could you judge my work?

[bobfridzema]

Hey there,
I'm currently restoring a '77 Rhodes MKI 73. It's in ok shape, but not great. The original case is gone and replaced with a custom (ugly) orange painted one.
Anyway the insides are ok, grommets, tonebars and dampers.
The only thing is the action is a bit slow, so I'm considering a miracle mod.

Anyway, I made a mp3 of me playing some random stuff on a Blues Deville 4x10.
I just tuned and voiced it, and I think it's sounding kinda cool. But, I think it could be better and I was wondering what anybody else might think.
And what better place to ask then here right?

Allright, the mp3 is here: rhodestest.mp3

Let me know what you think. Pics of the restoring process are coming soon.

grtz, Bob

[popartifacts]

Personally, I think that sounds FANTASTIC.  Keep it up.  I don't know too much on the technical side, however...

[Rob A]

I would also say great tone. You will find it gets better if you will tune it up, especially the lower midrange clarity will improve. There's an F# in there that's howling.

[bobfridzema]

Allright, thanx popartifacts! And Rob for a good tip bout the tuning, and good hearing I might say!
I noticed that tuning the tines gets harder the lower you go. They tend to detune or wobble a bit at first and in the end balance out to a straight tone.
How do people deal with that? Tune it on the straight tone it gets to after a sec, or take in to account that it wobbles a bit at first.
For example, on first impact a note is a bit higher pitched than it should be. I could try to get the first impact in tune, or the note it eventually turns into Or seek a solution that takes the mean of the two?
grtz Bob

[Rob A]

You may do it differently depending on your playing style. I tend to have held notes in my left hand, especially in the lowest couple octaves, so I favor the sustained tone as far as the pitch. I sort of adjust my tolerance as I drop down into the low end--I may keep tweaking to within a cent in the midrange but accept a 5 cent tuning error in the low octave. My real tolerances are lower but it depends how much precision you can justify out of your tuner. I tune with special purpose software that I am convinced justifies precision of a tenth of a cent, and I've calibrated it. A chromatic guitar tuner will be more like +/- 3 cents anyway.

You may find that backing the pickups away from the tine ends improves the tuning precision, but then it may do things you don't like to the tone, so it's all a compromise.

One day I will do a detailed experiment on the tone-to-pickup distance and effects on pitch (and maybe on tone).

[bobfridzema]

allright, thanx. I'll try some different things to see what I like best

[suitcase'81]

Great playing!
and a great sound to go with it.

[robertjkeil]

Love the sound! And great playing. I have a 1977 Mark 1 73 myself and am working on it. Enjoy!

[bobfridzema]

Thanx! I'm lovin it already