Mark 1 Rhodes

[Bim]

This piano was given to me. It was found in a flooded basement. The tolex is horrible and peeling. It has no legs or pedal. The pickups are rusted as well as the tines and the harp.

However, all the tines are intact and unbroken. Can they be saved or are they FUBAR?
Also, the action works great with all keys and tips intact. The felt is good also.

No, I havent tried plugging this unit in to see if it works or not.

Any suggestions on what I should do to/with it?

Reply here or send me an email to bim_ecs@yahoo.com.
Thanks much.
Bill

[hrees]

Even very rusty tines are not fatal. Clean the rust off. The only problem you may have is that the tuning springs may not move as smoothly. But once cleaned up the piano should sound like any other rhodes.

[Bim]

WHat about the rusty pickups? Can those be cleaned up with the dremel tool with the metal brush attachment and made to work again or are they pretty much FUBAR? I havent tried hooking up a VOM to them yet to check them out....

[hrees]

You have to test them. Rusty pickups can work fine.

[Bim]

I finally got around to plugging this Rhodes is. And the scary thing is, except for a few notes here and there, the thing works and sounds AMAZING!!!. And I was figuring all it was good for was parts.

The first thing I'm going to do is start cleaning up the pickups to see if the bad or weak notes are from overly rusted tines, overly rusted pickups or misaligned tines.

Sandpaper and kerosene on the tines, huh? I'll give it a shot and let you know how it goes.