Doctor Frankensteinway Posted October 1, 2001 Share Posted October 1, 2001 How the heck does this stuff happen to me? Yesterday at another garage sale, RMI Piano/Harpsichord for $20. In very nice condition. Rugged little electronic piano. But I have a couple of technical questions for anyone that might be an RMI freak. Anyone? Oh yeah? That's fine for you, you're an accepted member of the entertainment community. What about me? What about Igor? Marginalized by Hollywood yet again. I want my Mummy . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus Lozada Posted October 1, 2001 Share Posted October 1, 2001 Originally posted by Doctor Frankensteinway: How the heck does this stuff happen to me? Yesterday at another garage sale, RMI Piano/Harpsichord for $20. In very nice condition. Rugged little electronic piano. But I have a couple of technical questions for anyone that might be an RMI freak. Anyone? You lucky b...oy http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif Congrats... that can only be defined as "being in the right place at the right time". ------------------ Gus Lozada Moderador de: MusicPlayer.com/NuestroForo "La voz en Español en Música y Tecnología" Gus TraX @musicplayer.com Músico, Productor, Ingeniero, Tecnólogo Senior Product Manager, América Latina y Caribe - PreSonus at Fender Musical Instruments Company Instagram: guslozada Facebook: Lozada - Música y Tecnología www.guslozada.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougP Posted October 1, 2001 Share Posted October 1, 2001 Originally posted by Doctor Frankensteinway: How the heck does this stuff happen to me? Yesterday at another garage sale, RMI Piano/Harpsichord for $20. That's a steal! I paid over 10x that for my 368. In very nice condition. Rugged little electronic piano. But I have a couple of technical questions for anyone that might be an RMI freak. Anyone? I'm no expert, but I've played one quite a bit for the last 3 years or so, although I've never done any servicing on it (fortunately hasn't needed it!). Nice sounds (works great for combo organ stuff, too), even though it's no Rhodes/Wurli (it's an elecTRONIC, not elecTRIC piano). What are the issues with it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b_3guy Posted October 2, 2001 Share Posted October 2, 2001 I have this old tape of the 1st full time band I was in when I was 19. I'm listening to it, I do these piano fills in the intro to some song called Telling You. I'm listening to this awesome sound. It took me a minute to figure out what gear it was. It was an RMI & I remember I didn't have a separate amp for it, I played it through my Leslie 147. Usually I used the break & stopped the spinning of the horn & rotor, but I must have forgot. It was wicked. Raw, primitive electronics thru a spinning tube Leslie. No rompler, sampler, physical modeler can sound as fat, thick & nasty this. Steve www.seagullphotodesign.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Frankensteinway Posted October 2, 2001 Author Share Posted October 2, 2001 The lowest F# does not sound, perhaps a blown capacitor or such? Probably something simple to fix, in any case not a hardship as it is not a crucial F# to have. Also the A4, second to top octave, needs a tweaking down, presently a touch hotter than other notes. That note could use a tuning tweak as well. Gazing at the insides reveals a lot of potentiometers that could very well solve the above problems. Trying to locate a service manual on the internet. Anyone? I will pay for you to photocopy your manual. There is a volume pedal jack which works, and a jack for a sustain pedal. But the sustain pedal jack seems to be just slightly smaller than a standard 1/4" jack. Thoughts? The cool thing is that it's design is perhaps the best I have seen. Case shell is a molded vinyl, not unlike a modern guitar case. Legs flip out and are self contained, sturdy and simple. It is *~the~* sound of Dr.John circa 1972 and his whole Night Tripper (Such a Night, Right Place-Wrong Time) sound. Funky. Very, very fast action. Probably the sound too from some of the late 1960's Louis Armstrong records. Oh yeah? That's fine for you, you're an accepted member of the entertainment community. What about me? What about Igor? Marginalized by Hollywood yet again. I want my Mummy . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfjunkie Posted October 2, 2001 Share Posted October 2, 2001 http://www.netcontrol.fi/~jocke/genesis/images/instruments/rmi368s.jpg that it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougP Posted October 3, 2001 Share Posted October 3, 2001 Like I said, I'm no expert, but ... Originally posted by Doctor Frankensteinway: The lowest F# does not sound, perhaps a blown capacitor or such? Probably something simple to fix, in any case not a hardship as it is not a crucial F# to have. Yeah, a blown electrolytic in the F# voice divide-down section (I assume that it uses 12 oscillators divided-down for more than one octave) sounds likely. Or maybe just a cold solder joint. Also the A4, second to top octave, needs a tweaking down, presently a touch hotter than other notes. That note could use a tuning tweak as well ... Gazing at the insides reveals a lot of potentiometers that could very well solve the above problems. Quite likely one of the pots will put the note back in tune, yes. Although if only *one* of the A's is out of tune, I'm not so sure ... usually trimpots in electronic keyboards of this ilk will control the pitch of the master oscillator, which will affect the divided-down outputs equally. But turning random pots inside an instrument or processing unit can be very dangerous if you don't know what they do! Trying to locate a service manual on the internet. Anyone? I will pay for you to photocopy your manual. I know that there's none on the Internet (I've looked), but one of the keyboard museum/vintage synth sites (I can't remember which one) recently posted an article on RMI written by a former employee ... If anyone could get you a service manual, it would probably be him. If you find one, I'd be curious to get a copy, too. There is a volume pedal jack which works, and a jack for a sustain pedal. But the sustain pedal jack seems to be just slightly smaller than a standard 1/4" jack. That's correct. Mine came with the dual pedal assembly, and the sustain pedal's plug is somewhere between 1/8" and 1/4" (closer to the latter, it seems, so it's probably not TT/.173"-sized). It is *~the~* sound of Dr.John circa 1972 and his whole Night Tripper (Such a Night, Right Place-Wrong Time) sound. Funky. Very, very fast action. Probably the sound too from some of the late 1960's Louis Armstrong records. The most recent band I can think of (besides ones I've been in) that used one was Green On Red, one of the early-80s "Paisley Underground" bands from LA. It's pictured on the front cover of their 12"EP on Down There records, and the RMI sound (both piano- and organ-type) on all their early records is quite distinctive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod S Posted October 3, 2001 Share Posted October 3, 2001 As far as manual, check this site: http://www.magicnet.net/~mglnsky/msg4.html This guy has a library with tons of manuals that he sells photocopies of. I saw the following line: RMI 368X / 668X ElectraPiano Operation / Service Info, Schematics, Promo Sheets rogue music in NYC also has some old manuals for sale. www.roguemusic.com hope this help, Korg Kronos X73 / ARP Odyssey / Motif ES Rack / Roland D-05 / JP-08 / SE-05 / Jupiter Xm / Novation Mininova / NL2X / Waldorf Pulse II MBP-LOGIC American Deluxe P-Bass, Yamaha RBX760 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Frankensteinway Posted October 3, 2001 Author Share Posted October 3, 2001 WOW! What a treasure trove of knowledge this place is! Thanks ~ I will check out all links mentioned. Wager 47 ~ not quite. The 368X that I bought has the rugged vinyl case. Makes it a lot lighter. It looks like a guitar case. You know, those new molded Fender type guitar cases. Looks like that. C o o l Oh yeah? That's fine for you, you're an accepted member of the entertainment community. What about me? What about Igor? Marginalized by Hollywood yet again. I want my Mummy . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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