vintage/unique electric keyboards (continued)

I have already posted about my love of the Hammond B3.  But, in the late '60s through the '70s (before digital synthesizers), there were a myriad of other analog keyboards that great players made use of such as the Rhodes piano, Wurlitzer piano, and Hohner Clavinet.  I don't really know the history behind the Wurlitzer.  But, Harold Rhodes is a name I am aware of.  Both of these pianos used steel tines with hammers on the inside through an amplifier.

For information on the specifics of these instruments, here are the Wikipedia pages.  But, there will be other links in this post as well.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes_piano

There is a website dedicated to the Rhodes piano entirely, too.  Go to The Rhodes Super Site at www.fenderrhodes.com.

The Hohner Clavinet (made by the German Hohner company, more famous for making diatonic harmonicas), tried their hand at reinventing the harpsichord and electrifying it, calling it the Clavinet.  So, it's somewhere between a clavichord and harpsichord.  Like the Rhodes, it has hammers in it.  But, they aren't steel.  Rather, the Clavinet utilized the equivalent of guitar pickups (i.e. a single coil or double coil "humbucking" or hum cancelling pickup), and metal strings, much like a guitar, with rubber tipped hammers that struck the strings similarly to fretting a guitar or having a hammer hit a string in an upright piano.

These electric keyboards can sustain as much volume as an electric guitar of course and now, as they get rarer, more and more digital synthesizer companies (Yamaha, Roland, Kurzweil, Clavia Nord and their ilk), make synthesizers that can reproduce these kinds of tones digitally.  But, it's just not the same as having an original Rhodes, Wurlitzer or Clavinet on stage.

For info on the Clavinet, go to this link.  It's title is the Hohner Clavinet resource homepage but the URL is:
http://www.gti.net/junebug/clavinet/

 For reference, these images from the Clavinet page and the Rhodes Super Site are:

1. Early '70s Hohner Clavinet D6 made from 1971-'76
2. Late '70s Hohner Clavinet E7 made beginning in 1977.
3. Fender Rhodes Mk. II (the second iteration of the Rhodes piano built between 1979 and 1983, and not a more famous silver top model which was built between 1969 and 1979).

These images will follow in a separate post. 

Vintage keyboards, just like vintage guitars are JUST PLAIN COOL!  Even to those of us who prefer six strings as compared to 61 or 88 keys.