Hold yer horses, boys!

It's a RHODES PIANO!

If that's all you want, order a stripped down stage model and go away. If you want active preamp/EQ/vibrato, get the active version. If you want the bottom speaker, just pop it underneath, it's ready to interface. If you want MIDI, get it. It will have a display for midi mapping, nothing related to the piano's sound.

Hammers and tines are based on the MKV technology. It will weigh around 85 lbs for a 73. Tines are made from the same alloys and are from the same source. The action is fast without the key bounce common in older designs. These things PLAY.

They will have the usual "accessory" jacks to allow interfacing to your beloved MXR Phase 90 while offering a passive output for external processing or a DI right off the pickups. The vibrato rate is very wide, from very slow to chattering fast, great for effects. It's a very smooth optically based triangle waveform pan circuit.

The preamps are using new silicon/germainium technology and noise is very low. There is a 3 band EQ with a mid sweep range of 100 to 8k hz, + - 15 db. Residual buzz from the pickups is also reduced from better shielding. The pickup coils will be made by Turbo-Jet, just like before. They will be better matched than any other previous Rhodes offering improved signal to noise ratios.

The speaker bottom is very powerful but also very light. It has wheels and a great stand/support system. The pedals are improved for faster set up without rubbing. I can get Hendrix like feedback from this thing, it's so powerful.

The new 61 key passive is very affordable. What ever the price is set at, it will be reasonable for the quality and features offered. One can conclude this will be a great product and will find favor with many musicians who don't want the aggravation of maintaining a 30+ year old piano or those who want additional performance and sound quality. We all realize some vintage old "rhodents" will hate anything new, but they already have their old dinosaurs so they are not the market focus.

Booth 5811, see you there....

Jim Williams
Rhodes designer.