fender Archives - The Record Shop Nashville

Rhodes Mark II

Hey y’all! Welcome back the The Record Shop Nashville Recording Studio for another installment of BEHIND THE GEAR, one of the most splendiforous, titillating gear blogs on this rock we call Earth! Well…we love it anyways. Today we want to share some information about one of the most prolific pianos in music history. The one…the only…Fender Rhodes Mark II electric piano! The Fender Rhodes has been a coveted piano since it’s creation in 1960, when its inventor Harold Rhodes teamed up with Leo Fender to begin mass producing these fine instruments. From Ray Manzarek to Herbie Hancock to “The Ruler of the Rhodes” Billy Preston, pianists alike have been performing live and recording the songs of their generations with these pianos. So come on in, and lets talk about the Fender Rhodes!

Harold Rhodes: Inventor & Humanitarian

Before we dive into the instrument itself, we at The Record Shop want to shed a light on Harold Rhodes. A Los Angeles native, Rhodes began teaching piano when he was 19, where he developed what is now called the “Rhodes Method” of teaching. Harold aimed to combine classical piano’s reliance on written sheet music with jazz improvisation. During WWII Rhodes, now one of the top piano instructors in the U.S., joined the Army Air Corps where he continued to teach piano to his fellow soldiers. Harold was soon asked by the Air General Surgeon to create a music-therapy program for injured GIs. Rhodes then built several “lap-top” pianos, along with kits that soldiers could build themselves. These portable, 29-key pianos were made from used aluminum from B-17 airplanes and functioned almost like a xylophone. “Make and Play”, as the program was named, became the the most successful music-related program ever implemented by the United States government! After he returned from War, Rhodes continued teaching and developing pianos with his new venture Rhodes Piano Corporation. Then as history goes, Leo Fender bought RPC in 1959 and mass production began.

The Rhodes Stage Piano

Harold stayed with the Rhodes company after the 1965, CBS acquisition of Fender and developed the first Fender Rhodes piano. These 73-keyed pianos were made up of two parts – the actual piano and a built-in power amplifier and speaker. 5 years later the 73-note Stage Piano was released! The Stage Piano was marketed for its light-weight portability, detachable legs, sustain pedal, and single output jack. From 1970 – 1981, Rhodes put out The Mark I Stage Piano, which was modified several times over the 1970s, and the Mark II Stage Piano. Of the Mark Series (I-VII), the Mark I and II seem to be the most sought after by pianists. There other pianos in the series seem to be used more for specific sounds and tastes, but they are mostly purchased as collectors items. The Mark II is essentially a Mark I stage piano after all the design changes made during the 1970s. It has the same black suitacse look, removable music rack, flat hard cover, volume-control & tone-control (bass boost) knobs, tuning fork principle sound generation, sustain pedal, and adjustable legs.

There really isn’t much we can say to describe the Mark II’s tone in words. Follow this link HERE for a video demonstration by Neville Styke’s YouTube channel where he showcases the full audio spectrum of the Mark II. In closing, the Rhodes Mark II Stage Piano has a completely unique tone that can add so much richness to your track and arrangement that is simply unparalleled. Harold Rhodes gave the world an amazing gift by creating these instruments, and he will forever go down in history for his revolutionary designs for pianos and sound creation. So, the next time you find yourself in Nashville give us here at The Record Shop a call and tickle the keys of our Mark II.

Thank you for joining The Record Shop Nashville for another Behind The Gear. We hope we’ve been informative. Click HERE for a complete list of our Nashville Recording Studio’s gear. And HEY!!! Follow and chat with Gio & the crew on Twitter @therecordshop! See y’all next time!

July 23, 2014/0 Comments/by The Record Shop

Behind The Gear

Fender Champ 600

Good morning, noon, or night music fans! Thanks for coming back to The Record Shop’s Nashville Recording Studio for yet another installment of out never-ending, musically-sensational, out-of-this-world series BEHIND THE GEAR!!! Today’s episode is for all you amazing guitar slingers out there strummin’ and pickin’ them strings ery’day. We have many great guitar amps inside The Record Shop Nashville’s hallowed halls, but amongst our larger 2×12 and 4×12 amplifiers sits the tinier Fender Champ 600 reissue. Don’t let its size fool you; this little guy has been putting out sounds that have bewildered and inspired guitar players since the 1940’s!

A Champ’s Journey

The Fender Champ 600 was first manufactured in 1949. It was the second Champ design; it’s predecessor being the original Fender Champ 800 amplifier that was manufactured one year earlier in 1948. Like the 800 model, the Champ 600 is a 4-watt amplifier with 3 tubes and an angled rear panel with two inputs and one volume control knob. It also had the famous diminutive “TV-front” look with the tweed covering, though the 600’s vinyl covering is a two-tone brown instead of the greenish tweed of the 800 . The only significant difference in the Champ 600’s design is that it has a 6″ speaker cone instead of an 8″ cone. As time went on the Champ was continuously redesigned with different color vinyl and tweed covering, alternate speaker cone sizes, input & volume control placement, and even being renamed to just The Champ or Champ Amp. In 1982, the Fender Champ series was discontinued until 2006, when an updated version was released as part of Fender’s Vintage Model Line. To see a more in-depth history and evolution of the Fender Champ from the company itself click here!

The Record Shop Nashville is glad to have added one of the reissued Fender Champ 600 amps to our gear roster. Though it is cosmetically similar to the original 600 there are some differences in the specs listed below.

Available as a 6″ Combo, features an internal 4 ohm speaker output jack
5 Watts RMS
Volume Control
Power Switch
2 Input (high, low), 1 Channel
1x 12AX7 and 1x 6V6
Solid State Diode Rectified
Class A, Single Ended

Internally, the Champ reissue has modified Blackface Champ circuitry. The tone stack settings are hard-wired rather than adjustable via the Treble and Bass controls. Additional resistors were also placed in the circuit to reduce input gain. Lastly, Fender switched to solid-state rectification as opposed to the original 5Y3 tube.

We love using this amp for recordings. Since it’s a smaller speaker, the Champ naturally sounds a little bright, but that is easily cured with proper mic placement. Regardless, this amp can turn out classic, clean Fender tones just as well as other models. Crank this puppy up, and you can get a unique blues overdrive tone too; however, this overdrive isn’t as crunchy as most players would probably prefer. Either way, the Fender Champ 600 is a bonafide tone champion in The Record Shop’s Nashville Recording Studio. Come on in and see what this little giant can do!

That’s a wrap on today’s installment of Behind the Gear. We can’t express how much it means to us that you decided to spend some time with us today. If you’d like to see The Record Shop Nashville’s complete gear list here. You can follow and chat with us any time on Twitter @therecordshop for updates on our studio projects and blogs! See you next time.

June 30, 2014/0 Comments/by The Record Shop

Behind The Gear

Fender Aerodyne Jazz Bass

Hey y’all! Welcome to another jazz-tastic edition of The Record Shop Nashville Recording Studio’s multi-faceted, never-ending series BEHIND THE GEAR!!! Boy, Oh Boy do we have a fun one for y’all today. The Fender Jazz Bass has been heralded as one of the greatest bass guitars ever created (read RHCP’s Flea thinks about Jazz bass’s greatness here). That statement is hard to deny when you think about the long lists of musicians who use them like Geddy Lee, Steve Bailey, and Noel Redding. The Jazz was also monumentally important to the development and sound of funk, reggae, blues, and fusion music. So put on your black turtlenecks and berets, and lets dive in to the wonders of this spectacular instrument.

(Below: Sam ___ inside The Record Shop w/ his Fender Jazz)

And All That Jazz

Every musician and music lover must pay their respects to Leo Fender for revolutionizing the bass guitar forever by making it smaller and amplified. The Precision Bass, created in 1951, allowed the bass guitar to actually be heard amongst the Big Bands of the day. Nine years later Fender changed the game again when they produced the first Fender Jazz Bass. The Jazz became the new standard to which all electric bass guitars were to be compared to. It’s tapered neck, off-set waist, and two-set pickups made the Jazz more sonically unique and allowed for faster, easier playing! The Jazz’s sound, in comparison to it’s predecessor, is much brighter and full in the mids and treble with less emphasis on the fundamental frequency. The the strength of the mids and treble came from the double, single-coil pickup’s having two pole pieces per string, which Fender used to compete with the famously bright tone of Rickenbacker basses. It also made the bass perfect for slapping! From 1961-1963, the newer Jazz models became equipped with new features like going from two control knobs to three (two for pickup volume, one for tone control) and “Spring Felt Mutes“, but the Jazz received some major cosmetic alterations after Fender was bought by CBS. For a more in depth look at the history of the Fender Jazz Bass click HERE!

The Record Shop’s Aerodyne Jazz Bass!

The Aerodyne series was first introduced in 2004, and they are still being manufactured today! Here, at The Record Shop’s Nashville Recording Studio, we have a 2007 model in our possession. Like other Aerodyne Jazz models it has the typical Jazz shape but with some differences. For one, it is much lighter than your normal Jazz bass weighing about 7lbs whereas the standard is about 10lbs. Secondly, it is thinner than the standard Jazz because of its 39″ top radius. Other notable design features are its 1.5″ nut, slim “C”-shaped neck, 20 medium-jumbo frets, fret markers on the side only, cream binding, and its Telecaster input jack. A stock Aerodyne bass has the split single-coil P-Bass pickup in the middle position and a J-Bass single-coil pickup in the bridge position with volume controls per pickup and one master tone tone knob. Our Aerodyne has been modified with EMG bass pickups (pictured above). We also switched out the Master Tone with a concentric pot (the bottom of the pot controls the bass frequencies and the top pot controls the treble) allowing you to have more tone control!

That wraps up another edition of Behind The Gear! We thank you so much for spending part of your day with us here at The Record Shop Nashville. Feel free to explore the rest of our blog, and click HERE for a complete list of our Nashville Recording Studio’s gear! Also, don’t be such a stranger! Follow and chat with Gio and his merry henchmen on Twitter @therecordshop!

June 27, 2014/0 Comments/by The Record Shop

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