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Looking at the pictures on the Rhodespiano site it seems they're using the same keys asthey did on the Mark V. They also use the same hammercombs and snap in hammersolution that they used on the Mark V. I've rebuilt a few Mark Vs in my time and I find it strange that they use the same hammer and key design as the Mark V eventhough the chief designers of the Mark V later admitted that the longer hammerthrow on the Mark V wore out the hammerpins faster making them sloppy sideways and after a while they broke completely. If you look at the dampersection on the picture where the lady installs a key you can also see that the piano she works on has the older style dampersection and not the improved dampers you can find on the Mark V.
I for one would love to own one of the new Rhodes pianos if they will be available but to say that they will be SO much better than the older Rhodespianos is to take it a bit too far... From what I can see they haven't taken the new Mark 7 any further mechanically than what they did with the Mark V except for a pre amp, MIDI and a new outer case. The prototypes were made up of leftover Mark V parts given to the RMC so what people have been playing at NAMM and Frankfurt is basically a newly assembled Mark V with new old stock parts and some old parts... Some friends of mine who took a peek under the hood could report of old and oxidized tines and tonebars so I guess they weren't NOS...
But I guess we'll just have to wait and see right? That's wat we've been doing the past two years so we're getting pretty good at it too ;-)
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