31 Aug
2007
31 Aug
'07
6:55 p.m.
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=1c6b12c55ed3707…
--
Paul Winkler
http://www.slinkp.com