Our Rhodes (MarkII - 73 Stage Piano) Won't Work

[Doc36th]

After storing our family's Rhodes piano for 20 years, we find that it won't work. It has only had the "living room" type wear and tear, and is in good shape. Everything seems to be in good order, but we get no sound when we connect to an amp. We know the cable and amp are working.

On another site, we noted that there may be a 5 pin cable we need to change. No such cable is evident. The only cable visible has wires soldered to connections on one end and terminates on the other end with  an RCA connector.

I have little electronics background. Does anyone have a suggestion for us.

Thanks ever so much!

[bottyboy]

Could be that one of the pick-ups have gone. I had a Stage 54 and if I stored it away for more than a year it wouldnt work and I had to fit another pick-up to complete the pick-up curcuit. I know of other stage 54 owners that complain of corroding pick-ups... it's never happened to my Stage 73 mark 1 though...

[SantaCruzMike]

What's the deal with bad pickups in the 54?

Mine had nine dead ones when I bought it.
Have replaced them and everything works now, but you said this happenend whenever you stored the 54 for more that a year?

Is this going to happen again?
What can I do to protect the pickups?

-Michael

[stumped]

I have a 73 Stage Mark ! that sat around for way too long...just wondering if you made any progress in repairing your keyboard...and what it took to get it going (supposing you did)...was it necessary to replace pick-ups? How did you know which pick-ups were bad? Any help is SOOOOO appreciated!  I just can't figure out where to begin to get mine to work again...

[Vibe75]

Take a screwdriver and tap the end of the generator (while the amp is on) to see if you hear a loud clank coming out of the amp.  If you don't then you have a bad pickup.  If it's soft then that could be the other generators around the bad pickup are picking up on the sound.  See if that works.

[toddcinci]

I just bought a markII and am having the same problem. did you ever figure out what is wrong with it? mine won't send any signal at all. you can email me at _todd26@excite.com

[spuchtelwulz]

Maybe the wire that connects the output-jack with the pick-up rail is dead or the whole network which includes the two pots for volume and bassboost...I had the same problem,that my rhodes wouldn't send any signal...so i pulled off the cable that connects the pots with the pick-up rail.Then i would connect the output of the pickup rail(chinch-jack) with the amp and there was a signal...so i found out that there must be something wrong with either the cable or the pots...in the end it was the pots,they are easy to get new ones and to build in.when you try the direct way from pickuprail output to amp and there's still no signal then it's definitely a problem in your pickup-circuit or you just forgot switchin on your amp:-) !You should also check out if the connections of cables and stuff all over the rhodes are still all connected.