Historic electric piano brand Rhodes, famous in the 1970s and used by the likes of Stevie Wonder, John Lennon, Elton John, etc) has been resurrected and set up in Meanwood, Leeds.
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00:00Yeah, Rhodes is a very famous electric piano brand from the 70s made famous by
00:06the likes of Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder, The Doors,
00:12Led Zeppelin. Originally a US company, the electric piano was created by Harold
00:20Rhodes in the 40s. He was actually in the in the Air Force and he
00:28invented the electric piano as a tool for recovering veterans in the hospitals,
00:34a portable piano. He made the electric piano originally, so he's the inventor of
00:40the electric piano. In the 70s and 80s, early 80s, the pianos were built at a
00:48rate of up to 30,000 a year. It was the number one portable electric piano and
00:55super funky, soulful sound. In the 80s, the synths came along and the Fender
01:03Rhodes, as it was then, struggled against the competition. Harold unfortunately
01:08died in the 90s and it was passed to the trademark owner, Joseph Branstetter, who
01:15had a go in the early 2000s with the Rhodes and didn't quite make it work.
01:20Through a long story that we haven't got time for now, I got the opportunity to
01:26take over the brand, which seemed a crazy idea because I come from the music
01:31software world. After speaking with our CPO, Dan Goldman, who is a fantastic
01:39keyboard player and lives and breathes Rhodes from day to day, I was convinced
01:45that it was the right thing to do. So we built a factory in Leeds in Meanwood
01:50where we are today and we've been building these pianos at a very much
01:56lesser rate than the 30,000 a year, but in a more artisan style for the last
02:02four years. The Rhodes Marquette is the piano that comes out of Leeds now in the UK.
02:08Whereabouts do people buy them?
02:11So we sell a lot direct through our website RhodesMusic.com. You can go and
02:18customise your own piano there. We've got a lot of ways that you can customise
02:22the top, the base, and how the piano looks and feels. We also have dealers
02:28around the world, but we aim to sell up to a maximum of 500 pianos a year, so it's
02:34quite a niche business. But we've moved into software now, so you can also get a
02:40faithful replication of a Rhodes Marquette piano in software for your
02:44computer too.