Timeline: The Long and Winding Road
The years are either definite, approximate or guessed. My sources were books, magazines, experts, service manuals, PR material, price lists, pianists and fanatics, records and discographies. Sometimes the dates differ, one year more or less, from source to source. Therefore I've tried to pinpoint the most likely, after some extra research. (OK, I have guessed too!) My own memories and experiences go back to 1972-73. I hope the list will clear the historic fog a little bit and my aim has been to capture the most accurate facts possible.
| 1910 | Harold Rhodes is born. |
|---|---|
| 1930 | The Harold Rhodes School of Popular Piano: The Rhodes Method. |
| 1931 | Rickenbacker's first electric guitar. |
| 1932 | Ben Meissner applies for several important electric patents. |
| 1935 | Gibson's first electric guitar. Hammond Model A (tone-wheel principle). |
| 1940 | Earl Hines Storytone Electric Piano Tour, certainly electric but weight: 1.5 TONS!!! |
| 1942 | USA enters WWII. Mr. Rhodes shuts down his business and is drafted. Eventually ('43 or '44) he constructs the first Air Corps Piano (2.5 oct). |
| 1945 | Harold Rhodes is awarded the Medal of Honor for achievements during the war. |
| 1946 | The Pre-Piano (3.5 oct) is displayed at NAMM |
| 1948 | Pre-Piano discontinued. Wurlitzer gets curious. Fender Broadcaster. |
| 1950 | Fender Telecaster (two years earlier launched as Broadcaster, then Nocaster due to a name conflict). Milt Buckner invents the block-chord style of jazz piano. |
| 1951 | Fender Precision Bass. |
| 1952 | Gibson Les Paul. |
| 1953 | Horace Silver records "Opus De Funk". |
| 1954 | Fender Stratocaster. Wurlitzer Model 100. Ray Charles' first hit "I've Got A Woman". |
| 1956 | Sun Ra's "Angels And Demons At Play": the first recording with electric piano (Wurlitzer). |
| 1959 | Fender Rhodes Piano Bass. Hohner Cembalet. Ray Charles' "What'd I Say" the first hit record with electric piano (Wurlitzer). Austrian accordion prodigy Joe Zawinul comes to USA. |
| 1960 | Fender Jazz Bass. |
| 1962 | Hohner Pianet. |
| 1963 | Strange 63/64 Fender Products Catalogue with four different Fender Rhodes models in orange tolex. Mellotron (England). |
| 1964 | Hohner Clavinet. |
| 1965 | Jan. 4th: CBS buys Fender for $13 million. Fender Rhodes Electric Piano is born. |
| 1967 | Fender Rhodes Celeste (3 oct). Doors debut album. Atlantic signs Aretha Franklin (she writes and arranges all her music on a Suitcase). The Cannonball Adderley Quintet live verision of "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" by Joe Zawinul becomes a huge instrumental hit. Herbie Hancock first encounters an electric piano (Wurlitzer) on a Miles Davis session on December 28th "Water On The Pond". RMI releases the Rock-Si-Chord and this year is the absolute peak in organ sales worldwide, ever! |
| 1968 | The catalogue offers a 4-octave Piano Bass as a special order. Herbie Hancock records "Stuff" with Miles Davis, his first recording on the Rhodes. Miles Davis experiments with several pianists (simultaneously, too) and releases Miles In The Sky and Filles De Kilimanjaro. "I Heard It Thru The Grapevine" with Marvin Gaye and a characteristic electric piano intro soars in the charts. Hohner Clavinet C. Walter Carlos' Moog record Switched On Bach sells a million. |
| 1969 | The Stereo Tremolo, 2 x 50W power amp, silver-flake top and chrome panel are the features in the '69 Fender catalogue. In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew by Miles Davis and his band totally dominate jazz sales and polls and include Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Joe Zawinul on Rhodes. Among the Moog pioneers are Sun Ra, Paul Bley and Dick Hyman! Wurlitzer releases Model 200. |
| 1970 | Fender Rhodes Mark I is introduced offering 4 models: Stage Piano 73 or 88, Suitcase 73 or 88 . Torrington tines replace the old Raymac's. The first Minimoog is shown and ARP delivers the 2500 and 2600. |
| 1971 | Neoprene tips (replaces felt hammers). The "E" model Rhodes. The supergroup Weather Report is born. Hohner Clavinet D6. The Beatles Let It Be (Billy Preston). |
| 1972 | Steel twisted bars (replaces "fat" iron bars). Stevie Wonder's Talking Book. |
| 1973 | Satellite Speaker package (two 100W cabinets with the stereo preamp). Chick Corea's Light As A Feather features a Stage 73 through a Twin Reverb. Herbie Hancock is heard on his classic Headhunters album, plus the great 4-song Rhodes demonstration floppy record in Down Beat. |
| 1974 | The Fender name is dropped (nine years too late!). |
| 1975 | Leo Fender is back with "Music Man". |
| 1976 | ARP Avatar, the first guitar synthesizer. Weather Report's greatest hit "Birdland". The all-plastic hammers and a new pedestal are parts of a quite severe update internally. |
| 1977 | New panel with sliders and black speaker cloth creates a new Rhodes look. The "Disco Debate" in jazz magazine Down Beat, about sellouts and electric instruments, is heated and the electric piano gets its own category in the polls. Yamaha CP-70 Electric Grand and Hohner Duo (Clavinet + Pianet). |
| 1979 | Mark II with the flat top is introduced. Dyno-My-Piano. Sequential Prophet V. The first porta-studio. ARP Chroma. |
| 1980 | Rhodes 54, Mark III (EK-10) and Janus I 2 x 50W optional cabinets. |
| 1981 | CBS buys ARP (therefore Rhodes Chroma). Miles Davis' comeback with his own Suitcase on stage. |
| 1982 | The "Domestic" Suitcase 88. Yamaha DX7. MIDI is introduced. |
| 1983 | CBS sells the Rhodes division to Bill Schultz. Joe Zawinul gets a Chroma. |
| 1984 | Mark V: totally new housing, same construction. Three are made with MIDI. |
| 1987 | Roland takes over. Harold Rhodes to Tokyo. |
| 1989 | Rhodes MK-60 and MK-80. Harold is shocked and pleads innocent. |
| 1991 | Harold records a new video version of the Rhodes Method. |
| 1993 | The Chick Corea "Paint The World" tour (with his MIDI Mark V). |
| 1994 | Harold Rhodes writes to Roland. On July 27th the reply is: Sorry, not commercially interesting to make electric piano. |
| 1995 | The Rhodes Piano is elected into Hall of Fame of Keyboard Magazine, and is from now on immortal. |
| 1996 | The never-ending story: Harold Rhodes declares that now he's gonna show us what a real good electric piano sounds and looks like. Unfortunately, later this year he suffers a stroke. |
| 2000 | Harold dies on Dec. 17 in Los Angeles. |