Rhodes Stage 88
The 88-key version of the electric piano that defined a decade of popular music. It is heavy and mechanical, and it was still changing hands among players decades later.
Overview
The smaller Stage 73 was the working keyboardist's compromise. The Stage 88 gave players the full compass, and the used market has never quite stopped circulating them. Period classifieds show it better than any spec sheet: a Stage 88 turning up for $350 in one listing, a Dyno My Piano-modified 88 with EQ and hard top at $1,000 in another, and a Stage 88 sitting alongside Leslie speakers and keyboard amps in a dealer's used inventory. These were working instruments, bought and sold by working musicians.
That's the whole idea, and it's why the instrument has a touch and response that no sampled imitation has fully replaced. The Stage 88 was the biggest of them.
The instrument shows up repeatedly in the period press as a fixture of the working keyboard rig. A 2005 feature in Sound on Sound (January 2005, p.113) traced the Rhodes lineage through Harold Rhodes, who was running a chain of piano schools across the USA by the age of 20, and continued the story of the instrument through the Roland years.
Dealer advertisements of the era list the Rhodes Stage 88 alongside the Stage 54, Stage 73, Suitcase 73, Suitcase 88, and the Mark III EK-10, which gives a sense of how the model sat within a much larger Rhodes family — the 88 wasn't a flagship curiosity, it was one option among many, and the one players chose when they wanted the full keyboard without the Suitcase's built-in amplification.Every prospective owner asks about reliability. The honest answer is that a Rhodes is a mechanical instrument first and an electronic one second. Buyers should budget for a technician's time as well as the purchase price.
Collectors note that the Stage 88 sits in an odd spot in the Rhodes hierarchy. It's not the rarest, it's not the most desirable, and it's not the cheapest. It's the one that does the most, in the most situations, with the least fuss. The 88-key range lets it cover a full piano part without transposing or compromising, and for players who came up on the instrument in the 1970s and 1980s, that range is the whole point.
Current market prices for the Stage 88 vary widely with condition, and the fact sheet for this page does not provide a verified figure, so no number is offered here. The model is still easy to find. It appears regularly in the used market, in classifieds, and in dealers' inventories, which is more than can be said for many of its contemporaries. There are plenty of Stage 88s out there, and plenty of them are tired. A careful inspection beats a quick purchase.
Weighing a Stage 88 against its siblings usually comes down to range and portability. It's the Rhodes for the player who wants the whole keyboard, plans to bring their own amp, and doesn't mind that the action will eventually need attention.
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Related Models
- Rhodes piano (1959–1985)
- Rhodes Stage 54
- Rhodes Stage 73
- Rhodes Suitcase 73