Would you buy this Rhodes for $300?

[okdk]

No legs or sustain pedal.  A few keys need some repair.  That's all I know so far.  Is it worth $300?

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/msg/3917867157.html

[camaro guy]

I would say that it depends what you want it for.  Everything that I can see wrong could be fixed by a call to Vintage Vibe for parts.  To borrow a phrase from car restoration, it would be pretty expensive to turn it into a car show exhibit, but you could probably make a driver for not too much money, depending on how much you're willing to make yourself and how original you want it.  I just bought a '76 stage piano for a second player.  It didn't come with a pedal, so I built one.  A good bit of time, but we had all the materials around so essentially no cost.  It's not the original pedal, though.  I could have bought a replacement from VV, but the cost would have been higher.  Since I bought it to have a second piano that I could put in my office, I wasn't too concerned with a factory-correct restoration.  Just nice and playable.  If you're thinking along these lines for the piano, I would definitely go for it.

At $300, I would say that it's hard to go wrong in general, though.

[David Aubke]

What camaro guy said.

[Ben Bove]

looks about a '76 or '77 with the cracked keycaps.  $300 would be a deal, here's what I would expect for you on this:

Heavy action that needs a bump mod to make it play right
replacing keycaps can be a real process, or if you're willing to live with them
key bushing felt replacement - another tedious job, many of the keys are colliding with their neighbors in the front, visible from the photo with big gaps between the white keys, down to no gaps at all.  As a note, a common sign of moisture damage is that the key bushing felts fall off or are pushed back inside the key hole.  So, you might want to pull the lid off and smell / look for mildew and mold.  You may want to ask the seller if you can unscrew the name rail and lift a few keys out to examine.
It's worth over $300 in parts alone worst case.

[okdk]

Thanks so much for the tips.  Yes, the gaps between the keys looks like some work.  I own a machine shop and have toyed with the idea of making some legs.  It would be fairly easy to make solid, unadjustable ones. 

[pianotuner steveo]

Make sure you make the legs at a height that is comfortable for you. Most piano benches are 18-20" high. That makes the bottom of the keybed in the. 25" range

[David Aubke]

Does anybody ever adjust the length of their front legs? I've never seen that done in real life, only in Rhodes promotional material.

[goldphinga]

Does anybody ever adjust the length of their front legs? I've never seen that done in real life, only in Rhodes promotional material.

I used to extend the front legs on my MK2 when playing standing. Worked great.