From bruce@ashbysolutions.com Sat Jan 11 05:56:15 2003
Subject:Re: OT - Wurli 200A

Hi All,

>Yeah, I sold my mint black 200A in 1976 for $200. Damn!

Oh, the memories ...

I bought my mint-condition 200A used in 1977 for $225 -- maybe it was yours, David? ;^D -- and sold it in 1984. While I truly miss the tone and feel, I DON'T miss the tuning. For whatever reason, my playing style led to me replacing at least one reed per week (playing 3-4 nights a week), and they were becoming both expensive and hard to find.

I actually got pretty good at both tuning the reeds, and detecting when one was about to die, allowing me to turn the volume down and hit the key a few times to break off the reed, then shake the piano to make sure the reed fell to the bottom of the case. (For those of you who aren't aware of it, the 200A uses high voltages in the pickup assembly, and if a reed is too close to the pickup, it arcs and makes a horrible sound through the amp! It's not so bad through the little speakers in the case, but through my Ampeg VT40 it sounded like the end of the world.) When a reed is about to break, it goes slightly sharp over a period of 40-50 hits, then goes a semitone or two flat really fast (10 hits or so). At that point, you have about 1-2 more hits before it breaks off. Tony, let's see your Motif do that!

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Ashby Solutions™ http://music.ashbysolutions.com
978.386.7389 voice/fax
bruce@ashbysolutions.com