From dblees@cdsnet.net Fri May 18 12:43:49 2001 Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 22:00:13 -0700 From: D'Ett'n'Dave To: machines@hyperreal.org Subject: You mean FENDER Polaris? I keep meaning to email you - this bugs me every time I stumble onto it (once a year or so). At http://machines.hyperreal.org/manufacturers/Rhodes/Polaris/ The instrument you're listing as a "Rhodes Polaris" is really a FENDER CHROMA POLARIS. Rhodes had nothing to do with it. I can send you photos of mine and documentation if you like, or simply visit one of the following for verification. http://homepage1.nifty.com/k-tanaka-homepae/cat/1984.html http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~WZ4K-TNK/cat/pola2.jpg (FYI. The "Rhodes Super Site at http://www.fenderrhodes.org/rhodes/supersite/models/polaris.html is wrong about this also.) Your correction would somehow be appreciated. I understand that my "email won't necessarily be answered right away (or at all!)." That is okay. I really don't give a shit if your site is riddled with errors. Thanks! db Gold Hill, OR From analogdiehard@att.net Fri May 18 12:44:04 2001 Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 17:22:49 +0000 From: analogdiehard@att.net To: analogue@hyperreal.org Subject: Re: [AH] so who made the chroma and chroma polaris? I will argue that Fender had nothing to do with the Chroma Polaris either. Fender was owned by CBS at the time. So was Rhodes. The Chroma was acquired from the liquidation of ARP, and began life and matured as the ARP Chroma. By the time ARP was involuntarily liquidated, the Chroma was near ready for production. CBS merely bought the assets, stuck the "Rhodes" badge on it, and re-installed the original ARP research team to get the instrument into production. The same team was also responsible for the Chroma Polaris, and this time CBS stuck the "Fender" badge on it. Deep down inside, both of these instruments bear the signature of ARP. We don't need no steenking badges. I'd say group 'em both under "Chroma" instead of "Rhodes" or "Fender" MC From: "Ryan McWhorter" To: analogue@hyperreal.org Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 18:33:42 Subject: Re: [AH] so who made the chroma and chroma polaris? db is correct- officially its fender fender bought out rhodes as well as the final arp engineers and parts. the chroma line is designed by ex-arp guys and manufactured by fender, but released through the fender-rhodes line of keyboard instruments. now if someone could explain why the polaris 1 didn't have membrame pads and why the polaris 2 is just called the polaris THAT would be interesting to know... i've shyed away from the polaris 2 cos of the membrame pads and i've never seen a second hand 1 for sale... only know of it cos of an old ad i saw... _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com From analogdiehard@att.net Fri May 18 12:44:49 2001 Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 19:17:40 +0000 From: analogdiehard@att.net To: analogue@hyperreal.org Subject: Re: [AH] so who made the chroma and chroma polaris? > db is correct- > > officially its fender > > fender bought out rhodes as well as the final arp > engineers and parts. the chroma line is designed by > ex-arp guys and manufactured by fender, but released > through the fender-rhodes line of keyboard instruments. CBS acquired Fender. CBS acquired Rhodes. CBS acquired the ARP Chroma and the 4/16 voice piano products and released them under the Rhodes moniker. All of these were mature products well past the prototyping stage before CBS came into the picture. CBS did not acquire any of the ARP synthesizer line or any of the parts inventory related to the synths. This was clarified in a 1981 keyboard magazine issue. The original ARP Chroma development team was brought back to CBS/Fender/Rhodes to complete the Chroma and get it out to the market. CBS/Fender/Rhodes's official involvement is solely financial. They had the capital to acquire the product and the engineering resources for the Chroma. They have never been in the synthesizer business prior to the Chroma and without the ARP team they had no engineering design resources to conjure up a viable synthesizer product. Hell, CBS even f*cked up a run of Chroma voice cards by ordering them to be fabricated at the Gulbrasen organ manufacturing plant (CBS also owned Gulbrasen). Building organs and building synthesizers are two totally different worlds. The ARP team had initial reservations about the move and they had to hire a laboratory analysis to prove that Gulbrasen's fab process had botched the voice cards. Yup, "Fender" was officially involved, all right. They were even clueless how to build them. When you get down deep, the Chroma and Chroma Polaris keyboards came from ARP design people, all official badges be damned. In another sense, many of us here do not consider the Oberheim OB-12 an "official" Oberheim product. Viscount had the capital to acquire the Oberheim tradename and none of the original Oberheim design team that was responsible for the FVS, OB series, and Matrix/Xpander series synthesizers had any involvement with the Gibson/Viscount Oberheim line. MC From Anoplura@earthlink.net Fri May 18 12:44:54 2001 Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 12:34:25 -0700 From: Ben Ling To: analogue heaven Subject: Re: [AH] so who made the chroma and chroma polaris? > According to the A-Z of analogue Harold Rhodes bought the chroma design from > ARP, but no mention of polaris so far. > > Cant see anything it has to do with Fender at all. Not that it's terribly relevent to the Polaris, but just to set the record straight... Rhodes was pretty much always owned by Fender. Harold Rhodes hadn't built anything more than a few prototype electric pianos when he signed on with Fender in 1959. The deal basically made him an employee in a corproation (Fender Rhodes) owned and funded by Leo. Although Rhodes had a working prototype and a few patents when they signed the deal, Leo didn't put it into production. Leo and Harold tinkered and fought over the design for six years, during which time several versions of the Electric Piano showed up in Fender catalogs. It wasn't until 1965, when CBS bought Fender and Harold Rhodes left with a royalty agreement that the Pianos actually went into production. My Fender history is much better than my Polaris history, but this is what I know. The Rhodes logo was slapped on the Polaris because that was CBS's premiere keyboard brand. Harold Rhodes himself was in no way involved. The Polaris was bought partially, or very nearly complete from ARP, depending on who you ask. Both Forrest White and Don Randall (Fender guys) have taken credit for the Polaris name. Ben