Plastic Keys / Mark II

[taco]

HI,


there is a Mark II with plastic keys which has been offered to me.
Are plastic keys on a Rhodes recommendable at all?

Or better wait for a Rhodes with wooden keys?

pls help!!!


taco

[james]

If the piano is in good condition and the price is right, take it.  The plastic keys are only undesirable if you've played a real Rhodes for years and know what the wooden key action feels like.

[taco]

thanks for the quick answer, James

taco

[MikePeterson]

The plastic keys were an attempt at cost reduction by the previous design team.
They were not introduced to improve quality.

They were, however, very difficult to make. Injection molded parts of that size tend to warp, and lots of time was spent designing and redesigning molds and processes.

When tooling and development costs are considered, I wonder if it actually ended up costing more?

[taco]

Thanks a lot Mike,

now I played the plastic keys: sound was ok (maybe too soft), but playing felt like a 100 Dollar Keyboard. Can it be that the plastic keys have much lower weight than the wooden keys? It was difficult to vary volume, and any tone came 1/2 second
too late........I suppose there is something wrong with this instrument.......
what do you think?

best regards,

taco

[MikePeterson]

When we were designing the Mark V, the opinion was unanimous that wood was better than plastic. People like wood, especially artists.

But, speaking as an engineer, I believe that the primary problem with the plastic key version was the short hammer throw. The difference in mass, resonant frequency and vibrational damping between the plastic and wooden key, as well as the lack of felt bushings were probably secondary problems.

The hammer travel was shortened in order to reduce warranty costs associated with broken tines, not to improve the sound.

[taco]

finally, all makes sense.

Cant thank you enough for sharing your expert knwoledge with us!
As well I d like to thank for the Photos of Mark IV which you posted jesterday.
This is by far the coolest E-Piano I ve ever seen!!!

taco

[taco]

now got my 1980 Mark II with wooden keys which are so much better than the
plastic keys......

your comments have been a grat help, Mike & James, thank you

taco

[Mark II]

nice, enjoy your new instrument, I have the same one.

mmmh, just curious ?
where did you buy it and how much did you pay (if you like to give that away)
ich verrats auch keinem weiter :wink:

Gruß aus Hamburg

Mark II

[learjeff]

and any tone came 1/2 second too late

What do you mean by this?  Do you mean that after striking a key, no sound came out for 1/2 second?  If so, it doesn't seem like a Rhodes electric piano at all.

Mike, thanks for pointing out the shorter hammer in late MkII Rhodes.  That would probably be a deal-killer for me.

[taco]

Mark II:
E-bay / I paid 955 €

Sound is good but I m still looking for a better Amp.
I run a Framus Acoustifier with 60 W (which is actually a Guitar Amp)
Tonight I purchased a Fender Sidekick E-Piano Amp. Hope this brings some
improvement....Do you use any electrical devices/sound effects beside your
amp?


Learjeff:

Maybe its not a deal killer. Some People out there seems happy with their
plastic keys....Maybe its just me....I like a real piano or a Rhodes with wooden
keys.  
Never liked all that Claviova, plastic stuff

[Mark II]

Do you use any electrical devices/sound effects beside your
amp?

Hi.
I have a Behringer V amp. I bought it before I got my guitar tube amp (fender champ 12) and still use it as tremolo effect or as stand alone headphone preamp. With it's amp models it's a nice practice amp for headphone use.
Tremolo or stereo panning is a must-have for my rhodes sound.

Guitar amps arent that bad at all, as the rhodes is more like a guitar in a technical way. pickups, high impedance. So, maybe you should search for an other guitar amp, but i dont know what sound you are looking after.

Greetz
Mark II

[taco]

Thanks for your help Mark II!

I like a dull, slightly overdrive sound not this bell like standard sound....
How do I get that?

By the way: Do you think 955 € for a Rhodes in good Condition has been a reasonable price?

taco

[andi85]

I find small Fender (tube) amps pretty nice. Try a Hot Rod or a Blues Junior - the only drawback is that they can't play loud AND clean.
If I turn the clean channel of my Hot Rod to 4 or 5, it breaks up into distortion.
The dull sound is pretty much determined by your EQ settings, but it's no problem to get that with the HR.

[Mark II]

I like a dull, slightly overdrive sound not this bell like standard sound....
How do I get that?

@Rhodes
pickup as close to the tine aspossible, then you get the barking sound when hitting the key real hard. then play with the tine-pickup adjustment to reduce overtone = bell sound.



@Amps: you will have to test some amps, I think you cant do wrong with an all tube amp like the small ones from fender.

By the way: Do you think 955 € for a Rhodes in good Condition has been a reasonable price?

mmh, I still have my prize in my mind (350 euros, without legs, 7 years ago), so I guess nowadays you have to pay that much or even more.
it's ok.

Mark II

[Pale]

Thanks for your help Mark II!
By the way: Do you think 955 € for a Rhodes in good Condition has been a reasonable price?
taco

Depends on the condition and location. Here in Croatia Rhodes are considered to be a rare beast, I was searching for 3 months before I found mine. And in process of searching I found 3 of them, one suitcase for 1500€, one Mark II for 700€ ( bad shape ), and my current one Mark II for 700€  (good condition).
Recently I saw a guy selling Mark I in bad shape for 600€, and other guy selling Mark II for 1400€. It appers that there are no rules in this game, people just want to make quick money on the "retro thing" that's currently fashionable.

[Mark II]

Recently I saw a guy selling Mark I in bad shape for 600€, and other guy selling Mark II for 1400€. It appers that there are no rules in this game, people just want to make quick money on the "retro thing" that's currently fashionable.

absolutely true. supply and demand. the old trick again.

Mark II

[andi85]

I have a Behringer V amp. I bought it before I got my guitar tube amp (fender champ 12) and still use it as tremolo effect or as stand alone headphone preamp. With it's amp models it's a nice practice amp for headphone use.
Tremolo or stereo panning is a must-have for my rhodes sound.

Mark II, can you tell me more about the V amp? Did/do you like it? Do you know if it can take line-level signals? I'm thinking about getting one for playing with headphones in the evening and to improve the electric piano sounds in my Roland stage piano, which sound surprisingly good with an amp simulation, some effects...etc.
Thanks!

[Mark II]

I have the V-amp II guitar, I would ckeck the bass model next time, cause it has more useamble amp models for keyboards. all the hi gain models of the guitar vamp arent useable for my rhodes sound  :wink:
I altered the fender twin model to my needs. effects: tremolo, leslie, phaser, flanger, compresser, ping pong, chorus, delay and some delay with x combinations. I use tremolo most. tap tempo, nice feature for all modulation effects. tube simulation is also nice. I think for headphone-use this thing beats all.
I dont think that it was designed for line level use, but you could try it (mono only of cause).

Mark II

[andi85]

Thanks a lot, seems to be worth a try. Maybe you know how much those older Roland EP-Sounds can profit from a decent guitar-like effect section. I've tried that once with the amp simulators, a little overdrive and effects from GarageBand and was really surprised how good it sounded compared to the crappy stock sounds.