Rhodes

The electric piano that gave jazz-fusion its voice

The Rhodes electric piano is the most beautiful keyboard sound ever recorded. Warm, bell-like, intimate, and infinitely expressive, it has graced more classic records than any other electric instrument besides the guitar. When you hear those shimmering tines through a suitcase amplifier with tremolo gently pulsing, you're hearing the sound of a thousand late-night recording sessions, jazz clubs, and soul revues.

History

Harold Rhodes was a piano teacher who served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. While stationed at a military hospital, he built small pianos from salvaged airplane parts — aluminum tubing for tines, bomber parts for the frame — to help wounded soldiers with rehabilitation through music therapy. These crude instruments planted the seed for what would become the most iconic electric piano in history.

After the war, Rhodes continued developing his electric piano concept, eventually creating an instrument that used metal tines struck by hammers (similar to a conventional piano action) to produce sound, with electromagnetic pickups converting the tine vibrations into electrical signals. In 1959, the Fender company licensed and began manufacturing the instrument as the Fender Rhodes Piano Bass (a 32-note bass instrument) and later the full-range Fender Rhodes Electric Piano.

The Fender Rhodes became the definitive electric piano of the 1960s and 1970s. Its sound — warm, bell-like, with a characteristic bark on hard-struck notes and a gentle shimmer on soft ones — was utterly unlike any acoustic piano. It didn't try to emulate a grand piano; it was its own instrument with its own voice, and musicians embraced that uniqueness. The addition of a stereo tremolo circuit (in the "Suitcase" models, which included a built-in amplifier and speakers) added a hypnotic, pulsing quality that became a signature texture in jazz, funk, soul, and pop.

The Mark I Stage Piano, introduced in the early 1970s, became the most popular model. It was lighter than the Suitcase version (it needed an external amplifier) and its sound was slightly brighter and more focused. The Mark II, introduced in 1979, had a different tine design that produced a brighter, more cutting tone that many players found less warm than the Mark I. Harold Rhodes grew dissatisfied with the direction of the instrument under Fender/CBS ownership and eventually left the company. After various corporate transitions, the Rhodes name was revived in the 2000s for new digital instruments, but it's the vintage Fender Rhodes — particularly the Mark I — that remains the gold standard.

The cultural footprint of the Rhodes is almost impossible to overstate. It is to keyboards what the Stratocaster is to guitars — an instrument so perfectly voiced, so responsive to the player's touch, and so universally loved that it has appeared on virtually every genre of popular music recorded between 1965 and 1985.

Notable Instruments

Rhodes Mark I Stage Piano

The Mark I is the Rhodes at its most essential and beloved. Seventy-three keys of pure tine-and-pickup magic, housed in a sturdy tolex-covered case with chromium-plated legs. The sound is warm and round at low velocities — those gentle, bell-like tones that float through jazz ballads and quiet soul recordings. Hit the keys harder, and the tines produce a biting, almost growling overtone that adds grit and urgency. This dynamic range — from whisper to bark — is what makes the Rhodes one of the most expressive keyboard instruments ever built.

Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters features some of the most iconic Rhodes playing ever recorded — those funky, choked chords on "Chameleon" are pure Mark I. Chick Corea's Return to Forever showcased the Rhodes as a jazz lead instrument of stunning agility. Stevie Wonder used it on Innervisions. Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are" opens with one of the most famous Rhodes intros in pop. The Doors' Ray Manzarek, Donald Fagen of Steely Dan, Joe Sample of The Crusaders, George Duke, and Patrice Rushen all built signature sounds on the Mark I. Run it through a chorus pedal, a phaser, or an overdrive, and the Rhodes transforms yet again — it's an instrument of seemingly infinite character. Every keyboard player should experience the feeling of sitting behind a properly set-up Mark I; it's one of those instruments that makes you want to play for hours and never stop.

All Models in Archive (1)

Portable Keyboards

• Mark I Stage Piano - 1969-1983