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Post by yotonic on Dec 2, 2014 15:36:19 GMT -6
Anybody ever "restored" a Fender Rhodes? New hammer tips, grommets, dampers, felts, miracle mod, tolex? I've got an original owner 1974 suitcase "Fender" Rhodes and it's in good shape and is a really good year so I'm gonna put a little TLC into it and hold onto it. It sounds great but is right at that point where it deserves some upkeep. I placed an order with Vintage Vibe for all of the supplies and I've got it disassembled and ready for surgery. Should be interesting.  |
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Post by kcatthedog on Dec 2, 2014 16:27:20 GMT -6
neat !1 you should take pics and post somewhere ?
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Post by sopwith on Dec 2, 2014 16:28:14 GMT -6
I'm about to do the same for my 1975 Mark I Stage with dyno mod. Had it for 15 years and it's time for a full restore. I've done some quick repairs and replacements over the years, but it's got a couple of pickups and a number of tines that definitely need replacing, and I might as well give the whole thing some love while I'm at it.
Thought about doing the hammer tips, but the dyno mod was so specific in that area that I feel like I'd be messing with the formula a bit. I'll try to dig up some of the voicing documents I've gathered, they're pretty helpful in getting the overtones and tuning working properly.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2014 8:15:39 GMT -6
That's a great project for sure!!
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Post by jimwilliams on Dec 3, 2014 10:18:42 GMT -6
I rebuilt most of Wonder's 10+ Rhodes over the years, started working on them in 1979. Lots of fun. Most of his had the hard hammer tip mods for that "dyno" or DX sound. We did that before they did and I was using Eventide 910 harmonizers to do the pitch shift that creates the bell-like chorus effect without modulation/pitch side effects.
All of the Mk1 power amps were dumped and replaced with Mk2 power amp modules back in the early 1980's. I had to mod the connectors and power feeds to the older Mk1 2N3392 transistor preamps. Input impedance was raised from 33k to over 100k to get more clear tops, a simple resistor swap. Mk2 preamps used a 4558 opamp in a inverting configuration, a 10k input impedance. That loaded down the tops severly. A few trace cuts and those were converted to non-inverting with a 1 meg input impedance.
I used some of those design techniques I learned on the now discontinued Rhodes Mk7 pianos. To me, those sounded the best of the batch as they could get all the old sounds plus some new ones.
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Post by sopwith on Dec 3, 2014 14:05:11 GMT -6
I rebuilt most of Wonder's 10+ Rhodes over the years, started working on them in 1979. Lots of fun. Most of his had the hard hammer tip mods for that "dyno" or DX sound. We did that before they did and I was using Eventide 910 harmonizers to do the pitch shift that creates the bell-like chorus effect without modulation/pitch side effects. All of the Mk1 power amps were dumped and replaced with Mk2 power amp modules back in the early 1980's. I had to mod the connectors and power feeds to the older Mk1 2N3392 transistor preamps. Input impedance was raised from 33k to over 100k to get more clear tops, a simple resistor swap. Mk2 preamps used a 4558 opamp in a inverting configuration, a 10k input impedance. That loaded down the tops severly. A few trace cuts and those were converted to non-inverting with a 1 meg input impedance. I used some of those design techniques I learned on the now discontinued Rhodes Mk7 pianos. To me, those sounded the best of the batch as they could get all the old sounds plus some new ones. Awesome to have you here as a resource, I venture that we may have some questions! Always wanted a suitcase, enjoy the build yotonic! |
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