Red top wurlitzer...?

[Abraham]

I've seen those from time to time... where they originally released with red top or else they are custom painted? Is there any chance of buying a red top case for my 200-A?

[pianotuner steveo]

The original wurli tops were black,tan,olive green, and orange on the 44 key model. Red, white, and other colors were custom painted.

The Beach Boys and Supertramp painted theirs white.

[Abraham]

thank you steveo... so i'll be probably painting mine in sparkle red and Ill try to find a new one in black... now, where do I order a NEW black top??

thank you!!

I just bought this wurlitzer so Ill be asking silly questions around for a few weeks, hope you don't mind, wurlies are a whole new world for me...

[pianotuner steveo]

 Well there is no way to order new tops at this point. Also, like swapping keys, tops are not always interchanged easily, they are fit to the case they were built for. I learned this the hard way a long time ago, when I sold a couple of used tops on Ebay....

[GetWithTheTines]

Any word on whether the tops for the new Vintage Vibe EPs will fit on a Wurlitzer? That would be way cool.

[martin]

probable not, the wurlitzer needs holes for the speakers

[Fred]

The 200 (not 200A) was available in red, though I'm sure there are many out there that have been painted. 200's had the speakers mounted on the amp chassis, so you'd need to drill holes in a 200 lid to mount your speakers to it, alla 200A style. Original red 200's can fetch some serious $$$. Why not have an autobody shop paint yours?

The VV lid does lack speaker holes, and are not interchangable with Wurlitzer 200 series pianos due to many dimensional differences... 

[Tim Hodges]

Get Carter theme with Red Wurlitzer

@ 2:37

[keyscrazy]

Red top Wurly's are rare and this is what makes them valuable. My understanding is the only way to get a true red top for a wurly is to buy a red top wurly. I don't think anyone manufactures one that could be truly considered to be the same and painted ones NEVER look the same. So I'd say start saving your pennies. That's what I'm doing. 

[Fred]

If done correctly, a painted top can look very close. The challenge is to match the color as close as possible, which without the real thing, is not likely...

[Abraham]

we could use a pantone for a reference, if anyone got a red top around...

Anyway I just like how it looks in red and Im not that mad about the 'real' thing so I dont really care about exact color matching as long as it looks good... I could even try a red sparkle but this is something Id like to try ouy on a spare top before I end up messing with mine. Plain red will be ok but Im afraid It will loose the grain and I dont think its going to be that 'real looking' anyway...

[Rob A]

I highly recommend http://www.duplicolor.com/products/vinylFabricCoating/

I used the black on mine, but in other applications I've used red. It doesn't build, so you retain the texture of the top, which will make it look like a factory red top.

[Abraham]

great, thank you! dupli-color products are (surprisingly) available here in spain so I may check this out in a few days... now Im proud of my vandal graffitti days...

[Rob A]

Lots of thin coats, don't get in a hurry. It will look great.

You can practice on any ABS plastic items you have around, old electronics cases and so on.

[SlowMonroe]

Rob, red is only available from duplicolor for painting tuners, according to that link. Is that what you used?

[adcurtin]

I used this guy: http://www.amazon.com/VHT-SP962-Vinyl-Dye-Red/dp/B00296D22Q/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1315117801&sr=8-16

It worked great, and was really easy, but I think the color is a little bit lighter red than the stock red wurly. I'll post pictures when I put my wurly back together (after I fix the amp...). I did the inside and outside, 1 can was barely enough. I'd get 2 to be safe.

[Rob A]

Rob, red is only available from duplicolor for painting tuners, according to that link. Is that what you used?

I'm not totally sure I understand the question, but I bought mine at auto parts stores for the most parts. I've used most colors of vinyl dye on various projects. On my Wurli I used black not red.

At some auto paint shops, you can get custom color matched vinyl dye. They put your custom color in a rattlecan for you.

[Ben Bove]

[Abraham]

wow! this is vinyl dye?

btw I've been checking around and only black (& pricey) coating is available in spain, besides importing spray paints is complicated due to customs restrictions... so at this point I got to a dead end: black or black

Also, any hints on fixing a cigar burn? some a**hole couldn't find a better place... now I hate smokers more than ever...

[adcurtin]

If that's a dye, it's definitely the dye to use; it's quite close to the original red, if not spot on.

[Ben Bove]

Oh sorry guess it was midtopic - that's an original red 200.

[Ben Bove]

And here's your chance to get one on ebay!  Speak of the devil

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wurlitzer-EP200-Electric-Piano-/250892943976?_trksid=p4340.m1374&_trkparms=algo%3DPI.WATCH%26its%3DC%252BS%26itu%3DUCC%26otn%3D15%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D2870650802498994256#ht_500wt_1204

[SlowMonroe]

Rob, red is only available from duplicolor for painting tuners, according to that link. Is that what you used?

I'm not totally sure I understand the question, but I bought mine at auto parts stores for the most parts. I've used most colors of vinyl dye on various projects. On my Wurli I used black not red.

At some auto paint shops, you can get custom color matched vinyl dye. They put your custom color in a rattlecan for you.

I just read the site from your link wrong. Where it says "tuner colors" i though it meant it was metal paint, for car tuners. What adcurtin posted looks like the right stuff. I'm going to try it once I'm done with my 140B

[SlowMonroe]

I used this guy: http://www.amazon.com/VHT-SP962-Vinyl-Dye-Red/dp/B00296D22Q/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1315117801&sr=8-16

It worked great, and was really easy, but I think the color is a little bit lighter red than the stock red wurly. I'll post pictures when I put my wurly back together (after I fix the amp...). I did the inside and outside, 1 can was barely enough. I'd get 2 to be safe.

Thanks for the link!

[Abraham]

hey adcurtin could you post any pictures of your red top please? Just try to get my attention out of our dead amps for a while then back to reality...

[adcurtin]

The first 4 pics are before pics. I taped it up for when I dyed it, then took pictures. I did clean it a bit more first.

You can see the cracks and the hole from the RF shield that goes over the dampers. I trimmed it down to prevent this from getting worse, put some shapelock (plastic that becomes pliable by hand when put in hot water, and most importantly can be dyed. I don't know if bondo could be dyed, so I used this) in the hole, and jbwelded the back of the hole and the crack to hopefully prevent them from getting worse.

I also took a picture of a scratch on the top, both before and after, to give a good idea of how dye doesn't add thickness, and will show all the dings and dents in the top as well as keep the surface finish.

grr, each of the 8 images is 5MB. Uploaded to imgur instead: http://imgur.com/a/oiA4y

[Abraham]

wow it looks great! I hope you to fix it soon I cant wait to see that baby finished!! Also Im curious about how are you fixing those cracks... I have a cigar burn on mine

My amp was just fixed today, but now a disgusting hum has been introduced... we're trying to spot the problem right now, we're going to check some condenser and replace some transistors... its weird because that hum wasnt there right before, and apparently I only have blown some fuses, once those were replaced this just came back to life...

[adcurtin]

my electronics should be being delivered today, I'll either put it together today or tomorrow. There's a lot of work left though, for one I don't have any speakers.