Rhodes MK-60

The MK-60 is a straightforward digital stage piano from the late 80s/early 90s. Its dedicated knobs for autopan/tremelo and two-band EQ are great for playing live. Any tone-shaping capabilities via internal patch editing are minimal as I recall, but admittedly I lost the manual many years ago. Fortunately, the "classic" Rhodes and "clav" presets are highly useful mainstays. It has "autobend" and "stretch" buttons which offer subtle tweaks to the patches, but I never found these particularly intriguing.

It's quite heavy and wide but not very long because it's only a five-octave keyboard. This actually helped me fit the MK-60 onto car seats and smaller stages, but I'm guessing that certain players would need more keys.

There are octave shift buttons to get you to lowest and highest C.

It has MIDI in and out but I don't know how sophisticated it is in this regard - I only used it a few times to control an organ module while practicing. It has chorus that I rarely used in the rock/funk/rhythm and blues settings I played it in. There's no onboard digital reverb, but my amps have spring reverb, so that never bothered me.

Expansion? No. Sequencer? No. Polyphony? Well....it's definitely polyphonic.

Sorry, I'm ill-suited to review these. Give me some good analog-ish sounds and let Yanni worry about features.

The keyboard action is rather heavy and stiff - not terribly authentic but extremely solid-feeling. Get used to it and you can really dig in, but it doesn't work too well as a controller for organ sounds.

I tend to agree with other reviewers who think that for what Roland's "Structured Adaptive" synthesis lacked in accuracy, it made up for in sounding fat and vibe-ey.

As mentioned, the "classic" Rhodes and "clav" patches are my favorites examples of this. The Rhodes sound is warm but somewhat flat and one-dimensional if fed as a dry signal through all-transistor amplification. It wasn't until I began running it through two non-keyboard amps - a Sundown 50-watt tube guitar combo and a solid-state Peavey Nashville 400 pedal steel amp - that I got real musicality. Something about the Sundown's robust 12-inch Electrovoice speaker made it nice and punchy, too, in the way a real Rhodes comes alive through a Fender Twin. You won't get the responsiveness or the growl on hard attack of an electromechanical piano, but the MK-60 is pleasant and tine-ey. It's Hohner Pianet T-like at times.

In mono, the tremelo is just that - amplitude modulation. But in stereo it becomes luscious, adjustable autopan. Make the sound man mic both of your amps....

The clavinet sound is quite good if you roll off most of the treble to mask its digital harshness.

Its acoustic pianos are passable in a pinch, but that's it. There are a couple of DX7/FM-sounding electric piano patches and a mock vibraphone sound to torture people with.

All in all, a good budget axe for retro-oriented gigging. Ray Charles had the 88-key version of this board on his tour bus at one time.

By god, the only other thing I've owned that's been this failsafe is the American Motors straight six automobile engine. I never even had any kind of case for my MK-60. It was dragged in and out of festivals, weddings and concert halls/beer joints with varying levels of seediness from Michigan to North Carolina for well over a decade. It was periodically stored in non-climate controlled cars, garages and cabins. After a dreadlocked, drunk behemoth of a drummer knocked it over onto concrete in '94 or '95, I realized it was virtually unbreakable. Its buttons can still be manipulated with a key/toothpick/screwdriver if they break off.

I've never dealt with Roland.

I recently sold this Roland/Rhodes after almost 14 years with it as the anchor of my live setup. Amazing for what I paid.... It finally developed a dead key at the E just below middle C and the plastic top casing seemed about ready to separate from the plywood bottom panel. Looming gigworthiness issues and the wide availability of newer, "better" and slimmer emulators sparked my decision.

A few weeks later, I'm not sure. I got a good deal on a Korg SGx Pro, which has the desirable attribute of a multi-sampled Rhodes - it really growls when you punch the velocity. The Korg does sound better in the studio, but at a show the MK-60 has gutsiness and may sound less digital when paired with a tube amp. It cuts through the mix, and tweaking the autopan was a breeze. The Korg's extra width led to the trombone player repeatedly stress-testing its stereo outs with his ass. Oh well, everything's fixable, right?

Other keyboard gear I use: Hammond, Leslies, Wurlitzers, Moog.

Bottom line on the MK-60: If you find one and need a thoroughly decent electric piano and clavinet emulator that's cheap, unique and tough as nails, then get it!

Produced by Roland in 1989 and deleted in the early 90s, the Rhodes MK60 is a 64-note electric piano with weighted action. Quite rare now, it's the smaller, less-specified sister of the Rhodes MK80. It's also a much-maligned and misunderstood instrument: Rhodes purists don't consider it as a proper Rhodes, while pianists accustomed to a full 88-note board are wary of it because of the short five-octave range.
I understand both these views ? I held them myself until I demoed and then purchased a MK60 secondhand around 12 years ago. After much initial scepticism, I found that the MK60 is actually a highly useful, versatile and beautifully small piano, particularly good for composing, compact enough to fit into a small corner or alcove at home, and great for gigging. It isn't a proper Rhodes, but with a bit of work, you can get a more than passable Rhodes sound from a giggable keyboard with proper, weighted keys, and an excellent piano action.
As has been noted in the MK80 review, the MK series weighted keyboard is superb. Incredibly responsive, it has a gorgeous, silky feel that, for me, is one of the finest piano actions I've ever encountered. Granted it's not for everyone ? some will find it rather heavy, there's no adjustment on it, and extremely rapid repeat notes can be tricky ? but I love it, and even today I prefer the feel of the MK60's actual keyboard, and its action.
Compared to the weight and impracticality of a Rhodes Stage 73, the MK60 is relatively easy to gig. I use a semi-flight case, and although it's still quite a weight for one person to lift (27kg/59lbs without flight case), it's not impractical. And, once you've got it to a gig, you've got all the advantages of a weighted keyboard, a flat-top for other keyboards, and Midi, although ? being an elderly keyboard ? it is not well specified in this area (you can't zone the board, for example).
Provided, as I do, that you can work with the MK60's compromises ? a lack of polyphony compared to modern keyboards, presets that definitely need good EQ'ing, some Midi restrictions, and the reduced octave keyboard ? it's a cracking instrument. Even now, 12 years later, the MK60 remains the cornerstone of my touring rig. I'm in a London-based soul-jazz quartet ? where the MK60 is really allowed to shine as a piano ? but I was previously in more of a backing role in a Motown/Commitments outfit, and it was certainly on the mark, particularly when using it for comping and as a Midi controller for brass and string patches.
The instrument has just eight onboard presets ? four electric pianos, two acoustic pianos, a clavichord and vibraphone, with minimal editing of the presets. The rest of the controls on the front panel are fairly basic ? volume, bass, treble, tremelo rate and depth, chorus, plus auto bend, stretch tuning, octave shift and midi/key transpose. On the rear panel are headphone socket, 1/4in jack outs (L/mono and R), Tune (+/- around a quarter tone), damper 1/4inch jack socket, effect on/off 1/4inch jack socket, effect control switch, Midi Local on/off, Midi In/Out/Thru sockets and mains input. My MK60 still has the original Rhodes damper pedal, which is great, but you can use a regular momentary footswitch. (The damper is extremely useful as it not only sustains notes, but allows you to cue up voice changes, effect changes, etc; more later).
So to the sounds themselves ? possibly the biggest bone of contention from Rhodes purists. The presets are not modern digital samples, but Roland's earlier Structured Adaptive (or S/A) Synthesis samples, so don't expect carbon copies of Rhodes piano sounds. They're not brilliant as they are, but with careful EQing on the instrument and from your amp, you can improve them and make them more than passable.
The four electric piano sounds are: Classic, Special, Blend and Contemporary.
Classic, according to the owner's manual is "an orthodox Rhodes sound, characterized by its fatness and duration", but, with the t

Basic, just eight on-board presets and some effects, as described above. And, depending on the music that you're playing, the MK60's limited polyphony can cause a problem. Being a relatively elderly keyboard, it has only 16-note polyphony for the bulk of the pre-sets, and only 10 for Contemporary and Clavichord. I don't find this a problem as I rarely use Contemporary, while Clavichord is OK as it works best with single notes (such as bass lines) or minimal, funky chords. And for the other presets, I tend to avoid long sustained arpeggios, glissandos, etc, so that the limited polyphony is not too obvious.
The built-in effects ? chorus, vibrato, etc ? are good, particularly vibrato. Chorus can sound over-wobbly on certain patches. The damper pedal can also double to cue up these effects ? ie, you can select them, but if you're holding a sustained chord, they won't come in until you let the sustain go. You can also cue up octave shift with the damper pedal ? this is a slightly tricky technique to master, but for those that require a longer keyboard, it's the way to extend the shortened board. You can also cue up octave shift with just the buttons on the front console, but the damper pedal technique is far better, and once mastered, less of a fiddle, and a less lumpy way of octave shifting.However certain MK60 sounds ? such as the vibraphone ? sound unnatural at the octave extremes and are best played in the MK60's regular octaves. Sadly Piano 2 ? my favourite acoustic piano preset ? can sound a bit wimpy in the very upper reaches, so again I tend not to octave shift too much on this preset.
In group contexts the MK60's limitations aren't too apparent, and to avoid its failings, I tend to stick within the piano's regular range. As a solo instrument, particularly with a lot of use of both ends of the octave range, sadly it has weaknesses.
On the Midi side, the keyboard is rather elderly, but is still useful. While it will transmit and receive on channels 1-16, it cannot be zoned. I find this irritating as I also play a Hammond XK-2 that can be split on to another Midi keyboard to make a virtual B3. I would like to play both lower manual and bass pedal notes in separate zones on the MK60, but have to make a choice as it only has one zone. There is a separate Midi owners manual, by the way, which is clear and concise, and again, thankfully short.
But the great advantage of the MK60 in Midi applications is the weighted keyboard. As well as the Hammond XK-2, I hook it up to an EMU Vintage Keys and, occasionally, a rather elderly Boss Dr Synth modules. String and brass pads from the Dr Synth sound fabulous using the MK60 as a controller as the weighted keyboard and sustain give you a vast amount of control and emotion. Not surprisingly the Moog, ARP and Prophet sweeping pads from the Vintage Keys also work well. And of course, the Vintage Keys gives me a range of other electric piano sounds ? particularly the Wurli ? which again works extremely well with the MK60. Oddly enough, I prefer the MK60s onboard Rhodes sounds to the VK Rhodes samples. If I've got enough time to set it up at a gig, I run two swell pedals ? one for the VK, the other for the MK60 on board sounds ? and can segue between the two. The Wurli from the VK and Rhodes Classic from the MK60 combination is great, as you can emphasise funky phrases, etc, with the Wurli patch, and then feed in the basic Rhodes sound for comping, etc.

I've pretty much covered this in my inital descripton of the MK60. It's an incredibly expressive piano, but its on-board sounds need good EQ'ing to achieve the best. The weighted keyboard is great for playing sound modules, particularly string and brass patches. The keyboard's on-board sounds probably works best for jazz and jazz funk, but I've used them very successfully in R&B and soul settings. The keyboard doesn't like to be thrashed, and would not be good for rock, and probably is too mellow for dance. The weighted keyboard is beautifully expressive, and reacts well to your playing. In Midi applications, velocity and aftertouch are available, but there is no pitch bend or modulation wheel, so certain module patches will be wasted on it. But for pure expressiveness, alone, from a fantastically responsive weighted keyboard, some high points indeed.

I've had just one moment in 12 years of playing when the MK60 developed a fault. A key quite high up briefly stuck, possibly due to my enthusiastic playing, and then started acting up at gigs. I got it checked out by an ex-Roland engineer, recommended to me by Roland. He confirmed that the action on this note was slightly out of alignment. He made some adustments on that note's action, and it's been good as gold since then. The On/Off button is rather plasticky and prone to lift from its socket (a fault I've also encountered on a friend's MK60), so some very delicate gluing may have to take place shortly. I've also noticed that of late the chorus button can occasionally be a tad sticky, but I suspect it's getting a bit long in the tooth. The exterior case is pretty robust, but can pick up scratches, so you need to be a bit careful. Overall the MK60 has been very reliable, and I've never had to take a back-up to a gig.

Roland were great when I contacted them about the sticking key problem, and were quick to recommend a suitable engineer. It turned out that this engineer had actually worked on MK60s and MK80s in the late 80s at Roland, so, although it was a bit of a distance, he was a perfect recommendation.

Despite the limited polyphony, on-board sounds that require work, and restricted Midi capability, I would definitely look for another MK60 again. Few keyboards that I've played can approach the quality of the MK60's weighted keyboard; it's an utter joy to play. And, provided you're not looking for a total Rhodes clone, are prepared to work and improve the onboard sounds (which can give passable Rhodes sounds) and accept the MK60's compromises, it's a highly reliable, much-underrated, easy to gig, electric piano.

Produced by Roland in 1989 and deleted in the early 90s, the Rhodes MK-60 is a 64-note electric piano with weighted action. Quite rare now, it's the smaller, less-specified sister of the Rhodes MK-80. It's also a much-maligned and misunderstood instrument: Rhodes purists don't consider it as a proper Rhodes, while pianists accustomed to a full 88-note board are wary of it because of the short five-octave range.
I understand both these views ? I held them myself until I demoed and then purchased a MK-60 secondhand around 12 years ago. After much initial scepticism, I found that the MK-60 is actually a highly useful, versatile and beautifully small piano, particularly good for composing, compact enough to fit into a small corner or alcove at home, and great for gigging. It isn't a proper Rhodes, but with a bit of work, you can get a more than passable Rhodes sound from a giggable keyboard with proper, weighted keys, and an excellent piano action.
As has been noted in the MK-80 review, the MK series weighted keyboard is superb. Incredibly responsive, it has a gorgeous, silky feel that, for me, is one of the finest piano actions I've ever encountered. Granted it's not for everyone ? some will find it rather heavy, there's no adjustment on it, and extremely rapid repeat notes can be tricky ? but I love it, and even today I prefer the feel of the MK-60 over many modern weighted keyboards that I've tried. It's certainly vastly superior to the graded-action boards that I've encountered, and, to my mind, it's better than many acoustic pianos and grands that I've played.
In fact, the keyboard's action was probably the main reason why I bought the MK-60 in the first place. I wasn't convinced by the presets, but right from the start, I found the action a joy, so much better than the many knackered and totally trashed Stage 73s that I checked out in my frustratingly and ultimately futile search for a good, solid, original Rhodes. Nine out of ten for MK-60's actual keyboard, and its action.
Compared to the weight and impracticality of a Rhodes Stage 73, the MK-60 is relatively easy to gig. I use a semi-flight case, and although it's still quite a weight for one person to lift (27kg/59lbs without flight case), it's not impractical. And, once you've got it to a gig, you've got all the advantages of a weighted keyboard, a flat-top for other keyboards, and Midi, although ? being an elderly keyboard ? it is not well specified in this area (you can't zone the board, for example).
Provided, as I do, that you can work with the MK-60's compromises ? a lack of polyphony compared to modern keyboards, presets that definitely need good EQ'ing, some Midi restrictions, and the reduced octave keyboard ? it's a cracking instrument. Even now, 12 years later, the MK-60 remains the cornerstone of my touring rig. I'm in a London-based soul-jazz quartet ? where the MK-60 is really allowed to shine as a piano ? but I was previously in more of a backing role in a Motown/Commitments outfit, and it was certainly on the mark, particularly when using it for comping and as a Midi controller for brass and string patches.
The instrument has just eight onboard presets ? four electric pianos, two acoustic pianos, a clavichord and vibraphone, with minimal editing of the presets. The rest of the controls on the front panel are fairly basic ? volume, bass, treble, tremelo rate and depth, chorus, plus auto bend, stretch tuning, octave shift and midi/key transpose. On the rear panel are headphone socket, 1/4in jack outs (L/mono and R), Tune (+/- around a quarter tone), damper 1/4inch jack socket, effect on/off 1/4inch jack socket, effect control switch, Midi Local on/off, Midi In/Out/Thru sockets and mains input. My MK-60 still has the original Rhodes damper pedal, which is great, but you can use a regular momentary footswitch. (The damper is extremely useful as it not only sustains notes, but allows you to cue up voice changes, effect changes, etc; more later).
So to th

Basic, just eight on-board presets and some effects, as described above. And, depending on the music that you're playing, the MK-60's limited polyphony can cause a problem. Being a relatively elderly keyboard, it has only 16-note polyphony for the bulk of the pre-sets, and only 10 for Contemporary and Clavichord. I don't find this a problem as I rarely use Contemporary, while Clavichord is OK as it works best with single notes (such as bass lines) or minimal, funky chords. And for the other presets, I tend to avoid long sustained arpeggios, etc, so that the limited polyphony is not too obvious.
The built-in effects ? chorus, vibrato, etc ? are good, particularly vibrato. Chorus can sound over-wobbly on certain patches. The damper pedal can also double to cue up these effects ? ie, you can select them, but if you're holding a sustained chord, they won't come in until you let the sustain go. You can also cue up octave shift with the damper pedal ? this is a slightly tricky technique to master, but for those that require a longer keyboard, it's the way to extend the shortened board. You can also cue up octave shift with the buttons on the front console, but the damper pedal technique is far better, and once mastered, less of a fiddle.
However, certain MK-60 sounds ? such as the vibraphone ? sound unnatural at the octave extremes and are best played in the MK-60's regular octaves. Sadly Piano 2 ? my favourite acoustic piano preset ? can sound a bit wimpy in the very upper reaches, so again I tend not to octave shift too much on this preset.
In group contexts the MK-60's limitations aren't too apparent, and to avoid its failings, I tend to stick within the piano's regular range. As a solo instrument, particularly with a lot of use of both ends of the octave range, sadly it has weaknesses.
On the Midi side, the keyboard is rather elderly, but is still useful. While it will transmit and receive on channels 1-16, it cannot be zoned. I find this irritating as I also play a Hammond XK-2 that can be split on to another Midi keyboard to make a virtual B3. I would like to play both lower manual and bass pedal notes in separate zones on the MK-60, but have to make a choice as it only has one zone. There is a separate Midi owners manual, by the way, which is clear and concise, and again, thankfully short.
But the great advantage of the MK-60 in Midi applications is the weighted keyboard. As well as the Hammond XK-2, I hook it up to an EMU Vintage Keys and, occasionally, a rather elderly Boss Dr Synth modules. String and brass pads from the Dr Synth sound fabulous using the MK-60 as a controller as the weighted keyboard and sustain give you a vast amount of control and emotion. Not surprisingly the Moog, ARP and Prophet sweeping pads from the Vintage Keys also work well. And of course, the Vintage Keys gives me a range of other electric piano sounds ? particularly the Wurli ? which again works extremely well with the MK-60. Oddly enough, I prefer the MK-60s onboard Rhodes sounds to the VK Rhodes samples. If I've got enough time to set it up at a gig, I run two swell pedals ? one for the VK, the other for the MK-60 on board sounds ? and can segue between the two. The Wurli from the VK and Rhodes Classic from the MK-60 combination is great, as you can emphasise funky phrases, etc, with the Wurli patch, and then feed in the basic Rhodes sound for comping, etc.

I've pretty much covered this in my inital descripton of the MK-60. It's an incredibly expressive piano, but its on-board sounds need good EQ'ing to achieve the best. The weighted keyboard is great for playing sound modules, particularly string and brass patches. The keyboard's on-board sounds probably works best for jazz and jazz funk, but I've used them very successfully in R&B and soul settings. The keyboard doesn't like to be thrashed, and would not be good for rock, and probably is too mellow for dance. The weighted keyboard is beautifully expressive, and reacts well to your playing. In Midi applications, velocity and aftertouch are available, but there is no pitch bend or modulation wheel, so certain module patches will be wasted on it. But for pure expressiveness, alone, from a fantastically responsive weighted keyboard, some high points indeed.

I've had just one moment in 12 years of playing when the MK-60 developed a fault. A key quite high up briefly stuck, possibly due to my enthusiastic playing, and then started acting up at gigs. I got it checked out by an ex-Roland engineer, recommended to me by Roland. He confirmed that the action on this note was slightly damaged. He replaced one or two parts on that note's action, and it's been good as gold since then. The On/Off button is rather plasticky and prone to lift from its socket (a fault I've also encountered on a friend's MK-60), so some very delicate gluing may have to take place shortly. I've also noticed that of late the chorus button can occasionally be a tad sticky, but I suspect it's getting a bit long in the tooth. The exterior case is pretty robust, but can pick up scratches, so you need to be a bit careful. Overall the MK-60 has been very reliable, and I've never had to take a back-up to a gig.

Roland were great when I contacted them about the sticking key problem, and were quick to recommend a suitable engineer. It turned out that this engineer had actually worked on MK-60s and MK-80s in the late 80s at Roland, so, although it was a bit of a distance, he was a perfect recommendation.

Despite the limited polyphony, on-board sounds that require work, and restricted Midi capability, I would definitely look for another MK-60 again. Few keyboards that I've played can approach the quality of the MK-60's weighted keyboard; it's an utter joy to play. And, provided you're not looking for a total Rhodes clone, are prepared to work and improve the onboard sounds (which can give passable Rhodes sounds) and accept the MK-60's compromises, it's a highly reliable, much-underrated, easy to gig, electric piano.