Home Piano (heavy on pictures)

[Rob A]

This is a complete rundown on the Home Piano I bought last summer. Say hello:



Pretty much this is a mid-seventies seventy-three piano in a walnut veneer case, with a mono amp and a couple other odd features that we'll see up close shortly. Inside the case what you find is a regular Rhodes action that you could drop into a suitcase case and play.



The tone controls are neither the standard suitcase nor stage setup. This is a completely different electronics package. The piano is actively amplified, and has a mono active preamp that's different to the suitcase design.



Take a look at that namerail profile--this is the Mark II extrusion, but it's powdercoated in a chocolate brown color. This piano was made in 1977, so this may be a hint about the origin of the Mark II namerail profile. Anyone have one they can date earlier than 1977?




Very clearly readable datestamps, showing dates consistent with the action features we'll see later.




Same tone mechanism as any Rhodes of the era.



One of the unanswered question: what's that left pedal do? Now we know: it is a swell pedal, essentially a volume pot in parallel with the main volume pot on the namerail, controlled by the pedal. However you have the namerail volume set, including full off, this pedal makes that louder when you press it. As far as I can tell, this is a completely useless feature. We'll see some pics of the guts in the base that make it work later on.



Also unique to this model as far as I know: a headphone jack and power switch in the left cheek block. So my statement above about dropping it in to a suitcase is a little bit misleading.



You can see the side profile of the case here, it's the same as earlier design student models. It's a particle board case with a fairly thick walnut veneer on it, and it's stupidly heavy. My flash makes the nicks in the veneer here look a lot worse than they do in real life.



Back of the cabinet will remind you a lot of the student models. Same interesting brown grill cloth at least. Notice that the bottom  rail in his cabinet is not veneered--it's pine with a stain attempting to match the rest of the cabinet.



Closeup on the amp panel--you can't quite read it here but it says 200 Watts on the nameplate, and it is insanely loud, far too loud for indoor use at top volume. Standard fuse holder in case you need to change it out, but no line out connections at all, sad to say.



Unique construction to this model on the top of the cabinet: the lid is hinged at the back with a piano hinge (appropriately) and has a support on one side that locks it upright much like a blanket chest would have. Also note the small stop screwed to the inside to support the lid when it's shut. There's tiny felt buttons on the top edge to cushion the lid.



Filling hte gap above the namerail and below the front edge of the lid there's a veneered panel that is removable. It's held in place on each end by these latches, which you only see with the lid raised.



Here's another shot of the piano hinge on the lid (don't say I'm stingy with the pictures...)



The corners of the namerail extrusion are rounded, but the cut is concave rather than convex like you sometimes see on later Mark IIs. Possibly unique to this model.



The holes in the back panel are filled with a sort of plastic bushing, that has unfortunately not withstood the rigors of time. These are both disintegrating. But after unscrewing the back panel, you pull here to remove it from the case. There are no speakers in the back panel, which seems perfectly sensible for a piano intended for home use. But also there's no access from the front.



With the back panel removed, we see the single 12" speaker.



The power supply unit is housed in an enclosure with an open top. Not a particularly good choice in my opinion. Perhaps mine is just missing the cover, but I looked for evidence of that and I do not think that's the case. Eagle eyed readers will note one of my PSU caps has been replaced, that was done by the guy I bought this from, who is a tech. Notice the additional fuse only accessible from within. This PSU is also supplying power to the tape deck that's built-in, which we'll see later.



The amplifier is fully enclosed in metal, for reasons that ought to be obvious. Note there's yet another fuse, or at least a holder. Safety first!

While we're here, note the sustain pedal mechanism, which is the same as a suitcase. The upright is a chunk of wood with a bolt threaded in to the top.



This wiring harness is for the tape deck. This makes it easy (or at least possible) to remove the deck for separate service. Mine has the tape deck, and it works. Playback is through the cabinet or headphones.



this is a genuine mystery: this shot shows the underside of the top of the speaker cabinet. I am looking upward in this shot. Why does this have a hole? Why is there a grill cloth over the hole?

My theory is that they used leftover stuff from other amp cabinets where they could for cost savings. Maybe this was destined to be a front panel but the shop manager wasn't happy enough with it for some reason (cutout is the right size for a speaker, but kind of dodgy looking) and had the cabinet guy use it as the top instead. Who knows?



Another power supply shot. All the wiring to the various units is modular, with connectors making it removable for service.

to be continued......

[pianotuner steveo]

Absolutely gorgeous! Im so jealous!

Can I ask how much you paid for it?

[Rob A]

The swell pedal is a strange contraption. the control itself is a wire-wound rheostat mounted on a sheet metal bracket attached to a chunk of wood screwed to the case floor. Then a rack gear attached to the pedal mates with a pinion gear attached to the pot shaft and turns it when you stomp on the pedal. There's a healthy amount of grease on the rack and pinion.

I can tell it's wirewound because of the feel, which weirdly even transmits through the pedal and gears. You can feel the wiper moving, it's hard to describe, but it's not a smooth motion like a wah pedal or the swell on an organ. The sensitivity of the pedal is high, so it's practically useless musically.



Another look at the top of the upright in the sustain mechanism.  You can fine-tune the height a little bit with that nut.



A single, no-name 8 ohm speaker mounted to the front of the cabinet. Suitcases in 1977 used 32-ohm, but I'm sure there were lots of parts around the shop.



Now we're back topside and have the harp raised. You can see the namerail electronics have no enclosure. Lots of nice connectors though, so it was probably pretty easy to assemble this model.




Top-down shot on the PCB, sorry about the flash. There's a part number etched into it, 013455, and an assembly number 013457. Grey audio from the harp is hard soldered to the board (boo). Pots are soldered to the board (boo).



Form this angle, you can see the top of the board was screen printed for a connector P2 that's not installed.



Definitely the same profile as a Mark II namerail extrusion. Note the mounting of the PCB is purely through the collars on the pots. That sucks.



You can see the board has been reworked some.



Nice felt along the bottom edge of the namerail.



There's a number 13 handwritten on the underside of the harp. Lucky?

to be continued....

[Rob A]

Hammer tips and dampers are pretty much the best condition I've seen on a Rhodes.



It has the 1976 action design with felt on the hammer cams and bare wood key pedestals.



This is outside my experience entirely--the top hammer tips are not wrapped. I can't really tell if they ever were, but I doubt it.



They have a small rubber nub on the tip of the wooden tip. In one case it's come loose and gone missing.



I think this is intentional, but it's a terrible design. They are not durable at all.



Weirdly, there is exactly one conventional wrapped wooden hammer tip.



Normal pickups for a 77. Typical factory tolerances on the tine installation.



Embossed key numbers starting with 8. Not like my 1976 suitcase.






Some detail shots on the tape deck. Not much to say, it plays cassettes, but it has a pitch control. It slides out on a metal caddy that is removable.

And that is pretty much it for the grand tour.

[Clavier]

Awesome.

I wouldn't think the volume swell would be entirely useless. I bet it could be modified to have a very useful effect. Now I'm curious to try one out.

[Rob A]

The problem is that you have about 3 inches of pedal travel between min and max volume, where min is set by however you have the namerail knob set, and max is unbelievably stupidly loud. So you're trying to operate a control precisely with your left foot/ankle and it's just not conducive to musical expression. The only thing I can figure out to do with it is play backwards sounding attacks--it's heavily spring-loaded to return to its quietest position, so if you let off it fast it slams the volume back off producing a reverse attack. But that's pretty damn gimmicky.

[Rob A]

And I know the first question that would be on my mind is "what does this thing sound like?"

Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VprBjxZ_7Gg

(not a demo of the swell pedal, just an overall demo)

[Mark II]

Alright, now we know it has soul, especially when played by someone as brilliant and gifted like you, Rob.
Thanks for sharing the pictures.

kind regards
Mark II

[polyvoks]

Rob your home piano is so fine !
great video too , congrats I like it very much ,

I'll post a page on my site about my own one I've purchased
from Harold Rhodes Jr soon .
I'll transmit the serial numbers and year....

I confirm that the upper hammer tips are the same on my piano ,
and also  the hole under the keyboard is present , in fact there are exactly the same pianos

[Rob A]

That is really interesting--can you think of a reason for the hole and grille cover? I am baffled by this.

And the hammer tips, I think that may have been experimental. There seem to be several design innovations in this model, like the namerail, some of which stuck and some of which were abandoned.

On the tone controls: Since almost anyone who would own one of these would place it against a wall, there's a natural bass enhancement that will occur as a result. So I have mine set with bass control at minimum, treble at maximum. I wonder if that may have been a reason for the extra-extra-hard hammer tips in the top octave? To get the most treble out of the thing.

@Mark II: thank you very kindly.

[Ben Bove]

Really great post about your Home Piano!  Glad to see the inner workings of one of these, thanks very much!  Pictures do show how great of condition it's in, a marvelous example!

Fantastic playing as well Rob, always spot on!

I think my favorite feature about this piano is the lift-up locking lid, like on an upright piano.  I'm guessing it's for being able to hold it up to service harp, but the lid on an upright opens so it will get louder - opening up to the piano soundboard.  Acoustically there's no benefit to opening a Rhodes lid, it would just enhance mechanical noise

I was able to grab these pics online of the original ads, though they're photos not scans.

[Rob A]

OK, nice to know that's anodizing on the namerail. Thanks for sharing that stuff.

Also: weight 200 lbs. I think that's a little low, I was gonna guess it at 225.

I had to raise the lid to tune it. A removable lid is way more practical.

The pickup-to-tine distance I believe is set larger than on my suitcase. Pitch stability is much better in the low octaves--I was able to pull this thing into tune with a tolerance of 0.1 cent (for real) except in the bottom octave and a half or so where I got within 2 cents pretty reliably. My suitcase couldn't get anywhere close to that performance.

[Wampumpeag]

amazing model, i am dreaming about buying this one too.
Rob, please when you have soundboard recordings
of this piano, please share them with us.

[LeonSpinks]

Late to the party, but I wanted to thank Rob for the terrific post.  I've been researching Rhodes Home pianos exhaustively and pictures are in short supply, but this post has been very helpful.

A correction:  The amp is 50 watts, not 200.  A wattage rating next to an ac cord is the input rating, not the output.  (Don't take my word for it;  the above pictured advertisement says this.)  I've noticed this repeated on several sites and just wanted to clarify.  Even my Home piano has been described elsewhere as having a 200 watt tube amp, but the output to the two 12" JBL speakers clearly states 100 watts. 

[Student Rhodes]

And I know the first question that would be on my mind is "what does this thing sound like?"

Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VprBjxZ_7Gg

According to Youtube, the video is no longer available.  Is this true?  I'd love to hear this thing.

I'm a little unclear about that extra hole.  Not sure where it's located, despite the decription.  I only see grill cloth on the front and back of the unit.  But you say you're looking up at the hole.

Perhaps they considered making it like a Hammond tone cabinet, which has an upward facing speaker?  Is this hole on the underside of the plywood under the keybed?  That would be a strange place to put a speaker.   Perhaps it was a cost saving measure.  Lord knows by the mid 70s, that seemed to be their prime objective with these things.

Very cool post!

Ray

[Rob A]

This is looking up at the keybed, yes.



I will see about rehosting that video. I also need to get these pics put somewhere more likely to exist long-term.

[tarkus boy]

hi Rob, beautiful unit, nice detailed pictures and comments.
my guess is this hole would allow to drive the sound from the cab up to the top when the lid is open just like with a piano. the early 1965 Home Piano chopped prototype i own shows 5 smaller holes right under the keybed (see attached photos). i tend to think they were originally made for the same acoustic purpose.
Phil