From deke@dekethegeek.com Fri Jan 10 10:31:23 2003
Subject:OT - Wurli 200A

I got a call Wednesday evening from Chuck, a friend of mine, about a keyboard he had come across. He had it in storage, and hadn't seen it in a while when he called me about it, and said he had a Fender Rhodes for x amount of dollars, but that he hadn't tested it, and that it would be an as-is purchase. So I leapt at the chance to own such a classic keyboard and asked him to bring it with him to the club that night.

When I got there he told me that he was mistaken... it wasn't a Fender Rhodes, but a Wurlitzer... was I still interested? We walked out to his truck and he pulled out a dusty and dirty Wurlitzer Electric Piano... model 200A! I was floored. I paid him and carried it inside to test it out.

I plugged her in and the sound was just what I had expected... classic and dirty (in a good way). There was a weird static and interference coming from the speakers, but I was in love! It was too dark (even with the help of a flashlight) for me to find the 1/4" outputs (DOH!), so I resolved to test it more when I got home.

So Wednesday night I brought it in, opened the case and took a look around... I tightened all the screws I could find with ground wires attached to them, yet I still got the evil noise from the speakers... :( I decided to go ahead and clean the thing up anyway, and with a few minutes' work she was shining like a beauty! I had to set it up on a keyboard stand, since Chuck had only been able to find two of the four legs, but believe me I wasn't complaining. Even with the static giving me fits I was in heaven hearing this thing sing.

Last night when I got home I resolved to check all the connections one final time. Just as I was about to give up, I bumped the amplifier section with the back of my hand... it moved! I tightened the offending screw and the static went away... HOORAY! Also, I found the outputs, one for headphones, and one marked AUX. I had read that the AUX output was the one to use with an external amp, but it didn't work. I figured good luck comes in streaks, so I pulled out the gain pot for the AUX output, resoldered the wires and taped them up so they wouldn't ground out to each other. Plugged it in and I had sound... this was getting too good to be true.

So now I just needed to clean up the pedal that came with it. I thought that it was one of the aftermarket pedals available on the internet, but I was pleased with it nonetheless (even the aftermarket pedals are terribly expensive). This one seemed like it was made of a plastic casing, but when I pulled it apart I discovered it was the original wooden pedal! Eureka! Cleaned it up and it works great, too.

Now I was only missing the other two legs... I checked my email, only to find a note from Chuck. You can guess what it said. He found the other two legs! So now I have a pristine example of a Wurlitzer 200A Electric Piano... almost completely original with the exception of one internal speaker that was replaced with a different one many years ago. The sound is killer, it's beautiful, and for some reason I can't seem to wipe the smile off my face. LOL!

Deke The Geek
-buying lotto tickets before the next drawing-