT-2

Amplification: Fender Twin Reverb, Leslie 45

darkboneus

Here's my Rhodes.  It's a '74 Stage 88.  It has a tube preamp, a solid state pre, and a phaser built into it.  It can be switched between active and passive and the two preamps can be mixed together with a mix knob.  It has all new dampers, damper felts, key pedestal mods, hammer tips, grommets, screws and washers.  
The inside of the piano lid has been coated in conductive aluminum tape and is grounded to prevent radio interference and noise.  (Useful when driving the tube preamp at a high gain setting.)  
-Rob Currier





Miguel Tuna

Very nice. What's that on the background of the suitcase? An organ?
'79 Mk1 Suitcase

Miguel Tuna

Portugal

Rob A

Now that's a modded Rhodes. High class.

Spookyman

WOW !

I'm loving this kind of modifications...amazing !  :D
Fender Rhodes Stage 1971
Fender Rhodes Suitcase 1973

kineticturtle

This topic is just so beautiful! I'm proud to be able to add to it...

Here's my Mark II, with her custom paint job (Krylon with some sparkle, and a little texturing). I had been looking for a 73 of some kind for awhile, and was actually called from a list at a store I had given my name to, but by the time I got in to look at the piano, someone who rebuilds these babies as a hobby had already traded the one they called me about and brought this one back in instead, recently repaired and readjusted! I couldn't resist.

The custom paint job came later, partly inspired by the blue sparkle top one in the main Super Site gallery, and partly to match the lamp cover on the Bassman 50 that I've paired with her.

And of course, here's some photos (with special guest, my melodica 36!):




Peacefrog35

I've posted in the thread before and yet I have another piano bass story.  Some may argue I'm not a true Fender Rhodes guy,but I am.   However, I only own piano basses at this time.

Anyway, I found this by luck while I was inspecting a house.  This lady had this shiny goldish thing in her garage with a ton of stuff on it and all around it.  I had to move stuff to inspect the fire damage to the garage.  I immediatley knew what it was, and my heart was beating fast.  Could this be the illusive gold top  piano bass???  I asked the lady about it and she said they bought it  years and years ago thinking it was an accordian( weird huh) and her son never played it and so it sat in the basement forever then moving to the garage for years and years.  
The top of the case was not on it and the fiberlass was cracked and the thing was cruddy.  She offered it to me for free, but I couldn't do that and someone being there on a professional capacity, I didn't feel right just taking it so I offered her the cash I had on me and took it.

The hammers and everyting was in great shape, although out of tune, but hte Raymac tines were also in great shape.  The tolex was shot and water damaged...strangely enough though, not torn.  The cheek blocks had crud on it and didn't even look like wood so I polished them for a long time.  I took the thing apart, cleaned it had it tuned, tolex changed and the top repaired professionaly.  THe crack was repaired and the sparkle blended so the repair is totally hidden.  All I need is the repacement tone knob that I am waiting on.

Here's a pic:



and another giving a close up of the repaired top looking better than it did when new I'll bet.

current gear:
1965 Fender Rhodes Gold Sparkle Piano Bass
1965 Fender Rhodes Gold Sparkle Piano Bass
1962 Fender Rhodes white top piano bass
1966 Fender Rhodessilver sparkle piano bass
1968 Gibson G101 organ
1966 Vox 301H wood key conitnental
1968 Vox 301E Continental
1967 RMI 300A Electra-piano and Harpsichord

Clavier

Wow, that bass is incredible! You're a lucky guy, finding that like you did.

Out of curiosity, why would anyone say that you are not a true Rhodes guy?
Keys: Rhodes Mk1 Suitcase, Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, Hammond RT-2

Amplification: Fender Twin Reverb, Leslie 45

Martin Borgh

1974 Fender Rhodes 88, Wurlitzer 200, Clavinet D6, Crumar Organizer, Hammond L122, Leslie 760, Music Man HD100, Fender Twin Reverb, MOOG LP, Nord Electro 3, EHX Effects

com__dot

This is my rhodes, I got it on ebay a year ago for $400 US and it was and still is in great shape. I designed the custom ATA flight case based on the specs of the original case, and I'm glad to say that the new one is lighter and far more sturdy, especially when it comes to the latches, handles, etc (in the pic with the other rhodes and the XK3, it's sitting in a wood case I had made and was unhappy with). In fact, the flight case cost nearly twice as much as the rhodes itself, but it is now indestructible and I have no nightmares about my tolex ripping.

The preamp has been modified by a rhodes tech in Calgary (he did Chick's and Herbie's Rhodes back in the day) so that it now functions as a STAGE model, only now it plugs into the wall, and has two new left and right outs to get that sweet ping-pong effect.

This is my favorite gig rig, I use it frequently. And the flat top makes it easy for me to stick my Korg RADIAS or Hammond XK3 ontop.






[/img]

ZHeN


my 1972 fender rhodes mk. I stage
and a fender twin silverface (~1974-1976)
You can play a shoestring if you're sincere © John Coltrane

ZHeN

my girlfriend cleaned it and then I took a shot and then she cleaned it virtually (photoshop!)
You can play a shoestring if you're sincere © John Coltrane

raemon80

Great pics!

I finally got my baby after years of thinking about it and months of searching. Pics wil follow in a couple of weeks.

OT:
1ThingI have to express about a lot of the pics...your (home) studios are all horribly treated for accoustics!! :shock:
You guys spent so much time on your goodies you forget the space you play in!!!
.

:oops:


carry on..
1973 Fender Rhodes MKI 73==>1969 Fender Princeton Amp/Neve 8801
Korg Triton Pro-X
Roland XP-80
Waldorf Q - rack
Casio VL-1 (!!)

Jordy

Quote from: "darkboneus"Here's my Rhodes.  It's a '74 Stage 88.  It has a tube preamp, a solid state pre, and a phaser built into it.  It can be switched between active and passive and the two preamps can be mixed together with a mix knob.  It has all new dampers, damper felts, key pedestal mods, hammer tips, grommets, screws and washers.  
The inside of the piano lid has been coated in conductive aluminum tape and is grounded to prevent radio interference and noise.  (Useful when driving the tube preamp at a high gain setting.)  
-Rob Currier



DAMN! Looks beautiful with all the knobs :)
'71 Stage 73  >>  Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

kineticturtle

Quote from: "raemon80"1ThingI have to express about a lot of the pics...your (home) studios are all horribly treated for accoustics!! :shock:
You guys spent so much time on your goodies you forget the space you play in!!!

My photos were actually taken soon after I moved in; I've added some improvised but attractive sound paneling since then, and now everything's been moved around!

Jordy

Quote from: "tjjazzpiano"
Quote from: "Manzarek"

P.S The BX3 stand was made by myself and a friend to made him look like a real B3,

/e drools

I heard the old ones have a more "dirty" sound than the new ones.  True/False?

I'm very very sure,
Because the new ones are digital and the old ones are analog.
'71 Stage 73  >>  Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

billulsund

Here are some before and after pics of my 1974 Fender Rhodes Seventy Three key Suitcase piano. I got it on Ebay for $400 and the seller says she purchased it new at a San Fansisco music store in 1974.  She said that she used it as a home piano and the only time it was moved was when she changed residence. She said that she had not played it at all in the last 10 years, and during one of her past moved has lost the case lid. I had to drive out to the middle of nowhere in Oregon to pick it up and was a bit concerned when I first saw it sitting in a funky old attic that reeked of cat pee. It was covered in dust, but had very little visible damage. I was pleasantly surprised when she turned it on and all of the keys worked, and it was actually in pretty good tune. I asked her if she had ever done anything to it and she said that she had never done any maintenance or repairs to the piano. I took it home and spent many hours taking everything apart and thoroughly cleaning it. The action felt pretty sluggish and I discovered why when I took the keys off and found that all of the pedestal felts and key bushings were barely worn. The piano had never even been played enough to get fully broken in. The piano is now all cleaned up and playing great. I have ordered the miracle mod kit to improve the action and will be rebuilding the amp soon (one channel is not working). Overall I could not be more impressed with my find.

Before


After
1974 Suitcase 73, 1975 Suitcase 88

Ben Bove

Haha!  I saw this one go through ebay a few times I believe.  A great deal for you.

I think I was most interested in the fact that it had the early style concentric knobs.

When you get a chance, could I get the serial number from you and any day codes on it?  I may have the records but I believe she never got back to me.
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billulsund

Quote from: "bjammerz"Haha!  I saw this one go through ebay a few times I believe.  A great deal for you.

I think I was most interested in the fact that it had the early style concentric knobs.

When you get a chance, could I get the serial number from you and any day codes on it?  I may have the records but I believe she never got back to me.

bjammerz,

I just posted all that info on the thread for listing information about suitcase models. I could not read the first digit of serial number very well in the picture so I will let you know when I get home if that is not correct. The only problem is that it is missing the volume knob and as I am sure you know the original concentric knobs are hard to come by so I am going to have to settle for the later cylindrical style knob as a replacement.
1974 Suitcase 73, 1975 Suitcase 88

Mark II

Hi.
VintageVibe and Speakeasy aswell have the knobs.
No quest anymore.

Mark II
Rhodes Stage 73 Mark II 1980 / modified Peterson Suitcase Preamp

3bergen

Well finaly I've got my suitcase! It's a 1976 73, and it looks to be in great condition, at least from the outside!
Got it off Ebay in Germany, had it in my home for 1 day and now it's getting a full service at EP service in Holland, so I have to be patient once more! :? Also picked up a Clavinet E7 while I was there... nice!!!
Anyway here are some preview pics... more pics as soon as I have it back*

1976 suitcase 73 - 70's small stone phaser - MXR phase 100
Wurlitzer 200a (in restoration)
Clavinet E7 - EH mini Q-tron - CryBaby 535Q
Casio VL-1
Stylophone
Several hohner Melodicas

MikeMalone

Nice! Most people would love to get ONE of these. To get two on the same day...great! A clavinet would be my next purchase (once I'm done restoring my Rhodes, Wurlitzer and Hammond!!!!! :lol: ). How much did you pay for the clav? What shape is it in?
1976 Rhodes Suitcase 73
1966 Fender BandMaster Blackface
1955 Hammond M3
1966 Wurlitzer 140B
Yamaha Motif 6
Nord Lead 3
Casio CDP-100 (pretty good Rhodes sound!)

3bergen

yeah, I bid on the clavinet and forgot about it, then all of a sudden I have a clavi!  :lol:
I paid 650€, and it's in pretty good shape, though I'm also having it serviced at the moment, just to start fresh and clean!
1976 suitcase 73 - 70's small stone phaser - MXR phase 100
Wurlitzer 200a (in restoration)
Clavinet E7 - EH mini Q-tron - CryBaby 535Q
Casio VL-1
Stylophone
Several hohner Melodicas

Mark II

that's almost a steal, with D6 hitting 1200 euros these days in europe.

congrats

I love these auctions you forget but win all the same.

Mark II
Rhodes Stage 73 Mark II 1980 / modified Peterson Suitcase Preamp

3bergen

I'm pretty happy myself! I guess most people forget about the E7 and go for the D6 (and yeah the D6 looks better, but still...)
The prices for most vintage keys are pretty high in Europe, but there are still some relative good finds here I guess!
I got the rhodes for 1450€ which is a pretty good price as well over here, specially for such a goodlooking one. Only problem is I can't stand it that I didn't start looking for this stuff years earlier!! *sniff*
oh well, at least I got 'em now...
1976 suitcase 73 - 70's small stone phaser - MXR phase 100
Wurlitzer 200a (in restoration)
Clavinet E7 - EH mini Q-tron - CryBaby 535Q
Casio VL-1
Stylophone
Several hohner Melodicas

Mark II

Quote from: "3bergen"Only problem is I can't stand it that I didn't start looking for this stuff years earlier!! *sniff*
oh well, at least I got 'em now...

hell, yeah, in the early 80ties everyone was selling they Hammond/Rhodes/Hohner to get a DX7. pfui

I wish I had been into music and a little bit older these days.

Edit:
But I can't complain. I got my rhodes for 350 euros (without legs, braces and leg flanges). :D

Mark II
Rhodes Stage 73 Mark II 1980 / modified Peterson Suitcase Preamp

3bergen

our time will come... some day... :wink:
1976 suitcase 73 - 70's small stone phaser - MXR phase 100
Wurlitzer 200a (in restoration)
Clavinet E7 - EH mini Q-tron - CryBaby 535Q
Casio VL-1
Stylophone
Several hohner Melodicas

tomnardozza

even the keyboards go topless in europe!!
"What's in a name? that which we call a rhodes
     By any other name would smell as sweet......"

ctenophonic

Hi

Just joined- long time frequenter of the site- and just picked up my '77 73 suitcase with the FR-7710 cabinet! :D I only paid 450 USD for it...   I'm pretty happy about it!

I found this one on a Craigslist posting a good distance from me, but it was the closest one around that wasn't 1200+ USD. So my girlfriend and I made the drive to Billings, Montana (having a nice day to spend in Yellowstone along the way :) ) and picked it up. It was in slightly better shape than I had thought- with most of the tolex ripped on the speaker cab. It has no speakers in it right now, which isn't too bad, and the pedal needs to be either replaced or retrofitted with a new extension- but the sustain works. The inside is in excellent shape with only age being the major factor in its condition. production No. is 3077

The speaker cab is pretty jacked... like I said, no speakers... yet. There's some weird mod on the player's side (see image) which I guess are outputs: the preamp outs from the amp itself to my KC-550 work great, but the mystery jacks on the front don't appear to do anything that I can tell. I plug them in and I get nothing :? so I think as part of my restoration I'm going to remove that... I like the silver Fender/Rhodes grill more than the black... we'll see.

I'm going to go through and adjust the tines and tonebars- even though it sounds pretty good already- just some timbral changes. there's no mid punch to it.






Anyway- there it is. This means I'll have to sell my Wurli 112 now, but oh well.

Ben Bove

Well because they're right next to the poweramp on the player's side, I'm assuming it's some kind of effects loop for the cabinet, or additional inputs or outputs.  Probably has nothing to do with the actual piano part, maybe when they used speaker cabinet by itself with other things.
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ctenophonic

Quote from: "bjammerz"Well because they're right next to the poweramp on the player's side, I'm assuming it's some kind of effects loop for the cabinet, or additional inputs or outputs.  Probably has nothing to do with the actual piano part, maybe when they used speaker cabinet by itself with other things.

hmm... good call. I'll have to give it a try.

billulsund

Quote from: "Mark II"Hi.
VintageVibe and Speakeasy aswell have the knobs.
No quest anymore.

Mark II

Well, I just got my new volume knob from Vintage Vibe, and it is not a perfect match. The existing knobs are a cone shape, while the knobs sold at Vintage Vibe and Speakeasy are cylinder shaped.
1974 Suitcase 73, 1975 Suitcase 88

MikeMalone

I've never seen a cone-shaped knob? I think that's a mod of some sort....
1976 Rhodes Suitcase 73
1966 Fender BandMaster Blackface
1955 Hammond M3
1966 Wurlitzer 140B
Yamaha Motif 6
Nord Lead 3
Casio CDP-100 (pretty good Rhodes sound!)

Mark II

Quote from: "billulsund"

Well, I just got my new volume knob from Vintage Vibe, and it is not a perfect match. The existing knobs are a cone shape, while the knobs sold at Vintage Vibe and Speakeasy are cylinder shaped.

sorry, didnt know this fact. I thought it's a perfect match. But I think the result looks better than mixing different knob desgins ?

Mark II
Rhodes Stage 73 Mark II 1980 / modified Peterson Suitcase Preamp

billulsund

Quote from: "MikeMalone"I've never seen a cone-shaped knob? I think that's a mod of some sort....

They are definitely the original knobs. The lady I got it from bought it new in 1974 and said that nothing on it had been changed (except that she lost the volume knob and lid).
1974 Suitcase 73, 1975 Suitcase 88

billulsund

Quote from: "Mark II"
Quote from: "billulsund"

Well, I just got my new volume knob from Vintage Vibe, and it is not a perfect match. The existing knobs are a cone shape, while the knobs sold at Vintage Vibe and Speakeasy are cylinder shaped.

sorry, didnt know this fact. I thought it's a perfect match. But I think the result looks better than mixing different knob desgins ?

Mark II

Yeah, the Vintage Vibe replacement knob is very close to the original and definitely looks better than the Peavey amp knob I had temporarily put on there. But it still would be nice if I could find an exact match.
1974 Suitcase 73, 1975 Suitcase 88

Ben Bove

There were 2 styles of concentric knobs used on the Peterson preamps.  the early style of cone-shaped was used from about 1968 or whenever it first came out, upto about early 1974 when the cyllidrical was used until end of production.

You'll probably never be able to find an original cyllindrical concentric knob, so the speakeasy mismatch will still be the only answer to a functioning knob.

Here are some sample photos of the early concentric knobs.  If you notice they have a dot indicator on the outer knob only, the cyllindrial with lines on both knobs came later (though if you can take a close up pic of your Bill I'd love it!)





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Mark II

thanks, bjammerz, although for me it's hard to tell, never saw a suitcase, nor touched the knobs. When I was doing my research for getting suitable knobs for my Peterson Preamp I would have been glad if the refabricates were already on the market. Took my quite some time to find fitting concentrics knobs.
anyway.

Mark II
Rhodes Stage 73 Mark II 1980 / modified Peterson Suitcase Preamp

Ben Bove

oh yeah of course.  If anything these replacements are better because the first generation knobs had no indicator on the inner knob.
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billulsund

Here are some closer pictures of the preamp knobs on my Fender Rhodes. You can see the difference between the old concentric knobs and the ones you can get from Vintage Vibe or Speakeasy. I gave up hope on finding an original after dicovering how rare they are, but I think this looks pretty good.


1974 Suitcase 73, 1975 Suitcase 88

Mark II

allright, now I got the point. But why do you buy a concentric knob for a non concentric potentiometer ?

Mark II
Rhodes Stage 73 Mark II 1980 / modified Peterson Suitcase Preamp

Ben Bove

If you want to have a full matching set of the newer-type knob, I'd be willing to do an exchange plus a little cash for your 2 old-style concentrics.  I have a pair that would match your new knob, plus maybe a little extra for the trouble.  I rarely come across these and would need for parts some day in the future.
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billulsund

Mark II - If you look at the above picture of the original volume knob on the sparkle top rhodes you can see that they put concentric knobs on the non-concentric volume pot to match the other knobs. I was hoping the volume knob would match a little better, but it still looks good.

Bjammerz - I appreciate your offer, but I would prefer to try and find an original volume knob that matches the other ones instead (I know that will not be easy). If I every give up my quest and decide to replace them all with new knobs I will let you know.
1974 Suitcase 73, 1975 Suitcase 88

Mark II

Quote from: "billulsund"Mark II - If you look at the above picture of the original volume knob on the sparkle top rhodes you can see that they put concentric knobs on the non-concentric volume pot to match the other knobs. I was hoping the volume knob would match a little better, but it still looks good.

true, thanks for  letting me know.

Mark II
Rhodes Stage 73 Mark II 1980 / modified Peterson Suitcase Preamp

ctenophonic

Quote from: "bjammerz"Well because they're right next to the poweramp on the player's side, I'm assuming it's some kind of effects loop for the cabinet, or additional inputs or outputs.  Probably has nothing to do with the actual piano part, maybe when they used speaker cabinet by itself with other things.

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk35/ctenophonic/inside_theMachine.jpg

this one is very big

I opened 'er up and took this picture of the panel and the amp. the panel has wired each channel from the headphone jack (which is very hard to see, but if you look close at the photo it is) into two 1/4" mono jacks... presumably for outputs?? but wouldn't the Ωs on the headphones be incompatible with speakers? also, it's wired up with fuses for each channel (which are blown, which explains why nothing works when plugged in) which may give them power right from the amplifier, which kinda would scare me from plugging speakers into them...

If that's the case (they're used for external speakers only) I may just take it out or at least disconnect the wiring.

what do you all think?

Rob A

Likeliest is that they are just in parallel with the speakers, and facilitate connecting external speakers (like floor wedges or whatever). See if you can trace the wires back to speakers.

ctenophonic

Quote from: "Rob A"Likeliest is that they are just in parallel with the speakers, and facilitate connecting external speakers (like floor wedges or whatever). See if you can trace the wires back to speakers.

actually... I don't have any speakers in the cab... not even any stray wires that might have been connected  :oops: maybe this is just a replacement setup for speakers??? problem is, i don't think any of the speakers lying around here will match the Ω rating or wattage... All i ave it my Ampeg 4x10, and an older randall which has TRS jacks for the speakers but probably can't handle 100 solid state watts.. i dunno. nope- each is 35 watt rated at 8Ω well.. will it totally kill the speakers even if i do it at a very low volume and just test it real quick to see if that's what it is?

Ben Bove

It's possible they wanted to wire up 2 speakers to increase the tremolo effect?  You just never know with the doctored mods.  It wouldn't make sense to wire mono channels of left and right unless you're trying to separate the signal into 2 separate cabinets.  I know people have incorrectly gone direct into a mixer with a stereo cable out of the headphone jack.

Regardless, yes I'm sure they serve no purpose at this point.  As long as it appears your input/output jacks on the power amp are still wired up, I'd remove the wiring.  

Does your cabinet play at all or are the master fuses blown inside?
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ctenophonic

Quote from: "bjammerz"It's possible they wanted to wire up 2 speakers to increase the tremolo effect?  You just never know with the doctored mods.  It wouldn't make sense to wire mono channels of left and right unless you're trying to separate the signal into 2 separate cabinets.  I know people have incorrectly gone direct into a mixer with a stereo cable out of the headphone jack.

Regardless, yes I'm sure they serve no purpose at this point.  As long as it appears your input/output jacks on the power amp are still wired up, I'd remove the wiring.  

Does your cabinet play at all or are the master fuses blown inside?

Thanks- I probably will remove that once I get new speakers for the cab.

No fuses on the amp itself blown- everything works and sounds beautifully! I had some static before but it was just the instrument cable it came with, so replacing that it sounds great now-

i don't remember this recording might have static... i did it the day after I got it back home.  http://www.savefile.com/files/1630096

I'm plugged into a KC-550 via the preamp outs on the cabinet amp.

Rhodester

Quote from: "tjjazzpiano"You people and your B-3's... I'm so envious :-(

grrrrrrrrr
1`

Im envious too...  although Ive got an Aruora Century, with drawbars and a built in leslie...

rhodes is still in process of acqusition...
Roland HP400 {piece of crap}