The Fender Rhodes Bass after 1970.

[othercircles]

Was the rhoads bass ever used on OV or FC? After careful study my deduction is.. no. In fact.. it's last appearance on record that I can see (hear) is "Indian Summer" on "Hotel Morrison" (1970) And of course it was used during the last concert on Friday, December 12th, 1970.


And the 71-72 tours featured Jack Conrad on a four stringed bass.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Frank Lisciandros photos of the LA Woman sessions show Ray still has it on top of his Vox organ....although obviously Jerry Scheff carried out bass duties in the actual recording.
For OV and FC Jack Conrad was a fully fledged member of the touring band so I doubt Ray needed it for any of thier concerts in 1971 and 1972.
It was a great part of Doors history and did its bit nontheless.....

[othercircles]

He probably used it during rehersal to work out the basslines with Jerry.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The FenderRhodes Piano Bass 1959-75

The Fender Rhodes Piano Bass came out as the product of Harold Rhodes and Leo Fender doing a joint venture in the late fifties. The 32-note keyboard is the lowest two and a half octaves of a full 73-note Rhodes. The Piano Bass was designed since Leo Fender didn't like the sound of the upper octaves of the piano that Harold wanted to manufacture. The hand-made prototype "X-38" is first shown at a fair in Las Vegas in 1960, but the first time the PianoBass shows up in the Fender program isn't until the 1962-63 catalogue.

"Musicians have found that by adding the Piano Bass to their instrumental group they have achieved the complete and finished sound that is important to every musical organization." Hmmmm....!

This was the only model Mr.Fender allowed Harold to produce, even though there's a whole "family" of FenderRhodes models in the 1963-64 Fender catalogue, and Harold already had protoytypes for an 88-note instrument.
The PianoBass was meant to be placed on top of another keyboard to be played with your left hand.
A stand was also provided.
Ray Manzarek of the Doors made this instrument famous.




from an auction site.


This is the 1966 Fender Rhodes Piano Bass.

This 32 key piano was made famous by The Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek whose left hand was The Doors bass player.

It has all of its original pickups, knobs, wiring and volume and tone controls which are dated the 18th week of 1966.
The keys, the fiberglass sparkle top, tolex and hardware are original as well and are all in great shape.
The serial number is BA-0639 and was made in Santa Ana California.

These early pianos have all wooden hammers, a chrome faceplate and the narrow cheek blocks which make them more collectible than the later models.
If you want The Doors sound, this is it.

These pianos are usually covered in cigarette burns, have broken or cracked fiberglass tops and the tolex suffers from major roadrash.