1969 Rhodes KMC HOME piano prototype?

[spave]

Hi everyone,

First time posting on here but long time reader. This forum has been incredibly informative for learning about Rhodes and I'd like to thank everyone who has shared their knowledge here over the years.


I recently picked up what I believe is a prototype home piano from the early 1970s and I wanted to know if anyone here has seen a similar piano to this one before?

The first image is from the Rhodes Super Site and has been referenced by a few users over the years as a piano that is fairly common, but I believe all of them have been confusing it with the KMC Student model that has the metronome amp on the bottom left of the keyboard. The piano in the ad has the Peterson preamp in the name rail and has two pedals which I have never seen before. Has anyone seen a piano that is IDENTICAL to the piano in the ad and isn't a student model with the metronome and isn't the 1977 Walnut case home model?

The next photos are of the keyboard I recently got. I can confirm it is a Peterson preamp and not the student amp in a different location.

[spave]

Ok, so no replies yet which I hope means no one has seen a Rhodes like this (and not that no one is on here anymore )


Here are some pictures of the electronics on this "prototype" Rhodes

Pic 1: The money shot. This KMC home piano has FOUR player facing 10's! They are all touching so they form a wall of sound that blows both the standard KMC and the suitcase pianos out of the water. It appears that the electronics are straight from the Peterson Suitcase but the speakers appear to be Oxford 10's from Fender's amp division.

Pic 2: You can see how the Peterson power supply has been mounted rotated on its side in order to fit in the KMC cabinet. Form member Voltergeist did a similar KMC/Suitcase hybrid build a few years ago https://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=8069.msg42274#msg42274 but he mounted the power supply the same way it is mounted in the Suitcase model. It is interesting to see how it was done when Rhodes was considering the same idea back in the day.

Pic 3: Close up of the left speakers. You can see how tight the speakers are in order to get them all in the front panel. Another interesting note is the cutout you can see between the speakers on both the left and right sides. My guess is this piano was originally going to be fitted with two 12s like the Executone's but it was most likely changed when this piano got the Peterson electronics instead of the Executone tube amp.

This is a link to one of the Executone threads. https://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=7705.0 You can see in one of the pictures how the two 12s go right where the cutouts are on this Rhodes. Interestingly though, that Rhodes had its frame and baffling altered from a standard KMC whereas this one actually had the speaker cutouts crudely routed out. The timing lines up for this too. That piano has a TBJ date of 10 72 and mine has a date of 9 72 so this might have been the first prototype of what became the Executone series.

[img]http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee252/Bad_Jazz/Rhodes/HolyShit_zps90f31c06.jpg/img]

Still trying to line up a specific manufacture date though, (No lower finish stamp on the harp) so if anyone is good at decoding pots, electronics, or Oxford speakers, please speak up.

[spave]

Ok, the saga continues...


1st Picture is a resized image of the front that is easier to see on the forum.

2nd is a close up of the custom faceplate. If you look carefully on the far left, the black pinstripe is actually hand painted in the spot where the plate was cut before the 4 pin connector. As far as I know this is the only Rhodes that has a Peterson plate that has no external connections. It looks very similar to the Vintage Vibe Piano's faceplate but that one is wider and has a pilot light where the 4 pin would normally go.

3rd picture is of the cheek block. The power switch appears to be different from the standard suitcase switch with its inclusion of the metal on and off tab, although its new location is much more intuitive and easy to reach. Same with the pilot light which appears to be identical to the ones used in the suitcase. Haven't really used the headphone jack yet, although its inclusion in the cheek block makes it both more convenient and easier to find headphones with a long enough cable for. It is easy to see why that is the place the new Rhodes will have it as well.

One other thing to note in this picture is that none of the holes actually line up. It appears that somebody just eyeballed each one on the drill press. You gotta love that CBS craftsmanship


Last picture is to show the wiring going from the keyboard down to the "suitcase" bottom. One of the larger grey cables is the 4 pin cable from the preamp and the rest are the stereo headphone jack, pilot light, and power switch. The hole that all the wires pass through appears to be wide enough to get the RCA and a return out of, so it would be possible to make a discrete effects loop to replace the missing one on the faceplate.

[sookwinder]

FWIW, Oxford 10" are awesome speakers (the Oxford 12" are shite)
The 10" Oxfords are THE speaker for the Fender Princeton Reverb amp which everyone hangs out for if you are a guitarist.

[spave]

FWIW, Oxford 10" are awesome speakers (the Oxford 12" are shite)
The 10" Oxfords are THE speaker for the Fender Princeton Reverb amp which everyone hangs out for if you are a guitarist.

Thank you Sookwinder, that is good to know.

Any chance you know how to date the speakers? From what I can find online, the code on these speakers translates to them being made on the 22nd week of 1969. Does that look right? For the guitar amps how long would the spread be between the speaker date and the production date of the amp itself?

I am starting to think this Rhodes was made closer to 1969/70 and just had a 1972 harp put on it as there are a few other quirks that don't line up with 1972 either...

Thanks for the help

[sookwinder]

Oxford Speaker codes have a 465 prefix number
The number after the 465 is the year (could be one or two digits) and the next number is the week of the year.
So your speaker could well be 22nd week of 1969

Remember the adage that Fender guitar/bass/amp collectors use: anything could have happened in the factory in the 60s and 70s and probably did.
I have a 67 Bass VI with Kluson tuners way after they went to F tuners and a pickguard that is more like 62/63 than 67. (nitro rather than poly)

[spave]

Remember the adage that Fender guitar/bass/amp collectors use: anything could have happened in the factory in the 60s and 70s and probably did.
I have a 67 Bass VI with Kluson tuners way after they went to F tuners and a pickguard that is more like 62/63 than 67. (nitro rather than poly)

I believe there is a similar situation going on with this Rhodes as well. My guess now is that this was a test Rhodes originally built during the Raymac era that got a harp swap in early 1972 with the switch to Torrington tines.


1st picture is to show the TBJ stamp of 9 72 and the surprising absence of the gold foil Fender logo. The Executone's I have seen still have the foil logo and actually have HOME stamped on them so the fact that this Rhodes doesn't means that this was either A. only ever meant as a factory test Rhodes or B. they decided pretty early after building it that it would not be sold to the public. From what I understand, the gold foil logo's main purpose was for matching up the factory warranty to the original buyer so it makes sense that a Rhodes that was never supposed to be sold never got one.

2nd picture is a close up of where the gold foil logo would normally go. You can see that there is no residue or any other markings showing where it might have once been if it had fallen off or been removed.

3rd picture is to show an interesting detail regarding the Seventy Three logo. In the picture you can see how the Seventy Three is actually shifted about 2 inches to the right of every other Seventy Three logo I have seen before. Has anyone seen a logo placed this far to the right before? I know the placement was a little different in the Sparkletop era and I'd imagine there was some variation in the transition years between 1969-72, but I have never seen a MKI with the Seventy Three placed this far over.

4th picture is the backside of the harp cover and Seventy Three logo. You can see that there has only been one set of holes drilled for the logo so someone didn't move it after it was built. This logo was placed that far over from day one. Weird...

[spave]

After doing some more research, I am fairly certain that this Rhodes was originally manufactured in late 1969.

Here are a few reasons why:

1. 1969 lines up with the date codes on the Oxford speakers.

2. After doing some research, I've found a few early Mk1's with the Seventy Three logo just as far over as this Rhodes. It seems like Fender was still finalizing the placement of those logos around 1969-70 even after phasing out the sparkle lids.

3. This Rhodes has solid wood keys and not the skirted key caps that should be on a 1972. Some of those early 1969 Mk1's also had wood keys as well which adds to this theory.


As for the harp and speaker cutouts, my only guess is that they kept this Rhodes around the factory for testing. The harp is definitely a 1972 but everything else adds up to being earlier than that.