Sustain pedal issue

[BH]

My 1973 Rhodes stage has an issue with the sustain pedal in that every time I use it crackling comes through the amp. If the sustain is not being used the piano sounds fine. What could this be?

[jim]

there should be a wire connecting the back left of the harp to the sustain rail, perhaps this is loose?
i think that might create a crackling sound.

[Ben Bove]

Jim's right, there should be a wire connected from the bottom of your RCA jack in the top left corner of the harp, connected to one of the screws holding in the pins of your long silver dampener rail (when you remove the harp its the swiveling rail when you use the pedal).  If this wire is loose or missing, it can cause noise with a bad grounding connection.

[gunnar]

Thanks for this guys, I just realized I have the same problem!

[pianotuner steveo]

BH- I agree that this wire is the cause of the crackle- if you can't seem to eliminate the crackle, try adding another ground wire in addition to the present one.

[Ben Bove]

You can see the thin silver braided ground wire from the RCA jack, this one is hanging out on the left side of the harp and actually isn't supposed to be going under the harp like this, but it helps viewing.  usually the slack is tucked in the back of the case.  again it's connected around the screw of the sustain rail.

[BH]

Let me fisrt say that I am super impressed. I just picked up this rhodes over the summer, and I knew it needed a little work I figured I would rely on forums and other internet mediums to get it back up to par. You guys not only hit the nail right on the head, you gave me pictures, details etc. This is a promising first post of, I hope, many to come. Thank you all! I found the grounding wire that you all mentioned. It is connected next to the Rca jack, but not to the bar. How do I get in there to reconnect it?

Thanks again

Brendon

[Ben Bove]

Well I always enjoy helping everyone out.  Thanks for your comments.

For your grounding wire, you'll have to unscrew the harp which is pretty simple, should be one or two large phillips heads on the left side and right side of the harp.  When you lift the entire harp up, if you have the arm brackets still on there, it will swivel up and towards you.  You should be able to let the harp rest on the front rail, check to make sure it's stable.  I'd recommend putting a towel or something over your keys/cheek blocks as while youre working on it, it can move around and scratch.

Now if it's an original braided silver cable, it should have a circular end where a screw can fit into.  This needs to be one of the screws from the sustain bar pin holders:

If you push the sustain pedal, you should see the large silver metal bar rotating from the pedal.  On the sides of this bar are hidden rotating pins held down either by a little metal plate with 2 screws on each side, or just 1 single screw on each side.  Just unscrew one of these tiny screws, put the cable end through it, and screw it back in.  Flip the harp back up, make sure the wire slack is out of the way tucked in the back, screw back down the harp and you're done.

If it's not the original wire, just make sure there's enough to wrap around one of the sustain bar screws.

[gunnar]

It turned out the little wire was missing completely on my piano (that's why I never noticed it before!) and now that I have fixed it, all crackling sounds have disappeared. I must admit that I got so used to it that I actually miss it a bit. It's like getting your eyes lasered only to find out you looked much better with glasses! Only joking...thanks again for the tip.