Fender Rhodes

This unit is a good example of the tyranny of being a collector. Say you’re just skimming through the Buy and Sell, and you see some idiot selling a Fender Rhodes Mark 1 for $250. You tell yourself that no matter what condition it’s in (have another look at that picture), it’s still a steal. So you buy it. You get it home, tune it, voice it for a few hours every week until you realise that you’re going to have to zero it and start from scratch and even that isn’t going to fix the sluggish action, and even if the action was better, it’s too heavy for one person to carry around to gigs. Then you decide that what you really need is a Wurlitzer 200.

Of course, Wurlitzers are much harder to find than Mark 1s, and while you are looking for Wurlitzers you find another Rhodes. This one is in much better condition, and it costs three times as much as the first one. So you sell your old one to someone who fixes electric pianos and can use it for parts, and tell yourself that the money you’re getting goes toward the new one, making it a really good deal suddenly.