User Manual

NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.2x 9. History: The story behind the Electro 2 instruments
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the factory closed down. After this there were no more electromechanical Rhodes developed for the market.
Harold Rhodes died on December 17, 2000.
T
HE RHODES SOUNDS IN THE NORD ELECTRO 2
It's no easy task to capture the whole character of the Rhodes electric piano. There are numerous ways to
adjust the instrument to get different sounds that were typical for the Rhodes. In an interview with Do-
minic Milano in a 1977 issue of Keyboard magazine, Harold himself pointed out, "The quality of the sound
is what you make it. A lot of musicians don't know that. They just play their piano and say, 'Gee, it doesn't
sound like Joe's.' They don't know that they can alter their piano so it will sound like Joe's." This is what
we did with the different Rhodes models we have chosen. We adjusted these pianos to create the different
famous Rhodes timbres that have been popular during the electric-piano era.
It's important to know the basic adjustments you can make to a Rhodes piano. The major and most im-
portant adjustments are to the instrument's timbre and volume. The timbre adjustment requires position-
ing the tines vertically in relation to their associated pick-ups. The timbre of each note changes between
pure fundamental (deep) and pure overtones (shallow). Another adjustment of the tines concerns their dis-
tance from the pick-ups. This adjustment, described in the Rhodes manual as a volume adjustment, doesn't
only change the volume; it also changes the harmonics of the tone. Pulling the tine away from the pick-up
a bit and playing at a low volume makes the sound a bit softer. Pushing the tine in close creates richer
harmonics and a better "bite" in the tone (see the picture below).
pick-up tine
DEEP
(PURE FUNDAMENTAL)
IDEAL
(MORE OVERTONE)
SHALLOW
(PURE OVERTONE)
LOW
(SOFTER SOUND)
IDEAL CLOSE
(RICH HARMONICS