Vintage Vibe Parts
As players and designers, Vintage Vibe holds a unique position in modern electromechanical piano building; we have the resources and vision to bring to life what is in our hearts and minds, all within our boutique custom shop. We are the only electric piano company that does not outsource our piano designs. When we set out to honor the past all while bringing the future to the modern tine piano, we developed the Vintage Vibe Marquis 73 piano. We merged the golden era of the 1972 Fender Rhodes, both cosmetic and mechanical, with modern patented innovation, such as the Dual Capstan Action and the Variable Voice Control. While maintaining the proprietary innovative weight- and size-reduction techniques that made the Vintage Vibe piano famous 15 years ago. Vintage Vibe is the only company that has brought the vintage Rhodes action into the millennium with patented DCA, which allows the technician and end user to fully regulate individual action, a feat previously unable to be achieved in the Rhodes action.
Making a modern electric piano without improving the Rhodes’ limited action is not really making a modern piano; it’s just rehashing. While the vintage Rhodes can be a sublime experience to play and own, it does come with its share of frustrating limitations, such as a lack of individual adjustment, double striking, and poor braking, to name a few, and we should know, Vintage Vibe has been restoring and improving Rhodes pianos full-time for 3 decades. With all that experience and history, we took our knowledge and created truly new designs that transformed the simplified vintage designs of Rhodes into a modern, forward-thinking masterpiece of electromechanical design, a triumph, if you will. The new action offers fully individual adjustability, reliability, consistency, and, most importantly, playability. It is the most advanced electric piano action ever made.
So, Why Do Customers Care about Vintage Authenticity?
Consumers want what they know is tried and true, and when it comes to vintage electric keyboards, names like Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Hammond, Hohner, Fender, Vox, Moog, and Sequential Circuits are household names. They know these names because they grew up hearing them on all their favorite records, and all their favorite artists used them. Players want this authenticity; it makes them feel they are in the club, and collectors collect these brands for their value. These vintage keyboards carry history and identity; most players can recall who plays what instrument and where they saw a performance of these keyboards. This is all a lovely kumbaya feeling, and we all enjoy the nostalgia. Still, the truth of the matter is, vintage Rhodes pianos were cumbersome, limited, and had playability and quality issues. The factory that made them was efficient at producing many pianos fast, and getting them out the door was paramount to overall quality. The artists who played these instruments were into the “ new sound,” the new vibe, so to speak. Today, the same heroes who played them back in the day, like Stevie Wonder, Chick Corea (RIP), and Donald Fagen, all play Vintage Vibe, as they still want that new vibe, improved sound, and experience.
The Difference Between Preserving Character and Preserving Flaws-
Vintage Vibe’s approach to electric piano design, for the Vintage Vibe Marquis 73, as designers, we have to make decisions about style, substance, and practicality in relation to costs and resources. We have achieved and prototyped, with much success, reductions in the overall size and weight of the tines, tone bars, and action, and these features are part of a piano we plan to release in the future. For the purposes of this blog and our current line of pianos, as well as vintage and modern comparisons, we will stick with the Marquis and what we have achieved. We knew we wanted to preserve that defining vintage aesthetic, after all, it is iconic, and always being conscious of size and weight, there are limited options for where to go regarding contour and shape. We chose a lightweight, sleek, multi-contoured chassis design with bold angles and contoured edges, all to reduce weight and enhance form while preserving the character of the 1972 Fender Rhodes Piano. A great modern piano should understand the past and not blindly copy it. We fiercely preserved the integrity of the tone source, which is the pickups and tines. To us, this is an uncompromised attribute to preserve, while the rest of the vintage Rhodes piano had its limitations; at its best, the 1972 version of Rhodes tines and pickups was unquestioningly the height of tone. This is not an opinion; we have scientific evidence behind our claim. We have spent a lion’s share of time and money on the ingredients and integrity of these aspects. Today, our tines and pickups are equal to or better than those of the 1972 era Fender Rhodes. No other company today can claim this achievement. Weaknesses do not need to be repeated or preserved; things like bulk, weight, and unimproved action are things modern keyboardists can do without. We have spent 15 years weeding out dead weight and preserving what makes an outstanding piano.
Solving yesterday’s problems for today’s musician-
Today’s keyboardists are flooded with options of digital pianos and endless sample libraries to stuff into their controllers, yay! How fun, not! Ha! Can you tell we are passionately biased? Well, we know that if everyone could afford a real, light, portable piano, it would be everyone’s first choice. When Vintage Vibe first introduced our flagship model 15 years ago, we made a huge splash with the Rhodes player community, revealing what could be achieved with the size, weight, and tone of a tine piano. As of today, we have two patents dedicated to advancing the Harold Rhodes simplified action. Modern players need reliability; they need their pianos to perform consistently day after day, tour after tour. The studio owner needs a reliable electric piano that will not only satisfy his clients but also impress them with its playability and sound. Every player wants and expects a modern piano’s touch, tone, and response to exceed those of a vintage piano. Vintage Vibes’ expectation for a modern piano is that it serves the musician, not just nostalgia. Today, our action far surpasses that of vintage or new tine pianos.
What a boutique builder like Vintage Vibe can offer that others can’t-
Smaller builders can obsess over regulation, feel, voicing, and setup. We do not have a CEO, CPO, CFO, or any of the corporate nonsense that destroys craft, camaraderie, and innovation. We have one focus: how to improve our game today to serve our customers and the piano better, regardless of cost. The best design philosophy is not “old vs new.” It is keeping what works and improving what does not. In a corporate-owned piano company, design is outsourced; there are clear cause-and-effect symptoms stemming from a lack of foresight or knowledge. While one thing is improved, something else suffers. For instance, Rhodes designed the MKV key bed and key stick. This new design created more hammer throw and a faster downstroke, but it diminished the key return speed. To gain this extra hammer throw, the fulcrum, or balance point, of the key was shifted forward with the balance rail’s new position. This added weight to the front of the key, provided better downstroke leverage, but the return suffered. Also, the hammer was redesigned to feature a shorter overall cam with a steeper curve, and the hammer rested lower, which, in conjunction with the pedestal, accelerated the hammer with more throw distance. To complete the design, the key’s pedestal was shortened to match the short Cam, leaving little real estate for a quality stop lock. Hammer bounce and double striking are results. As you can see, this vintage design was limited; while it was good for 1984, it falls short of ideal in today’s world. This is where the modern patented Vintage Vibe Dual Capstan Action addresses and corrects these symptoms while offering incredibly light, fast action (on both the downstroke and the return). The patented DCA is the modern adjustable electric piano action and is found only on Vintage Vibe Pianos.
Passion and Perspective –
As I write this, I have a unique and personal perspective on the Vintage Vibe piano, drawing on my 30 years as a Rhodes restoration expert. While my views can be considered biased, I like to think objectively and speak factually, know when I am right, when I need to keep quiet, and when to learn. More importantly, I have been a reliable source to the Rhodes community for 30 years; I have learned from and made lifelong friends and partners from all over the world, and have been humbled that they consider me a trusted friend. I am, if nothing, passionate to a fault over the quality and honor of the Vintage Vibe piano. I will always cherish and respect Vintage Vibe’s legacy. My door is always open to passionate and inquisitive inquiries regarding Vintage Vibe.
With gratitude and passion,
Chris Carroll
