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In my home studio, I have a 1978 Fender Rhodes Mark 1. I had been looking for one for many years, the ones that were for sale on platforms such as eBay were always outwith my budget. I was looking through the music magazine, Sound on Sound online and although it was very expensive for me at the time, I found a seller of the piano in question in Scotland.
As the months went by, I noticed the asking price for the one in Scotland was coming down, so I mailed the seller and informed him that I was interested in the piano. We then exchanged mobile numbers and called the seller on the phone and informed him it was still a bit out of my price range. The seller informed me that he may be prepared to sell the piano for cash, plus any vintage guitar pedals and drum machines I may possess, in order to meet his financial target.
I arranged to go to his house in Lanark, west of Scotland, on an agreed date to hopefully do a deal. My friend Mike came with me as he owned a drum machine he rarely used and kindly gave It to me as a possible part of the deal. When we arrived at the seller’s house, it turns out he had lots of vintage synths and other vintage musical equipment. He was not a musician, more of an entrepreneur. I tried out the piano, it was on the floor without the legs and out of tune. It needed work. After some discussion/negotiation the deal was done.
After cleaning up the Rhodes, I set about learning how to tune the piano and repairing anything that needed done such as little tweaks here and there with some spare tines that the seller gave me. The piano came in a case, together with the legs, bracing, sustain pedal and some original paperwork. I needed to source a sustain rod for the piano and managed to get one from a spare parts company online.
I have since installed a pre amp that I bought from a company in England, the unit is called a retro flyer and is made by a company In California, called Avion Studios.
Harold B Rhodes, was the gentleman that was responsible for coming up with the design, build, and sound of the Rhodes piano. He approached Leo Fender for financial backing, hence the Fender Rhodes tag. The first piano prototypes were made from spare parts from American aeroplanes, this is the industry, H Rhodes worked in at the time.
