A little O.T., Wurlitzer Keyboard

[jmusser]

My buddy brought me in an old Wurlitzer keyboard, since he knows I scavenge, to gut out. This thing has probably been in the weather and everything else (by the looks of the trashed keys), but it looks like the main board (which was under a plastic cover), is still OK. Looking at this thing, I can't figure out, how the individual tones came back from the little metal bars to be amplified. What it has, is graduated metal bars, that a wooden piano type action strikes. The far end of each hour glass shaped bar is loose and has a small weight on the end to help it vibrate. I still can't find out how the sound was picked up off of those bars to get to the amplifier board? All I can basically make out, is some braid type wiring that grounds the bar holders, but nothing else going to the bar area to use as a pic up. Interesting!

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Think 'electrostatic', not electromagnetic.
Google for       wurlitzer electrostatic       gets plenty of hits, I havn't read them, but think it might be the answer!

[jmusser]

Thanks Paul. I wasn't really getting anywhere until I plugged in "electrostatic". While I was ripping the board out, I looked underneath of it on the rotted case, and found the factory plate on it. It's a model 200, and the serial # ends with -76, so I'm guessing that's about when it was made. Unfortunately, it had been laying out in a junk yard, with the keyboard portion totally uncovered, and sever rot had set in. On what little bit I read on it, it would have been a real collector's item. It had piano type keys, with felts, hammers and all that hitting those little bars in there. I guess those bars moving up and down set up some sort of capacitance, and that AC voltage was induced into the main bar, which acted as a pic up. The one site said that the harder you hit the keys, the more the thing distorted, which makes sense. I can't imagine the work that had to go into the wooden parts alone, because all of the arms that came off the back of the keys had to be bent at a particular angle, since the hammer bar section was actually wider than the keyboard. Someone has wayyyy more patients than I have! I'm glad you sent me in that direction, because there is some excellent reading there on sound and vibration.

[MartyMart]

Jeff, it's such a shame that is was in such a bad state of repair ..... I used to own one, many many years ago ......
They are wonderful instruments, I always preferred it to the "Fender Rhodes" piano, as it seemed more "rock n roll" to me  !!.
The "break up" is great from them, when you really hit them hard, thats
where my fingers got so strong
I have the "Scarbee Wurlitzer" plug in now on my mac, its around 4 gigs
of samples, many layers "deep" and when played from a "hammer action"
keyboard, it sounds pretty close .....
They go for well over 1000 bucks in good condition.
Does it have the "valve amp" section with it too ?
That could make a nice gtr amp ......

Marty.

[jmusser]

No, it was the cheaper model that had the 4 screw in legs, at least it had the little triangle pieces in the bottom for them. It had two oval speakers that faced towards the player on both sides above the keyboard. All of the key pieces that went back to the hammers, and been laying in water, and the 1/2 of the bottom was rotted out. It's hard to tell how long it sat outside in the weather. What a tedious bunch of work went into that thing! The one site was telling about how horrible they were to haul around, because you had to pull the legs off, and you couldn't stack anything on top of them. I'm also guessing you had to have an outboard gig amp. they said something about the 214 model having the amp underneath of it. It did have a spring type dohickie, that you attached a sustainer pedal to, and it moved the rack of hammers up and down.

[nosamiam]

May I ask: What kind of condition are the legs in?

[jmusser]

What Legs? It had places for them, but none were with it. This thing was left for Lord knows how many years, in the back seat of a car in a junk yard, and I'm guessing with the windows down! If you're looking for a set, I'll check with my buddy, and see if they were lying in the floor board or something, because I imagine something like that would be very hard to come by. Tonight, he brought me in a real old, high dollar, RCA, VCR, out of the same car. I bet it weighed 30 pounds. What a treasure trove of stuff in there! You take the bottom off, take out a couple screws, and these 4 boards full of discretes pivot out, so you can get to the dozen other boards full of discretes! The belt was broken so I'm guessing that was it's demise. I'm guessing it's early 80s before they had consolidated most of that stuff into just a few chips. He also brought me an old solid state record player. It's beat up and rotted, but the boards are still good.

[toneman]

it's a "REED" piano.
those  little metal bars"  are "reeds".
*each* is tuned to a specific frequency.
they vibrate after being struck with a felt hammer.
*real piano action* here!!
Can U say "SuperTramp"?
The reeds are attached to a common bar.
The "other" bar is, i think, at gnd.
The reed vibrates between bars and sets up an AC waveform.
Usually has onboard amp.
My Werlie has (i think) 2 controls:  vol/on/off, and tremelo.
Later Model200s had a gnd plane on top of the housing since they had a thin plastic case.   My Werlie is *ALL* wood, with a metal top,  with a tube amp.  
Looooong time ago, i built/added a gnd plane with a sheet of alumium.
If the keys are shot, then, IMHO, it's "worthless" as a piano.
BUT, if the pcb is decent, and/or if the reeds, reed framework, hammers etc are
decent, U probably can sell them on Ebay for someone to rebuild another.
staysalvaged
tone

[jmusser]

I've been reading up on the Wurlitzers, and the reed systems. I guess some of them had a blower, that kept the reeds active all the time (if I have the principle right), and when you keyed it, you had a voltage at a certain frequency from that particular reed. I would guess that the model 200 would be the opposite of that, where you have no voltage available until you hammer the reed, then you have charging and discharging of the "air capacitor" for voltage induction at the reed frequency. Does that sound about right. I will try to find the site I was on last night, because there was some very good reading there, that not only delt with those principles, but a lot of the principles we use in pedal building, and put into words anyone (even me) could understand.

[nosamiam]

I have a 200A but I have very little idea how it actually works.  I assumed it worked just like the strings/pickups on a guitar.  I think it might.

An interesting note:  That lump on the end of each read is lead solder.  Add more to lower the pitch; file some off to lower the pitch.  Pain in the butt.  But there is really no digital emulation that is all that convincing.  (Well, there is one soft-synth that does the trick called Scarbee).  They are finicky and kind of noisy, but they sound like heaven.

I was asking about the legs because I bought a console model and chopped it down to a portable model.  So it has no legs.  They fetch a pretty hefty dollar these days, to the tune of $200+.  I only paid $100 for the whole piano!  But it was a good deal.  They go for a lot more on eBay.

Another interesting note: The console model sold for more originally, but is less desirable today than the portable for obvious reasons.

[jmusser]

Nosamiam, I have found out that at least 3 of thes legs exist, and if we can find the 4th, I'll work out someway to get them to you. I don't know what kind of shape they're in or anything, but I'm sure original legs are scarce as hen's teeth in any condition.

[zachary vex]

all of those style of Wurlies used capacitive pickups.  the reeds were tuned by filing down the solder or applying more.

if the reeds are still in good condition, you could probably sell what's left of that unit on Ebay for reasonable money.

[jmusser]

Well, maybe I ought to do a little "dumpster diving" and save that part. the reed part of this was still in fair shape. It had some oxidation, but it was hidden under the hard plastic cover, so it didn't get the full brunt of the elements. Probabably 90% of the hammers are still there. I guess it really depends on how much of a Wurlitzer nut you were. To me, it's just a rotten and battered hulk, like an engine block you dug up out of a landfill with a backhoe.

[nosamiam]

Jmusser,

Thanks for checking that out for me.  Let me know if you find that 4th leg.

[casey]

i have one sitting in my studio right now!  i also have the schematic for it on my website....

it's a rare schem...so have at it.  "wurley 120"