WTB Single *working* Rhodes pickup

[velo-hobo]

I have this crazy idea to electrify an old Jaymar toy piano.   I've seen people stick a transducer element on the soundboard, but I want to try a magnetic pickup system.  Different tone, and less feedback to deal with at higher volumes.

The tone generators in it are steel rods that are struck with a plastic hammer, so I think it will work with some creative pickup mounting.  There is room at the end of each rod for a pickup to be placed in much the same manner as you see on a Rhodes.

It's a 2-octave piano, so I would need 25 pickups all told.  That could get expensive, so I want to try just one first and see if it can generate a musical tone when amplified.  I would just use a guitar pickup as a test but I think the Rhodes pickup form-factor is ideal, being a single pole piece with an adjustable bracket for dialing in the response and voicing etc.

Anybody wanna huck me a single pickup for cheap so I can do some testing?  This will be the coolest Jaymar ever if it works out.

[Rhodesman88]

I've just salvaged a 1978 73 note stage and have about 70 working pickups.  Let me know how many you want....and approximately what you want to pay.  I'm not going to give them away, but I might be less expensive than ebay or elsewhere.

Rob

[pianotuner steveo]

Ive never seen a toy piano with a soundboard.... Are you sure there are some that have one?

The soundboard is the 'amplifier' in an acoustic piano.

[velo-hobo]

Somehow I missed both these replies - must not have set any notifications for them.

Turns out the Jaymar went away with a roommate who moved out so this project is on the shelf until I get ahold of another suitable toy piano.  I'll keep your offer in mind though, Rob.  In the end I think I'd need 25 pickups since it is typically a 2-octave piano.

So, Steveo, what I'm calling the soundboard is actually just the piece of masonite/pressboard that is on the back of the Jaymar.  The metal rods (like big rhodes tines) which are the tone-producing element are mounted directly to this board so I consider it the soundboard, since they are acoustically coupled.