Rhodes piano
Often the signal is processed through a stereo low-frequency pan oscillation (which was called Vibrato on the Rhodes front panel) effects unit, which pans the signal back and forth between right and left channels. It is this rounded or chiming sound that is called the classic Rhodes sound, which can be heard on, for example, many of Stevie Wonder s or Herbie Hancock s songs.Since its renaissance in the 1990s, it has again become very popular and widely used. It can also be heard on many records from that time.
The hammers became all plastic, the pedestals changed shape and were bare for a short while, (the felt was on the underside of the hammer), the pickups were altered, and the tine structure modified to endure more wear. The modifications brings out more of the attack in the Rhodes sound and makes it cut through like a grand piano; for instance: when notes are played forcefully, the sound becomes less sweet, as nonlinear distortion creates a characteristic growling or snarling called bark by pianists.
The Rhodes piano is an electromechanical musical instrument, a famous electric piano. A total amount of 2000 Mk V s were produced. A new Rhodes Mark 7 was introduced at NAMM 2007 and MusikMesse 2007, featuring the same electromechanical design as the original instrument, but with a new futuristic look and number of improvements. The Rhodes piano s tone-generating principles are derived from the concept of an asymmetrical tuning fork - with a stiff wire (called a tine ), struck by a felt-tipped (neoprene rubber-tipped after 1970) hammer, acting as one side of the tuning fork, and a counterbalancing resonating tone bar above the tine acting as the other side.
This was followed by the Fender Rhodes Electric Piano (1965), FenderRhodes Electric Piano Mk I (1970) and Rhodes Electric Piano Mk II (1979) which was continuously improved and developed, but housed in about the same construction throughout the years. Different models of the Rhodes pianos were manufactured. The preamp with vibrato was included on the original FenderRhodes Electric Pianos and after 1970 (with stereo panning) on the suitcase models; the stage models lack the preamp and the amplified speaker cabinet. Inspired by one particular and very famous rental piano in L.A., the E-Rhodes, used on hundreds of famous records by many big artists, during the 1980s a set of Rhodes modifications done by a company called Dyno My Piano became popular: it made the sound brighter, harder, and more bell-like.
The Rhodes piano evolved from its successor, the electrified post-war Rhodes Pre-piano over the 1946 to 1950s timeframe, to an initial design launched as the Rhodes PianoBass in 1959. The Rhodes action is quite different from that of a conventional piano. As a result, Rhodes instruments were called Fender Rhodes for 15 years. The first Fender Rhodes product was the Piano Bass in 1959, and no other models were mass-produced until after the CBS takeover of Fender.
This is the sound that a particular patch on the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer tried to emulate, a patch that was enormously popular during the 80 s. From 1970 73 and 88 note versions were available of both the Mk I Stage and Suitcase models, the Suitcase included built in pre-amp with the famous Stereo-Vibrato, plus a cabinet with stereo amplifier and speakers.
This tone generator kit s vibrations are then picked up by an electromagnetic pickup (one for each tine), and amplified. In 1984, the last year of production, the Rhodes Mk V was released.
Notable Fender Rhodes players include Phil Collins, Ahmad Jamal, Richard Wright, Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Jan Hammer, Chick Corea, Johnny Goudie, Bob James, Joe Sample, Keith Jarrett, Donald Fagen, Ray Manzarek, Max Middleton, Joe Zawinul, Page McConnell, Billy Preston, Michael McDonald and Eumir Deodato. The Army Air Corps piano was invented during World War II by Harold Rhodes in an effort to create a piano that injured soliders could play while lying in a hospital bed. Its distinctive sound has appeared in thousands of songs of all musical styles, since it was first introduced in 1965.
This chiming sound is, as an example, used in the Radiohead song Subterranean Homesick Alien from the album OK Computer. The result is a unique, fat sound with a bellish attack and good sustain. In 1965, when the full-size 73-note model was finally launched, there wasn t much commotion, but a year or two later, among others, Joe Zawinul and Miles Davis started experimenting with this new sound in both jazz and rock and the fusion between the two styles that came out of this. Leo Fender of The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, then called the Fender Electric Instrument Company, entered a joint venture with Harold Rhodes in 1959, and they produced the instruments for six years.
The 60s also saw the Fender Rhodes Celeste, the Student/Instructor models and systems as well as the very rare Domestic models. In 1970 the more portable Mk I Stage model was added to the range as well as the two 88 note Stage and Suitcase models, and in 1974 the brand name was changed from Fender Rhodes to just Rhodes .
The overall effect was that of a Rhodes piano and a synthesizer being played simultaneously; compared with the new polyphonic synthesizers being marketed at the same time, it was far too limited in scope and sound. Whereas in a conventional piano each key causes a hammer to strike a set of three strings, in a Rhodes piano each hammer strikes a single metal tine instead.
Because the instrument produces sound electrically, the signal can be processed to yield many different timbral colors. DX7 Rhodes .
The success that followed led to an interest to develop this into a commercial product after the war. The Rhodes piano went through internal improvements continuously.
It had a lighter body and all new action design with an improved cam, increasing the hammerstroke by 23%, among other things. The Mk II model was introduced in late 1979. Also manufactured for a brief period was the Rhodes Mk III EK-10 which had analog oscillators and filters alongside the existing electromechanical elements.
Skilled players can contrast the sweet and rough sounds to create an extremely expressive performance. Starting in 1980, a 54-key version was also produced.
The pickups output is fed to an amplifier, which can be adjusted to produce the desired volume. The sound produced has a bell-like character not unlike a vibraphone, celesta or glockenspiel. Due to the competition from digital and polyphonic synthesizers and the introduction of midi, production of Rhodes instruments was stopped this year (1984). The first model to be produced by Fender-Rhodes was the 32-note PianoBass in 1959.
The Mk V was thought to be the ultimate Rhodes instrument. During January 1965 CBS bought the Fender company for 13 million dollars, and shortly afterwards the 73 and 61 key Fender Rhodes Electric Piano went into production.
Very few units were sold. The final Rhodes electric piano model was the Mk V in 1984.
