Bedienungsanleitung AAS Lounge Lizard EP-4 (Seite 12 von 55) (Englisch)

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12 The Electric Piano

2 The Electric Piano

2.1 A Short History

The electric piano was invented by Harold Rhodes (1910-2000) during the forties when he was in

the army. The ﬁrst instruments he built were made of aircraft pieces and were intended to entertain

army servicemen. The Rhodes piano as we know it today grew out of a partnership between

Harold Rhodes and Leo Fender who released the Fender Rhodes Piano Bass a 32-note version of

the instrument. But it is not until 1965, after the takeover of Fender by CBS, that the instrument

really came to life when a 73-note model was released. From then different models were introduced

including the Mark series as well as the two 88-note Suitcase and Stage models until 1984 when

production ceased.

Harold Rhodes was not the only one to work on the electric piano. In the thirties, the inventor

Ben Meissner had developed an electrostatic pickup design he used to amplify a conventional

upright piano. The Wurlitzer company became interested in this idea but replaced the piano strings

by metal reeds. In 1955, the EP-100 Wurlitzer piano was released and followed by many other

models until 1982.

Electric piano players seem to be divided into two camps: Rhodes or Wurlies. Whatever the

preference both instruments, with their distinctive sounds, have marked the history of rock and

jazz in the sixties and seventies. They have been popularised in thousands of songs by legendary

musicians and bands such as Ray Charles, Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Stevie

Wonder, Steely Dan, Supertramp and many others. In the recent years, the electric piano has

enjoyed a resurgence through its extensive use in rock, jazz, fusion, hip hop, R&B, and house.

2.2 General Functioning

The mechanism of a Rhodes electric piano is relatively simple and is illustrated in Figure 3. A

note played on the keyboard releases a damper and activates a felt-tipped hammer which hits a

metal bar having the shape of a tuning fork. The struck portion of the fork is called the tine and

is made of stiff steel wire. The other part of the fork, parallel to the tine, is called the tonebar. It

acts as a resonator adding sustain to the sound. The vibrations of the tine bar are picked up by an

electromagnetic pickup and sent to an ampliﬁer, very much like in an electric guitar. The result is

a very expressive instrument with a characteristic smooth tone which can also be made to growl or

bark when played harder and the pickups introduce nonlinear distortion.

The functionning of a Wurlitzer piano is very similar except that instead of a fork, the hammer

hits a metal reed as shown in Figure 4. The reeds are placed near metal plates which together with

the metal reeds form an electrostatic or capacitive pickup system. Compared to Rhodes, Wurlies

are known to have a brighter and more hollow sound.

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