Rhodes MK-60
Sixty-four weighted keys, an octave-shift button that reaches the full eighty-eight, and an auto-bend circuit meant to bring back some of the hammer-and-tine action.
Overview
The MK-60 was Rhodes' bid to keep the name alive in a digital world, and it did that by shrinking the flagship. The MK-80 carried a full 88-note weighted action. The MK-60 trimmed the keybed to 64 notes and added an Octave Shift function, so players could still reach the full 88-note range. That made the instrument lighter without locking anyone out of the top or bottom of the keyboard. Rhodes' own advertising pitched it as "the sporty" model, "designed for ease of use and portability," and as the only 64-key weighted-action piano to incorporate that octave-shift feature. That's marketing copy, not a verdict. Fewer keys, same reach, less to carry.
The sound engine is built around the four Rhodes voices that defined the whole line - Classic, Special, Blend, and Contemporary. Classic aims at the original thick, sustaining Rhodes tone. Special is a custom variation with low-frequency distortion and a full-bodied midrange and treble. Blend pairs that low-end distortion with a sharp attack in the mid and high range. Contemporary chases the crisp, brilliant synthesized electric piano sound with sharply defined overtones. Alongside those four sit acoustic and electric grand pianos, clavinet, and vibraphone. Mix (1990, p.23) singled out the concert grand, electric grand, clav, and vibraphone as the instrument's extraordinary sounds, with the Rhodes variations filling out the palette around them.
The MK-80 got the deep editing - the Macro Edit function, four control sliders, a two-line LCD, pitch bender, and user memory. The MK-60 was deliberately simpler. It offers two stretch-tuning modes for realistic harmonic beating, bass and treble equalization, chorus and tremolo, and an Auto-Bend function that Rhodes described as replicating the natural dynamics of the original hammer-and-tine generator design. Auto-Bend is an attempt to synthesize the pitch wobble and dynamic bloom of a mechanical tine using a custom chip. Whether it convinces is up to the player. There's also a Key Shift for simplified transposition, and MIDI compatibility with the ability to send program changes to connected MIDI instruments.
The keyboard is weighted and oil-damped, per Rhodes' own documentation. It's the same general action philosophy as the MK-80, just shorter. The oil-damped action is a maintenance item, so anyone buying used should know that a sluggish or uneven keybed on a secondhand example usually points to the damping rather than the electronics. The MK-60 also pairs with the RS-80 stand. The stand's width screw (measurement F) should be set to 2 mm for the MK-60, versus 262 mm for the MK-80. Getting that wrong is an easy mistake on a used purchase, and the service documentation exists to settle it.
The MK-60 is the portable entry point into Rhodes' late-digital era. It has the four classic voices, the octave shift that keeps the full range within reach, and an auto-bend circuit standing in for the mechanics that made the name famous. It doesn't have the MK-80's editing depth or its 88 keys.
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