Year of manufacture

[rhodedog]

Is there any way to tell the year my Rhodes was made by the serial number?  My harp was never stamped.

Thanks in advance

[vanceinatlance]

My guess is you probably have a 1975 piano. Pics of outside and inside workings would help to verify for sure. I have not seen where serial numbers were able to date a piano, but maybe someone else can help with that.

[Cormac Long]

If the harp supports are wood-blocks, then you may find a date stamp either under theses blocks or on the side of the hammer rail.

You'd need to first remove the harp, unscrew the keybed from the case and lift it out. Then underneath the keybed, unscrew the wood blocks so that they can be removed.

My 1975 Mk1 was void of any markings on the harp and after getting advice on removing the blocks,  I eventually found a date on the right side of the hammer rail.

[Ben Bove]

Vance is pretty good!  Yes if you have a piano with a blue ink stamp, they sometimes are cleaned / wiped away.  This would be 1974-1975ish.  Sometimes if you get your eyes up very close at different angles at the top right hand corner of the wood harp, you can make out a faint remant of the date code.

The serial numbers jump around quite a bit on the gold badges before they were standardized with the black transfer stamp in 1976.  If you shoot over your serial number, I can probably give you my best guess, but pics of the piano inside and out would be the best.

[squarebubble]

I couldn't find a date stamp on my 1974 MKI either until I found it when removing the left cheek block. God knows why it was stamped in there!

[rhodedog]

Great!, I'll check in those places and if. I can't find anything I'll send some pics.  Thank you!

[Student Rhodes]

Check your pot codes as well. 
With pics we can get you pretty close to the era or year, but pot codes would tell you within a few weeks how old your piano most likely is.
Ray

[rhodedog]

Not up for dismantling any further right now but I took a few snapshots.

[rhodedog]

pics

[rhodedog]

moe pics

[Ben Bove]

I must say, I am completely surprised that you don't have a date stamp on your piano.  There would've been both a start and finish date, 2x 4-digit codes.  This is quite the rarity to not be present on this vintage of piano.

My estimate is that this is a 1977, potentially a 1976.  There weren't a lot of changes between 76 and 77 so I've noted the following:

Ink transfer serial badge was 1976 and newer
Aluminum action frame and all-plastic hammers is september 1975 and newer
Rear larger case hinges are 1976 and newer
All-white flat keycaps are 1976 and newer
Peterson preamp is 1977 and older

What is another mystery on this piano besides the lacking date codes, is that the serial number is more in the range of a 1978.  The problem with trying to judge on this is 1) serial numbers are extremely inconsistent and can't be used to judge a date and 2) your Peterson preamp was discontinued in 1977.

Your serial is 734887.  After checking a list of serial numbers, I have a 734725 dated "2678" from 1978, and a 734778 dated "4978", also from 1978 but notice quite a large span between production dates (they made more than 53 pianos in almost 6 months... which again is why serial numbers are hard to pin anything to).  I also have 731941 from 1979 and 731468 from 1979 which is going backwards... you get the idea.  What I will say is I see no 1976 pianos with a 700,000 serial number... which leads me to think it's a 1977.

[vanceinatlance]

Wow! That is very interesting! From the picts, I was thinking later 75 to 77 (holding onto the hope my original suggested date of 75 was right because of the ink haha!). Narrowing it to a 77 from what you found in the pictures is very impressive and informative! I would have never guessed it was more likely a 77, great info!

[rhodedog]

Yeah, Thanks for the research!  I have been dying to know even a ballpark so that is great.  Perhaps if I dismantle it further I might find a stamp somewhere out of the ordinary but I don't want to screw anything up.  I am getting some replacement parts like the two missing pickups and the missing hammer tips and I wanted to keep it consistent.  Thanks again!

[Student Rhodes]

Based on the pix your piano was made June 10th, 1977.  That was the day the low E and F notes came with no pickups.  It was something Fender did to try to save money. but they very quickly went reverted to the previous method of installing all 73 pickups.
Ray

[Ben Bove]

Lol Ray. 

This vintage of piano doesn't really have the miscellaneous stampings of the earlier wood action frame pianos... I think you'd be hard pressed to find a date code anywhere if you started taking it apart.

You may want to also go by Ray's suggestion and check the pot codes on the preamp for fun... that will at least give you a general idea but doesn't rule out when a piano sits around and a harp gets thrown on it later etc., it's sort of an inexact science.