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Fender Rhodes Suitcase Seventy Three Germanium to Silicone Conversion

Started by MiloFerreiraHayes, June 28, 2024, 03:46:57 AM

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MiloFerreiraHayes

Hello All...

Lost story short, I'm a technician who works in a vintage recording studio and we took ownership about a year ago of a beautiful Fender Rhodes Suitcase Seventy Three that had had its speaker amps blown to oblivion. Looking through this forum I discovered this was quite a common issue with the Germanium GM120725 powered cabinets and with replacement transistors of this kind being rare as hens teeth myself and a close colleague, who has over 35years in the field of repair and practical modification for vintage equipment, we set out to convert it to MJ2955 silicone based transistors for more than a few reasons. Much cheaper if one blows up, the GM transistors are near extinct so if anything, it has future proofed this Rhodes so it can be serviced long after I'm gone!

After considerable time passed we nailed it, finally. The Rhodes is now up and running without a hitch using the slightly altered values we dialled in. Attached is the altered schematic. Feel free to comment or get in touch if you're planning to do this to your Rhodes as we would highly recommend it. No longer having to worry so much about plumes of smoke coming out of it is rather nice! The tone of the Rhodes hasn't changed to the many people that have now given it a go knowing of its conversion.

All of the best to you all and I hope this is of some use to anyone burdened with such a beautiful instrument being limited by its electronics of yesteryear.

Milo Ferreira-Hayes
The Bert Jansch Studio, Frome, UK.