Square Felt Hammer Tips - 1970

[Ben Bove]

I just brought in a rhodes to tech, made mid 1970.  I'm guessing this was right after the teardrop models, and pre-neoprene which came out 71?  Anyone know the span of time this was made?  all of 1970 or only a short time?  Just interesting, has a cool tone.  The Bill Evans "From Left to Right" tone.

This guy wants me to replace the felts with neoprene tips.  I suggested maybe flipping the faces of the grooved side, exposing an unused side... but maybe they wear too quickly - anyone with experience?  Thanks

[hrees]

Try flipping them. The felt sounds good when it isn't grooved. The grooves move the strikeline of the note leading to a plunky tone with no bite. Using a new un-grooved face, or even sanding out the grooves and lowering the escapement will bring back the clarity to the sound, though you may have to voice the midrange a little to get rid of the undesirable overtones associated with tips that are too hard.

[rocksnob]

There is a tool piano tuners use to pull up or soften the grooved or hardened felt hammers on a piano, respectively. It's called a voicing needle and it looks like this

they only cost about $20, or if you don't want to buy the little tool you could just use a heavy sewing needle or one of those slightly hooked dentist probes to accomplish the same thing. It works well for piano's, so I would definitely try that before going through what will be an awfully painful process to remove, flip and reapply every single hammer tip on that Rhodes.

[hrees]

There will be a lot of work involved either way, either you flip and try and get a similar tip height, or sand down and have to do a global escapement reduction. Flipping the tips is actually a quick and easy job compared to some on a rhodes. Whatever you do revoicing will be necessary, which is difficult for the novice.

[Ben Bove]

what exactly do you mean by voicing, is that the 1st screw tonebar adjustment?