Getting that Dyno-My-Rhodes sound
Dr. Aidan Zammit Lupi found the following info on the Jay Graydon Website. Jay describes how the Dyno sound was achieved on Al Jarreau's albums, without the use of a Dyno-ed Rhodes...
The Rhodes sound was special and was also on used on many more records. "Leeds rentals" had about 10 Fender Rhodes suitcase models. The best one was labeled "E". This one was even, thick and bright. It was discovered in a store in Hollywood (Wallach's Music city) in the back room and had not sold for years! It was like they had forgotten they had the unit until Andy Leeds made the discovery while looking at old stock. Eddy Reynolds was a local tech/ piano tuner in those days and discovered a way to "voice" the Rhodes in a very desirable way. He voiced all of LEEDS Rhodes but this one was the best. All the cats knew this was the best Rhodes, and when doing tracking dates, I reserved this unit way in advance.
George Duke once called me about the sound and I told him that "E" was the one to rent. Now for the added details. The treble, bass and volume (on the Rhodes) were set to maximum. No vibrato. One output of the Rhodes was sent to a ROLAND BOSS CHORUS with the chorus "setting" set to about 11 o'clock. The non effected and chorused signal were sent to direct boxes routed into the console. It is important to have the piano player play chords as hard as possible when setting the input gain on the "chorus" so as to eliminate possible distortion. Get the unit to distort and then back off the gain a little. If I remember correctly, the output on the BOSS CHORUS was the "stereo out" so only the "chorus" was sent and not mixed with the dry source. At the recording console, we added a lot of EQ. I do not remember exactly, but I think around 2K and 10 K.
The "Stage model Rhodes" will not give you this sound since it is a "passive unit". The suitcase models have active electronics. I have a stage model as well and had Eddy or Paul Rivera (I do not remember) add the active electronics. Eddy voiced this Rhodes but it does not sound as good as "E". "E" Rhodes was sold to a guy in Santa Barbara when LEEDS sold his business. I would have purchased this Rhodes but was not aware of the sale. This Rhodes was used on many records of the era.