Front Rail Felts
Front Rail Felts
Replacement front rail felts for both Fender Rhodes and Rhodes pianos.
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Product Details
Description
Size Guide
FAQ
Description
These felts are brand new and are a great replacement for your Rhodes or Wurlitzer piano. These felts are over-throw protection. If a key can be forcibly pushed too far down, it is in danger of being broken. The front rail washers have no effect during a normal down stroke and only come into play with an excessive down stroke. These felts will help you set your key travel distance and correct after touch. The differences in thickness can be viewed in the Size Guide Tab. You will want to match your felts as closely as possible.
Available in sets of 64, 73 and 88 in slim, medium or thick sized felts.
These felts will not work with a MK2 with plastic keys.
Size Guide
- Slim - 1/8"
- Medium - 3/16"
- Thick - 1/4"
FAQ
My MK 2 has long strips of green felt on the front rail, what do I do?
You can keep the long strips or you can switch to individual front rail felts- It’s up to you. Our opinion on that is with individual felts you can control each key separately as opposed to one size fits all. In the case of after touch you add shims to the front rail felt, this limits the travel after the hammer has reached proper stop lock. Excessive travel causes improper strike. With the long strips, this is not as easy to do as the shims do not sit evenly.
My balance rail felt seems ok do I need new felt?
That’s for you to decide, I guess it all depends on how serious you are in restoring your piano. If they look ok, then go with them. If you want to be sure get new ones.
What is the purpose of the front and balance rail felts?
In short- The Balance rail is used to set key height and maintain a good feel. The front rail felts are used to limit excessive key travel and correct after touch with the use of shims. In Wurlitzers the front rail felt is used as a stop with note to allowing full travel for proper whip assembly function. In Rhodes the key does not touch the front felt, in Rhodes pianos the key is stopped by the stop lock position of the hammer and cam. Pressing on the key further can over extend this position; this is why with Rhodes you want to always check after touch.
Some of my new front rail felts overlap each other. What do I do?
The original Fender Rhodes green front rail felts were unique in the sense that their outer diameter was smaller. This type of smaller outer diameter front rail felt is no longer made to our knowledge. The new felts we use are high quality English piano felts.
Simply use a quality pair of scissors and cut a bit off of each felt for the E/F / B/C notes so that the cut flats align together and fit. You can also cut the felt in a neat smaller circle for these points if you wish.