[LAU] water-damaged rhodes ? UPDATE

[Paul Winkler]

On Fri, Aug 31, 2007 at 05:04:20PM -0400, Dave Phillips wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> Thanks to a timely phone call from Marv Smoak, I decided against watering 
> the unit. Marv connected me to a Rhodes repair service in Yellow Springs 
> OH, the tech there recommended I leave the unit in the sun for a few days 
> to dry the inside of the instrument. I removed the cover, set the keyboard 
> out to dry, and voila, the keys are now all active again (i.e. they return 
> when pressed). They definitely need adjustment though, which is beyond my 
> skills.
>
> I've cleaned the keys and the outside of the unit, it's looking good. Now 
> comes the moment of truth: plugging it in to an amplifier. However, before 
> I do that I'd like to check the unit for shorts or other electrical 
> problems. How should I do so ?

With a multimeter, they all have settings for measuring resistance.
Plug in a 1/4" cable to the rhodes; with the other end of the cable,
touch the black meter probe to the sleeve and the red probe to the
tip.  If it's wired like I think it is, you'll see zero ohms when the
rhodes' volume knob is on zero, and some number more than that when
the knob is on 10.  As a totally wild guess with some google
assistance, I would say a few kilohms would be a sane number. As long
as it's between zero and infinity, that's encouraging :)

But if you're worried about frying your amp, I doubt there is any real
risk of that. For example, an electric guitar is usually wired so that
turning its volume to zero creates a short circuit. A guitar amp won't
be hurt by this; it just won't make any sound :)

> Apparently the unit is not externally powered, all I need to do is
> plug it into an amp.

Yeah, that's typical of old electric pianos (except those with built
in amplification, like the rhodes "suitcase model" which was basically
a normal rhodes perched on top of a gigantic combo amp. My mom had
one. Sounded great, weighed a couple tons. You'd know if you had one
of those!)

btw, google turned up this site:
http://www.fenderrhodes.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=1c6b12c55ed370704fa3bab5158dbde4

-- 

Paul Winkler
http://www.slinkp.com