Keyboard instrument with hammer-struck metal tines which are amplified via an electromagnetic
pickup plugged into an external amplifier and speaker. The first proper Fender Rhodes
was released in the mid-1960s, as an improvement on an earlier design that Harold
Rhodes created to provide an affordable keyboard for the military to use in therapy
for recovering soldiers. The Fender Rhodes has a warm, distinctive sound that has
played a major role in jazz since the late 1960s, and which has been prominently used
by other popular artists and bands such as Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, and Steely
Dan.
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