Real History Earned

Vintage Vibe is a one-person operation rental company renting vintage keyboards, amps, drums, and highly sought-after vintage studio processing equipment in New York City. The recording processing gear I rented and contacts I made were through the help of Matt Wells and Nat Priest, who worked out the Magic Shop recording studio that my wife Janet managed, and my days working for S.I.R gained me many studio contacts. Humble beginnings indeed!

Fred DiLeone and Chris Carroll meet in N.Y.C. at E.A.R.S. (Expert Audio Repairs and Services), where Chris heads the keyboard repair department while running V.V. out of the company van on the side. E.A.R.S. co-owner Jeff Blenkinsopp and Chris Carroll developed the first-ever Wurlitzer stereo amplifier a decade before any other aftermarket brand. Customers included Supertramp to Parliament-Funkadelic.

Vintage Vibe starts its eBay store for vintage instruments. Sells classic electric pianos and rare vintage parts.

Vintage Vibe expands its territorial reach by picking up repairs in Philly for artists like the Roots, The Studio, and James Poyser.. 9/11 happens, and things get scary for all. Chris leaves E.A.R.S. after N.Y.C. is devastated and commits to building up Vintage Vibe to provide for his growing family.

Vintage Vibe continues scaling up aftermarket parts production for Fender Rhodes pianos and noticing a small but growing reemergence of interest in Fender Rhodes while realizing the future of saving these essential instruments.

Vintage Vibe starts a series of innovative online videos teaching others to tech their pianos. Introducing lessons to a whole new era of new technicians and DIY techs.

Vintage Vibe releases the first-ever after-market model 200 Wurlitzer amplifier and 200A preamplifier. We are again seeing what's missing and leading the future of this burgeoning cottage industry.

Vintage Vibe releases the Quadrapuss, the first of its kind multi- effects rail for Rhodes pianos. It consists of stereo tremolo, Dyno EQ, and a Small Stone phase shifter. Not since Dyno My Piano had anyone designed a preamplifier with effects as an after-market addition for Rhodes pianos. The Quadrapuss was ahead of its time.

Chris and Fred start designing and cutting wood on the first Vintage Vibe prototype piano after restoring all three Steely Dans pianos. The dream and vision came alive in the late-night sessions working on all three of Donald Fagen's pianos. Of course, the piano would be wood-based, so we used old Fender Rhodes parts for our prototype, and so did a few of the early VV pianos!

We designed a modern piano that removed as much weight and size as possible. Today, our pianos, dreams, and designs have stood the test of time, but boy, we were naively optimistic!

Vintage Vibe shows the first Vintage Vibe pianos at NAMM and steals the show. We shipped our first pianos the same year to eager customers

Serendipitously and subsequently, we were able to offer the world the first real working after-market tine as a replacement for all Rhodes pianos.

In addition, we helped ensure that no more vintage Rhodes pianos were destroyed for parts. That was one of the most significant bonuses of producing a piano. eBay had been littered with opportunists, profiteering off disassembling old pianos and selling the parts.

Vintage Vibe introduces the Vibanet, a lightweight new concept of the Clavinet D6. We designed a world-class preamplifier for the Vibanet and a retrofit version for models C, D6, and E7 that has changed the game for Clavinet preamplifiers since: with lighter weight, new pickups, strings, and Clavigel and mute system, the Vibanet makes a big splash.

Vintage Vibe comes up with an original unique Rhodes hammer tip, called the Angled tip, a combination of the height of the square tip and the increased angle of a graduated hammer tip. These standard Angle tips have evolved into the modern 6-zone Angled tips used on all VV pianos and all VV Fender Rhodes restorations. Through our research and development, we realize that a square tip hinders performance, and the Angle improves performance. As a result, our hammer tip design can now be found on the Rhodes MK8.

Robert Glasper used a Vintage Vibe piano on Black Radio 2, notably on "Calls" with Jill Scott. Robert later follows with a tour on the Vintage Vibe piano. The beautiful expressive sound of the Vintage Vibe piano can be heard in the song "Calls," off Black Radio 2 and it's genuinely heavenly.

Vintage Vibe steps up on online tutorials, teaching technicians and players the finer points of Rhodes work with our Tech Tip series.

Vintage Vibe innovates piano building with a reduced in size action and Open-Frame Concept Piano with a synthesizer strip in Mid and Bass configurations. This innovative synthesizer strip concept particularly shines on our Bass piano model with the ability to slide in and out of Bass notes, which was previously unachievable by a Fender Rhodes bass piano. In addition, the strip had an octave boost, attack, decay and sustain, and full EQ. These concept pianos were a huge hit at the 2017 NAMM show.

To further advance and aid in the action regulation of the "Chick Mod," Vintage Vibe innovates and adds a capstan to the rear backend of the key pedestal, thus enabling regulation via a capstan instead of laboriously gluing paper shims or removing material with a hand plane. This giant step forward in piano regulation was the precursor to what is to later come with our patented Dual Capstan Action.

Chris and Fred and another partner embark on R&D for a new concept keyboard with history and ties to the rare Ace Tone Canary and the French Ondes Martenot. It was a passion project that we spent the next 2 years trying to get off the ground, ultimately we paused the project, but our ideas are still strong and we have model renderings of the keyboard.

Vintage Vibe celebrates a triumphant ten years of handcrafting the Vintage Vibe piano. That is a decade of fine-tuning our craft and further innovating and improving the art of electric piano building—a decade of delivering excellence to our loyal customer base. Our developed techniques can only be learned and applied through this decade of experience. Speaking of experience, our team has nearly 100 years of combined experience in electric piano work. Vintage Vibe's history and reputation have been earned, not bought.

Vintage Vibe realizes a limitation in the traditional Rhodes action, which causes inconsistent escapement and stop lock by designing and adding a second capstan regulation screw to the key stick and a jack style pedestal and advancing regulation yet again in the piano action. The US Patent and Trademark agency issued a patent to Vintage Vibe and Fred DiLeone for this design. There is nothing like our action on the market, and nothing else feels as good or plays as evenly.

Vintage Vibe designs an innovative new harp bracket with zero tone bar interference which is a huge improvement in how brackets and tone bars relate to each other. Our design can now be found on the new Rhodes MK8.

Vintage Vibe begins work on what is to become the Fender Rhodes Bible of repairs and modifications.

The Vintage Vibe Fender Rhodes Restorations and Modifications manual will be released. It will be the defacto manual for all Rhodes pianos. Stay Tuned!