Rhodes Stage 54
A short-keyboard Stage piano that turns up in dealer ads and classified columns far more often than it does in the history books.
Overview
The Stage 54 is the odd one out in the Rhodes Stage family. It is a 54-key version of the flat-top, no-amplifier piano, and it shows up in period dealer listings next to its better-known siblings. What documentation survives is mostly commercial: price sheets, classified ads, and West Coast dealer inventories from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Collectors note that the Stage 54 appears in those listings as a distinctly cheaper proposition than the larger Stage models, and the numbers back that up. Sound-Arts (May 1980, p.40) covers the broader keyboard market, including portable in-car and gigging systems of the era. That is the commercial context these instruments were advertised in.
One British dealer price list from the period puts the Stage 54 at an R.R.P. of £733.00, discounted to £495.00. That is well below the Stage 73 at £1008.00 (selling for £575.00) and the Stage 88 at £1208.00 (selling for £690.00). The same sheet lists the Suitcase 73 and Suitcase 88 above both, so the Stage 54 sat at the bottom of the Rhodes price ladder in that dealer's book. It was the entry point into a Rhodes, not the flagship.
A second price sheet in the same style lists the Stage 54 at the same £733.00 R.R.P. and £495.00 selling price. That suggests the figure was a consistent distributor-level number rather than a one-off. The two sheets show different R.R.P./selling pairs for several other Roland and Moog items, so treat the Stage 54 figure as the one point of agreement between them, not proof of a fixed national price.
The classified columns tell a similar story. In the July 1986 issue of Electronics & Music Maker, a Stage 54 is offered for £200 with the line "one owner, no fluffy dice, only driven at weekends by elderly gent". That kind of joke ad only makes sense for a cheap, common instrument. A Stage 73 MkII in the same column asks £295. By the mid-1980s the Stage 54 was clearly the bargain Rhodes.
Dealer inventories confirm the model was sold on the West Coast of the US as well. A Goodman listing out of North Hollywood names the Rhodes Stage 54 alongside the Stage 73, Stage 88, Suitcase 73, Suitcase 88, and Mark III EK-10. So the 54 was part of the standard Rhodes lineup a dealer would stock, not a special order. Another keyboard inventory from the same era lists "Rhodes: Stage 54" between the Korg MS50 and an HH Electronic Piano, again as a stock item.
The surviving documentation does not give the details an owner actually wants: key count beyond the name, action, tine and tone-bar specs, weight, dimensions, or the electronics (if any). The Stage line is conventionally the passive, no-amplifier version, but the fact sheet does not state this for the 54 specifically. The name implies 54 keys, but that is an inference from the model designation and not a documented spec. Treat any claim about the 54's internals with caution until a service manual or owner's manual surfaces.
The Stage 54 is a real, dealer-stocked Rhodes. It was priced below the Stage 73 and Stage 88 when new, and it was trading cheaply on the used market by the mid-1980s. It is not a rare variant, and it is not a documented classic.
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Related Models
- Rhodes piano (1959–1985)
- Rhodes Stage 73
- Rhodes STAGE-88
- Rhodes Suitcase 73