tough action and no pedastal felts.....???

[hobageeba]

hello.  i just bought a rhodes suitcase mark I recently.  i'm really new to this instrument and hardly know anything about it, but i've been trying to educate myself.  anyway, there's a few issues with it, my main concern being the action.  it's really tough and you really have to bang on some of the keys to get it to play.  after deciding that i can't afford to have it professionally set up, i decided to try it myself.  i looked on this site and found the "action inspection" page.  the first thing it tells you to do is to check the pedestal felts.  i removed the name plate and removed a few keys to find that i don't have ANY pedestal felts.  what's up with that??  is that normal?  any suggestion for remedying the action would help too.  thanks a lot.

[jim]

hello hobageeba,
your piano is probably of the era where the felt was on the bottum of the key rather than on the pedestal.
there ire discussions about modifying all over this site, so, you can have yrself an internet adventure.
i just recently got myself one with felt like yours and a previous owner has modified the pedestals and put sticky tape over the pedestals so it slips real nice across the felt. the action is very easy.
there is a bit in the rhodes manual (on this site) about key pedestal modification. you could do a version of this but instead of using felt use cardboard  (for the little lump) and sticky tape over that.
hope that helps.

[hobageeba]

cool, thanks.  i see the felts now.  is there anything that you recommend doing that would not be a mod, but just a tune-up sort of thing?  i'm not that interested in modding my rhodes (at least not yet), i more want to get this thing working properly.  i read the manual that's on this site and it talks about adjusting escapement distances, realignment of damper settings, etc.  should i try these?  plus, how in the world are you supposed to get in there and measure the escapement distance??  i'm just afraid that i'm going to be in over my head if i start.

[jim]

where are you from? i notice you're awake now.
yeah i think just sticky tape on the pedestals might be the least biggest thing to do.
there are several reasons for heavy action.
i too don't know a way to measure escapement and when i asked here nobody replied. perhaps it's a big secret.
i have a mk 1 that had really heavy action when i first got it. i tried spraying the felt with silicone spray which helped a tiny bit but not enough to notice.
i then discovered that the escapement was eccessively high, meaning the hammers had to travel for miles until they hit a tine. someone had put extra shims between the harp and the mounting blocks. so after much consideration i took a shim out. this made the piano heaps easier to play, but i had to redo all the escapement cause now it was too low and some of the hammers wern'e getting away from the tine after they hit it. (deadened sound) and i think i liked the tone better the old way cause you get more range of timbre.
there's also the matter of the dampers. that's heaps of work. HEAPS.
it could also be that yr key bushings are too tight. maybe.

[hobageeba]

so i tried the tape thing and i think it worked pretty well.  i've also been messing with the pick up placement and escapement.  i got it working much better than it used to, but still not totally satisfactory.  am i expecting too much out of the action on rhodes?  this is my first one and so i've never really spent much time on a rhodes till now.  i have no reference point for what is good or even acceptable action and what is not.  it's definitely not as sensitive as my acoustic piano or a keyboard.  is this standard?  oh, and what is the key bushing?  i've looked all around on the manual and can't find it.  oh yes, and one more thing, where is the "timbre adjustment screw" cause it talks about it on the manual under "timbre adjustment," yet i can't find it anywhere.  i've just found that messing with the two screws with the springs on the tone bar, helps to tilt the tine lower or higher in reference to the pickup.  is this ok?  thanks again.

[jim]

i think if you did the key pedestal mod you'd like it.
the key bushings are the bits of felt that go between the keys and the pins that hold them there.
the timbre adjustment is the screw furthest from you. they gave it a fancy name.. it's just one of the screws you've been moving.. i spent some time working that out.