Rhodes Twelve-Tone

At first this might look like a joke, but it's a real Rhodes: the "Twelve-Tone" is actually a demo version of the Mark II Stage Piano, designed for use by the Rhodes sales team in the early 1980's (consequently, only a handful of these were made). John R. McLaren of Major Key dug this up a couple of years ago and passed it on to me...I'm still not sure where he found it!

This is a fully-functional version of the plastic-key Mark II, with only a single octave of keys starting at middle C. Originally it had a flat-top harp cover as well, which was constructed by cutting the ends off of a full-size cover and taping them together. On the inside, you can see that it's an actual Rhodes, complete with tines, tonebars and pickups. Plug it into an amp and it plays like any other Mark II. This is possibly the most portable Rhodes piano ever built, although it's still heavy! I have considered performing with it in an experimental context, running it through an array of effects to mutilate the sound and using a pitch shifter to access notes outside of its physical range. I figure all 12 notes are there...what more do you need???