Rhodes one piece key caps

[pierluigi]

Good evening, dear friends.

Where is it possible to buy one-piece key caps for my Rhodes Mark 1 73 (late 1979)?

I don't find these items on Vintage Vibe site.

Thanks (and sorry for my English)!

Pier Luigi

Italy

[Max Brink]

Replacing key caps is not something that I recommend as a DIY service... If you contact a local piano restoration company in Italy you should be able to find someone that can replace the caps for you.

If you are looking to replace just a single key for a 1979 piano you may be able to purchase one from another piano close to the era. I have a 1979 set of keys that are from an organ donor Rhodes that are slightly faded but otherwise in great condition if you need just a few.

[David Aubke]

I've never seen those Pratt-Read keytops for sale anywhere. I don't know what I'm going to do when the day comes that I'm trying to restore one of those keyboards. I suppose I'd keep my eyes open for a sacrificial set from another Rhodes. Unfortunately, since every Rhodes has been exposed to different environments in its lifetime, even the same style of keys from different pianos will likely have slightly different coloring.

[james]

On a related note, does anybody know a good way to polish the white keys?  I have a handful in the midrange that are slightly cracked but really just need to be recolored.

[camaro guy]

On a related note, does anybody know a good way to polish the white keys?

I polished mine with a fabric buffing wheel and a stick of polishing compound.  We chucked it on a lathe since that was handy, but I'm sure that a drill or drill press would work equally well.  I don't recall the exact speed, but it was probably around 1,000 - 2,000 rpm or so.  Mine started out really yellowed and dingy but polished / cleaned up beautifully.  The blacks were also much improved.  I was really surprised by what a difference it made.

The only thing I would do differently is that I would number all the keys with a pencil in a non-visible area before pulling them out.  I thought I could rely on the stamped numbers.  While they were all stamped by the factory, in many cases, they weren't done very carefully and I ended up with a bunch of keys whose numbers were barely legible.  Eventually, I figured out the correct locations for all of them, but it would have been much easier if I had just marked them in pencil first.