Yesterday, while visiting the Nord user forum, I clicked on a user personal webstite link and fell onto a blog. This blog contains an interview of someone at a company called Vintage Vibe Piano. This company, after many years of repairing and selling spare parts for old EPs, started to build and sell some.
I felt kind of happy to know that Rhodes was not the only one to still build some EPs. Vintage Vibe Piano, which I’m absolutely not affiliated to, is a little company with passsionate members.
Just wanted to share
I ordered their Rhodes general maintenance DVD and the guy (presumably Chris the owner) broke several keys in a row trying to ease them. He also struck the tines with screwdrivers when tuning and expressed dissapointment about the customer (who owned the Rhodes he was working on) because he or she didn’t want to have a full restoration done. I was kind of surprised they would actually publish that on a dvd.
Their tine piano is nice, sounds nice, but essentially is exactly the same thing that a Rhodes is in a Wurlitzer shaped body with a HEFTY price tag.
It is rumored that they are working on a Wurlitzer clone also.
Vintage Vibe is making excellent EPs. They sound great, they’re lighter than the vintage EPs, and VV is a great company. They even acquired the original machine that made the tines.
Stay away from the Rhodes company itself (rhodespiano.com). Not only are their pianos not as good, CEO Joe Brandstetter is a trademark bully like Monster Cable. Brandstetter has alienated the largest community of rhodes owners by making trademark infringement noises at fenderrhodes.com, where the forum members were so p!ssed off that they refuse to patronize his company by funding his legal warchest, and any discussion about the new Mark 7 Rhodes pianos is deleted. As a consequence, Brandstetter is now looking for a buyer for his company.
VV pianos also have an option for stereo output, making things like panning from left to right a possibility. They sound a lot better than the original Rhodes pianos in my opinion. A lot lighter and more “twinkly”.
I got a mk7 its actually killer!! All this bullying talk is by the by now as theyre not making the pianos anymore. My MK7 is fully pimped with a great preamp, midi and im glad i bagged one whilst they were being made. Its a fine instrument and despite what all the naysayers say it holds it own with any other well setup rhodes. I have it next to my MK1 72 with Peterson amp and it sounds just as good but different. That is all…
I fancy a VV 73 too but they are a lot of dosh…one day…I paid a lot less for my Mk7 second hand…
I did a full restoration of my 79’ suitcase using VV supplies (see pic below). No complaints. They are great people. I’ve been eyeballing their piano for a while now. Hoping to get a chance to take one for a spin at NAMM.
MC, I’ve just seen your ep-forum avatar, I like the consistency
Sooo guys.
I have this opportunity to do a compensated swap between my Nord Electro 3-73 and a 1980 Mk2 fifty-four Rhodes. The guy will buy my Electro at a good price givent they will be cheaper soon due to the Electro 4 73 arrival.
About the value, does anyone know how much these 54 go for these days?
About the rest…
At the moment I don’t need to move the Electro once a week. I guess if it happens again, I’ll have either to move the Rhodes or to get another Electro (either a newer one or the same used and cheaper).
It’s kind of cool to be able to play Rhodes AND Wurli AND Vox AND acoustic piano -ok, not the real things but still. It’s cool to have 73 keys, I remember having wanted to pass from 61 to 73 a few years back.
It’s cool not to have to worry about the technical issues of oldies -the said Rhodes has just been maintained though.
I would go for the 54. Those things are awesome. I actually almost bought one a few months ago, then realized it was not financially realistic at the time. The 54 model is very uncommon.
I spent some time yesterday playing electric pianos hiding the extra keys of my 73 keyboard, and forbiding myself to go transpose button. It did not bothered me that much. Some acoustic piano parts were a bit short in the lower left hand, but generally speaking, it was ok.
I have a wurly, and I can tell you, it is night and day with any digital keyboard. Not just the feel, but the subtleties are like the difference between playing a digital guitar (one of those touch pad or fake string things) and an electric. I don’t understand why so many are unwilling to give up their guitars for their digital counterparts, yet with keys, its almost the opposite. I say go for the rhodes, get a space echo and be done with imitations. Cheez whiz may be good, but its not cheese.
BTW the guy was selling a 73 to but it’s gone. Larger, while my room won’t grow. Heavier. Well ok, for home only. I must say I like the compact format of the 54.
Unfiltered, I hear you when speaking of true vs. models. I guess us, synthesists, are more likely to be done with the digital because digital synths have reached some limits now. Digital guitars are still quite new.
I hear the cheese comparison as well
Ok guys, I know we’re not on ep-forum, but I also know there are valuable members with valuable knowledge and opinions here.
As I was thinking a bit more about all this, I found another local oportunity: a Wurlitzer 200B, which is basically a 200A without amp, speaker and vibrato. It runs off two batteries rather than the wall.
The piano is in perfect shape “woodwise and reedwise”, but does not output any sound. I think the batteries are missing, but I haven’t seen it yet (for now, I think it wouldn’t help though )
I feel it’s fixable -gathering information here and there right now- and the price is around one half / two thirds of the usual in my area.
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