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I sense a disturbance in the force...

Here's a link that works: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fqqhr219lv25vqq/Directions.PDF?dl=0

I favor direct off the harp. You can add any color you want once you have the clean signal to disk, but unless it's a performance effect (like wah) I don't want it in the chain for recording. EQ included.

YMMV.

What did it bring? Market value on these is hard to pin down.

80

Armor All will go a long way.  I wouldn't recommend anything in a rattle can.

I on the other hand, would recommend vinyl dye enthusiastically.

http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=6079.msg29846#msg29846

You figured it out, normal three-prong extension cords are the ticket. I like the ones that go on sale for 75% off after Christmas. They tend to be green, 16 gauge ones for outdoor lighting use. Get a cord now so you can enjoy playing, but stay on the lookout for the clearance offers for your spares.

Was this the one on KC Craigslist? The shots they posted of the hammers looked really nice.

Listen here to some public service announcements featuring Lorne Greene, and some nice Rhodes playing.

I remember vaguely from my Electromagnetic fields class (which was a long time ago) that this effect didn't amount to much at audio frequencies. So I tried to find some documentation corroborating that, and here's the result:

http://ecee.colorado.edu/~ecen3400/Chapter%2020%20-%20The%20Skin%20Effect.pdf

Look at table 20.1 on page 4. For copper, at 1000 Hz, the skin depth is still 2.1mm. That's right around 12AWG, like your house wiring.

I'm going to wave my hands a little on the math, and since the skin depth is inversely proportional to the square root of frequency (for a given material, permeability and conductivity are constant), that going up to 4kHZ (4x the frequency) will  give you half the skin depth (1/sqrt(4)), or about 1 mm, which is still 18 AWG wire. Double again to 8kHZ, 0.5mm is 24 AWG.

So for me, I'm pretty convinced skin effect is not a thing at audio frequencies.

A great loss.

There's a second Rhodes player on stage--look at 3:28.

my Home model's bench,

And where are you hiding the pics of this?

This is looking up at the keybed, yes.



I will see about rehosting that video. I also need to get these pics put somewhere more likely to exist long-term.

Well, I sanded and refinished mine. Watch the corners, it's really easy to break through the veneer.

I have a bunch of purple heart in the shop, I have been intending to make a purple case for the thing, but playing it is more fun than doing carpentry so I haven't gone there. Padauk would also be nice.

Haha that's cheating. 

Just let a few drops of the product evaporate, ideally o a glass plate or something that allows you to check the residue (if any) it leaves. If you get no crud after it evaporates, use it.

Naphtha can be purchased in paint stores around here, but in certain areas volatile organic compounds are getting harder to obtain.

Welcome to the boards--looking good!

Are you still looking for the single note strikes? I don't mind posting such a thing, but my voicing is really just what sounded right to me, for my playing style and musical preference. There's nothing authoritative about it.

My escapement is lower than a factory setup would give by about 0.035" or jsut shy of 1mm. I don't fully appreciate the impact of that on tone, but I pay a lot more attention to dynamic range than to tone in my setup, in that I never had to "search" for a good tone out of mine, it seems pretty nice however it's set up.

I modded a Cry Baby, and I also use a modern Morley Power Wah. I kind of lean toward the power wah, but I would like to tune the filter some (which is what I did on the cry baby).

I was looking on this board for a post about what the mod was, but I am not finding it. Pretty sure I did the standard vocal mod as described here:

"Vocal Mod"

Replace the 33K resistor in parallel with the inductor with a 68K. This gives a more vocal quality to the wah.

Here's mine for comparison:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/25143948/rob-output.mp3

Mine is much less fundamental compared to yours. I tried to level match as best I could with your clip.

It's helpful to know where you are. More general info available by clicking the link in my signature.

a short recording from yours would be great

I'll try to get that posted.

Interesting. I own a 76 suitcase too, and I record direct mainly. Yours sounds nothing like mine, but in ways I'm not sure I can convincingly describe.

Not exactly what you requested, but take a look at this and see if it helps:

http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=3264

Also, capacitors in parallel add, so you can gator-clip extra ones in without removing the one that's there.

Yeah, value is distinct from fitness for a given purpose, however, they do intersect for the working musician.

I'd want two great Wurlis if I needed to tour with one.

The electronics may be the most difficult thing to repair, but this piano has that all sorted out. That's a big advantage. I'm guessing you haven't priced a damper pedal, but that's a couple hundred dollar item. Tuning is doable at home like he says, but perhaps not ideally suited for someone not a tech. I don't agree that the tines change pitch over time, not sure what he's getting at there.

Music rack is useless. Legs are easily replaced with an X stand, but the damper pedal may be a problem. I wouldn't hesitate to mention that replacing that damper pedal (to make it properly payable) means that you have to put in a couple hundred bucks to get this to be a playable instrument, and see if he is willing to flex a bit on the price.

My bias is that I think the market is overpricing Wurlis somewhat. They are great instruments, and I own one (did own two). I just can see better ways to spend 800-1000 bucks.

The lower registers seem not to hold a steady tune!?! Why does this happen?

I'm really interested in this, and I don't have a definitive explanation. I believe the magnetic field is at least part of the answer, but I haven't taken the time to design a proper experiment to prove this. Thinking out loud: a strobe light flashing at around the tine's frequency would be a handy reference--you could tune the tine to the strobe, then remove the magnet and see if stability over time improves.

Now someone go do it, and let us know!

Don't believe everything you read in the service manual. See also:
http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=3092.msg12510#msg12510

I sold my impeccable condition 206A for $350 a while back in Kansas, just to give you some additional market data. I sold it fairly quickly at that price.

There's a Yahoo discussion group for Wurli, maybe that was what you ran across?

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/Wurlitzer_Elec_Piano/

I can't remember if there's a picture around here or not, but didn't someone lighten the harp considerably by drilling several sizeable holes in the plywood?

Thinking out loud, it wouldn't be too tough to swap the angle iron harp frame out for aluminum angle.

Buy another one. Two is nowhere near enough.

My measurements suggest there isn't substantial energy in the output below 40 Hz, nor above 4k. It wouldn't be too difficult to repeat my measurements if you have any kind of software with a spectrum analyzer plugin. I used Audacity (free) in the linked post below:

http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=3288.msg13514#msg13514

Nope, just line out from the FX loop. The most flexibility you can possibly have comes with a small (or big) mixing board with separate send and return gain on the FX loop. Then you can find the sweet spot of the stomp box level-wise. I would (and did) buy a cheap mixer before I bought a buffer pedal or whatever.

Looks like I need to rehost the demo files. 

Sign me up for online collab man. I wanted to give everyone a shot at it before I spoke up, but I'm happy to do it.

So, do the keys return to the rest position, or does the key stay pressed down also?

Is it worse with the damper pedal pressed?

When I did the exact same maintenance on my 200, I had to loosen a couple screws, then straighten a couple hammers and retighten to address a couple alignment issues. But I still get a little sluggish key return when I have the damper pedal down, since the damper springs aren't helping the key return in that case.

And welcome to the boards.

Welcome to the boards. That's beautiful work. I think the 88 is more difficult to voice and adjust than the 73, the extremes are harder to control. I've got no doubt you'll get it the way you like it.

You can't really test a speaker for impedance with a multimeter. The rating is a nominal rating--all speakers have a varying impedance at different frequencies. What impedance you see at DC is not relevant.

haha, that's the best possible explanation! 

+1

The link in my signature should be helpful. In particular help with placing values on the items they'll need to be fully restored, which will help you justify an offer price.

I expect you could do most work on a Rhodes yourself with great results. You have the support of the community here.

Wurlis are harder to work on, but you have access to the community here for that as well.

They are worth what someone will pay, so start your process with low offers. To me, none of those are rare or otherwise compelling enough to command a premium. Stay firm on your low (but reasonable) offers and be prepared to wait if necessary, either for these pianos to reach your price point, or for others to come along.

I know this is going to seem facetious, but have you considered using a Jankó keyboard layout? It would be simpler to construct and there are some significant advantages.

http://www.optigan.com/

Welcome Chris--I'm a piano player who recently went to the dark (drum) side. Either way, you are for sure in the right place.

I have one of those Barcus Berry PUs in my Yamaha Grand. Plus I've played grands on gigs through them on many occasions. I have nothing good to say about that product. A ten dollar mic placed randomly sounds better.

Can someone also explain to me why some people have "Pre-Piano" or "Mark II" under their user names? Is there any way to change this?

That's our way of tagging people by postcount here. Pre-piano will show when you have 1-9 posts, Fiesta Red is 10-49, Sparkletop is 50-99,Mark I is 100-999(? maybe) and for some reason we don't have any Mark II, and you get to be Mark V or MIDI Mark V when you post suitably absurd number of times.

So it recapitulates the history of Rhodes development. Kinda.

Have you talked to any piano techs? My impression is that it's a grand without the soundboard more or less.

I wanted one real badly at one time,and missed out on a real nice one, how do you like yours? Is it midi?

You're in the US, right?

I can probably provide a namerail, I have Mark I and Mark II both. I think my Mark I rail is older but logo free.

You ought to build the whole case+lid yourself rather than buying up an old stock lid.

Are your harp supports wood?

I halfway wonder if your sustain dowel felt was just chewed up from the pedal rod, and the previous owner flipped it over.

This is a pretty common issue, and dead easy to fix.

Most likely, the pins on either end of the damper release bar have slipped out of the holes in the harp support blocks that they fit into, so the bar won't move freely.

Open her up, raise the harp, then look at each end of your aluminum damper release bar. It will probably have one end where the pin is sticking out and visible. You ought to be able to seat it back ion the holes, then a spring holds it more or less in place (less in your case).

This happens when you move a piano.

Way back in my misspent youth I fixed our high school jazz band's stage piano which was borked like this--it had gotten rattled in the bus on the drive up to the festival we were playing. We found out abut ten minutes before we had to go on stage, but it was easy to fix once I got hold of a philips driver to undo the harp mounting screws. Crisis averted.

Looks like a close relative of the home piano, but with a Mark I name rail in place of the Mark II-style namerail on my 1977 home piano.