Purchased Rhodes Suitcase in Dire Condition, Need Advice

[LeoGrossman]

Hello all!

I am college student studying physics, with a passion for music. I recently purchased a Rhodes Mkii Suitcase, year is 1979, wooden keys, no white pickups. Let me tell you about its condition:

The keyboard and cabinet were stored in a saline environment, and in addition a mouse made the cabinet its nest. As a result, one of the speaker membranes opposite the side of the sustain pedal has a hole chewed out.

The harp is in pretty good condition. No warping, very little corrosion. I hooked an RCA to Jack cable into the main the RCA input on the harp, then plugged it into a speaker. The signal is quiet as expected, though for many notes it is considerably more quiet. Most of the notes beyond A4 are quiet. See on of my photos.

I believe this is not simply due to tine placement, I think the pickup connections have corroded. I can see green patina on the small soldered wires. Can I unravel these pickups by one loop and resolder? Other than this, the harp is fine.


The preamplifier is working. It receives and sends power/signal from and to the power amp. Vibrato works, lights work, EQ works.

Now, let's talk about the cabinet. The cabinet received significant wear, from both the mouse and the air. One back speaker is as mentioned chewed through.

I plugged a guitar into the amp after powering it on. I receive signal through my headphones, the pre-amp output also works when the harp is plugged in. That said, the speakers receive no signal. Maybe that some things got unplugged, but there are many greater problems than that.

Is the cabinet beyond the point of no return? It sure seems that way... there is even a spark when I turn the thing on. Seems sketch.

[400hands]

Leo!! I also just recently (days ago!) purchased a Mark II, from 1979, with wooden keys, and no white pickups - maybe we can get in contact and start cross referencing our two pianos... my keyboard isn't outputting sound for most keys as well, and it sounds like our pianos are in (somewhat) similar condition - I'd love to chat with you as time goes on. Good luck!

[4kinga]

Leo,
Generally, you cannot unwind the pickup by one loop as the break point is usually at the start of the wind, not finish.  I have seen micro-surgery where you can scrape the corroded wire and solder on an extender to reconnect.  Very tedious and would not hold for long.  Look-up pickup rewinding on this forum.  Plenty of posts.

Careful cleaning out the mouse residue.  (Read: hantavirus)

With that much corrosion, you're going to need a lot of cleaning, but it's easier just to replace those jacks, connectors and fuses.

Finally, if there's sparks when you turn it on, take care of the electronics prior to next power on or you may really loose the remaining if it's not already cooked.  That said, you can generally fix them if the cabinet is not rotted or smells like mice.

[spave]

Just because your pickups don't have "white tape" doesn't mean they don't have the same flaws as those that do. In 1979 Rhodes switched over to the pickup design that became the "White tape" but they didn't actually put the tape on them till about 1980. See here for the TBJ harp codes that coincide with the change: https://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=8695.msg46558#msg46558

When searching the forum for additional resources, I would treat any info on "white tape" pickups to be relevant to both of your pianos.

[LeoGrossman]

Leo,
Generally, you cannot unwind the pickup by one loop as the break point is usually at the start of the wind, not finish.  I have seen micro-surgery where you can scrape the corroded wire and solder on an extender to reconnect.  Very tedious and would not hold for long.  Look-up pickup rewinding on this forum.  Plenty of posts.

Since I posted, I have done a bit more research. I have identified 27 pickups with broken connections using an ohmmeter and my ears. One group of three was entirely out, which caused the rest of the keyboard to sound worse than it was. The start ends are the corroded ends, so sh-t out of luck on microsurgery. Here are my new questions:

1. Is it more cost/time-efficient to rewind my own pickups, or should I buy a set of ~30. I think I can buy 30 in bulk for around $8 a pop, but I do have access to nice tools at my college that would make the rewinding process easy. Now, because my harp code matches on of the ones spave shared, I suppose all the pickups are of the 'bad' white type type. Thus, more may go out in the future, and learning to rewind may be a valuable skill...

2. Is there ANYTHING I can do to protect the remaining 46 pickups? I can see that the working ones have mostly no, though in some cases a little, corrosion. Could I apply some cleaner to the exposed parts, and then coat them with silicone? I want to protect what I have.

As for the cabinet, that thing is kinda toast, it's a whole other piece of work for later. Because I mostly intend to record, I think I will go with a vintage vibe power amp and run the LR inputs through an audio interface into my DAW... should work well enough for now.