Rhodes piano pre-amp (pedal builders??)

[StrummersOfThunder]

Ok so weird thread ...

Im taking long term loan of a really cool 70s rhodes stage electric piano
Its a totally electromechanical passive instrument and ill likely play it at home thru a guitar amp. So just to be clear its like a giant 100lb electric guitar with 73 pickups.
most of the forums also talk about a preamp either for recording or even if still going into an amp.
There seem to be some specific requirements in terms of impedence etc to to get the best out of the rhodes....
I wonder if any of the pedal builders here or those in the know would have any idea of available pedals or preamps that would fit the bill OR be intersted in building something?

There are some hefty rabbit holes on the subject on the net but i dont consider myself preamp/keys qualified enough to know where to start.

[vinylguy]

I saw one of these in cash converters here about 3 years ago and was sorely tempted (I dont play keys and havent a clue), but it was such a cool looking thing. Reminded me of that scene in The Blues Brothers with Ray Charles....

I thought you just plugged them into a guitar amp ?

[StrummersOfThunder]

I saw one of these in cash converters here about 3 years ago and was sorely tempted (I dont play keys and havent a clue), but it was such a cool looking thing. Reminded me of that scene in The Blues Brothers with Ray Charles....

I thought you just plugged them into a guitar amp ?

I love that scene so much

“I do t think there’s anything wrong with the action on this keyboard …..”

I’ll throw in the black keys for free.

Yep you do just plug it into a guitar amp. But….
1. If you want to DI it or plug into recording interface
2. There is a school of thought that say a preamp before the guitar amp is the way to go
3. There are some ways that the impedance on the Rhodes preamp emphasizes the desirable tones and suppresses others … I don’t know enough about it but a quick trawl thru the internet while I was on call over night eluded to that….

[jeremyb]

Maybe just a clean boost pedal like the TC Spark would give you enough beast whilst keeping the clarity of the original toan? they have an extra 26db at full noise plus they will change the impedance to make it suitable for going into a guitar amp or interface

[robthemac]

Ants you should try the pedal I left with you on Thursday. Not sure about input impedance but should do a good job as a slightly warm, natural-sounding preamp.

[bender]

I saw one of these in cash converters here about 3 years ago and was sorely tempted (I dont play keys and havent a clue), but it was such a cool looking thing. Reminded me of that scene in The Blues Brothers with Ray Charles....

I thought you just plugged them into a guitar amp ?

I love that scene so much

“I do t think there’s anything wrong with the action on this keyboard …..”

I’ll throw in the black keys for free.

Yep you do just plug it into a guitar amp. But….
1. If you want to DI it or plug into recording interface
2. There is a school of thought that say a preamp before the guitar amp is the way to go
3. There are some ways that the impedance on the Rhodes preamp emphasizes the desirable tones and suppresses others … I don’t know enough about it but a quick trawl thru the internet while I was on call over night eluded to that….

Hard to say without having the beast in front of you. It might not a guitar pedal type of preamp (which tend to be more about tone shaping- emulating the preamp section of an amp), but maybe more like a microphone or piezo preamp (impedance/buffering). I used to use a contact mic for recording sound effects years ago, and that absolutely had to be run through a piezo preamp or it really suffered. Anything for an acoustic instrument might do the trick.

I have a Sansamp Bass DI that would also be worth a try.

Otherwise, a Neve style mic preamp would be the tits.

[Mosfet]

Wow that is so freaking cool. Lucky you!

[StrummersOfThunder]

I saw one of these in cash converters here about 3 years ago and was sorely tempted (I dont play keys and havent a clue), but it was such a cool looking thing. Reminded me of that scene in The Blues Brothers with Ray Charles....

I thought you just plugged them into a guitar amp ?

I love that scene so much

“I do t think there’s anything wrong with the action on this keyboard …..”

I’ll throw in the black keys for free.

Yep you do just plug it into a guitar amp. But….
1. If you want to DI it or plug into recording interface
2. There is a school of thought that say a preamp before the guitar amp is the way to go
3. There are some ways that the impedance on the Rhodes preamp emphasizes the desirable tones and suppresses others … I don’t know enough about it but a quick trawl thru the internet while I was on call over night eluded to that….

Hard to say without having the beast in front of you. It might not a guitar pedal type of preamp (which tend to be more about tone shaping- emulating the preamp section of an amp), but maybe more like a microphone or piezo preamp (impedance/buffering). I used to use a contact mic for recording sound effects years ago, and that absolutely had to be run through a piezo preamp or it really suffered. Anything for an acoustic instrument might do the trick.

I have a Sansamp Bass DI that would also be worth a try.

Otherwise, a Neve style mic preamp would be the tits.

Yeh I think this is the thing, guitar pedal stuff doesnt seem to do the trick. There are clip on preamps for them that run around $245 USD.

[StrummersOfThunder]

Wow that is so freaking cool. Lucky you!

Yes!
Im picking it up at thanksgiving dinner at his tonight. He is one of the band so there is a bit of back and forth with gear....

[rickenbackerkid]

I LOVE a fender rhodes. you're a lucky chap. Some models have a preamp. If it doesn't you could use a clean boost type thing to juice it, but back in the day they would just plug it in a Fender amp and go. Plenty of tremolo is highly recommended

[robthemac]

If you're wanting to record with it, I think the Iridium would be the tits. A Blackface preamp, little bit of stereo room effect, ability to disable speaker emulation... Hmmmmm

[Litterick]

Keep it simple. Remember, they did not have pre-amp pedals back then.

[NZTone.e]

Keep it simple. Remember, they did not have pre-amp pedals back then.

Didn’t have home recording interfaces, software or computers of any sort either!

I guess it depends on what you’re trying to do with it?

Just jam some tunes with mates, then straight into an amp, old school, as they did, but then into your computer…something in between!

If they’re made to go straight into an amp, then any device designed to take a guitar signal into an interface should work surely?

Sansamp and the like would be a good place to start…

[StrummersOfThunder]

I found this unit online:
https://www.avionstudios.com/rhodes/retroflyer

This video does a good job of selling it
https://www.avionstudios.com/videos/jul ... retroflyer